The small cracks are called crazing and indicate a slight mismatch of glaze
to clay. This is pretty normal on many pieces of china after time and many
dish washings. As the cracks get more numerous, they can possibly harbor
germs so you may take dkat's advice and just put it up as an 'antique' and
get a new one. The chip is just bad luck, I guess, or several of these
crazing cracks got together and decided to say adios to the dish.

Sorry


"dkat" wrote in message
...
MHO is this ship is not going to fly... If you knew what kind of firing
it was, you could use some paper clay to fill in, glaze and refire. If
she REALLY, REALLY liked it, you could find your local potters group
(Universities/colleges usually have one) and ask if anyone there would be
interested in making a piece like it. I am making a wild guess that it is
majolica (white with colorful designs painted on it). Fairly easy to
find.

http://www.ceramicadirect.com/Italia...talianMajolica

At this point I would not use it for food and any repairs you do, such as
what you have done, would ruin its value if it were an antique.

**** happens, things break. Craftsmen all over the country are doing
wonderful work. Find a piece that the two of you have a shared memory of.
Prices range widely - your local craftsmen are going to be your best bet.

http://www.emersoncreekpottery.com/butterdishes.shtml
http://coloradoartstudio.com/tag/cov...c-butter-dish/
http://www.inclaynations.com/butter-dishes.htm
http://www.geeringpottery.com/pages/S%20pages/S8.html

Just my opinion of course. Sorry I have nothing better to offer. Donna


"Square Peg" wrote in message
...
My wife has a butter dish that she has had longer than she's had me.
It's some kind of pottery with a glaze finish. Made in Italy.

Recently, a small piece of the finish chipped off. It's in the middle
of the base where the butter sits. The finish is shiny white. The
material underneath, now exposed, is a dull grey.

The chip is about the size of a pea and triangular in shape. I do not
have the chip. (Probably had it on a piece of toast.)

If I look closely, I can see a series of hairline cracks in several
across the base.

Is there any way to patch that chip? It doesn't have to be perfect,
because it's covered most of the time, but it has to be pretty good. I
was also hoping to stop further chipping.

I asked over on the home repair ng. The suggestions there were
appliance touch-up paint, acrylic paint, and tinted epoxy.

I bought the touch-ip paint and the acrylic paint. The acrylic paint
was the wrong shade of white. The touch-up paint was close to the
right color so I tried that first. I filled in the chip divot (only
took 2-3 coats as it was very shallow) and touched up the hairline
cracks.

When it dried, I polished it with polishing compound used for car
paint. The polishing removed all of the paint from the cracks. It
looked like it didn't stick to the glaze at all. The paint in the chip
is there, but I was not able to get a nice smooth finish. It's not
bad, but not great.

Is there any way to repair this dish? It's not valuable, but she likes
it.

If there is no way to patch the chip and cracks, can I repaint the
bottom? The dish has a lip running around the base. I could paint just
that portion if I could match the color fairly well. I supposed I'd
have to roughen the glaze to get it to stick, so I don't want to even
start on that unless it's going to work.

Any ideas appreciated.