
Jerry Blais
Those are stress cracks caused by a failure to anneal the brass after it was formed, (or in metallurgical terms, "cold worked"). Forming the brass sets up forces internal to the material. After many decades of this force acting on the brass, it finally fractures. Stress relieving after cold working essentially softens the brass and relieves those internal forces. Bottom line, the original manufacturers never expected or cared that anyone would be concerned about these things over 100 years later so they just didn't bother to take that step.Cody K wrote:Whassat? Pot metal?! Serious question: what would make brass fall to pieces like that? I've never seen it. Is it too much zinc? That's the first thing that comes to mind.
Jerry, I think you should raise your price a little. In the right hands, that thing could end up on Etsy as a $2500 lamp! Some of Russell Hunting's more ribald cylinders wouldn't even play through this -- some of Cal Stewart's dirtier jokes wouldn't make any sense.
...it's a nice piece though, and one that any collector would envy.