You people are wonderful for my self-esteem.
Obvioiusly I am on the side of restoration. There are many that do accept restoration, provided that the restoration would not damage what is already there nor takes away from the piece. Artzi does a lot of restorations as well as many on this form besides me.
When it comes to ivory on this piece, I would have to look into the amount for pre-ban ivory. Silver or even dark wood with ivory pieces would be a little cheaper. This piece does not seem to need too much restoration except for the missing pommel. Of course one other thing to consider is that restorations and replacements happened over the life of many pieces. Here I especially see Charles' point (every pun intended
). IF I were to do an ivory pommel, I would recommend a slimmer and less elaborate ivory pommel than that found on Artzi's website. If wood, maybe dark wood with ivory pieces, if silver, then....oh, yeah, silver.
