Antiques & Collecting: Escale watch

The Louis Vuitton Escale Time Zone watch features the world’s 24 time zones. Escale — “stopover” in French — was created to appeal to the world traveler not only with the time zones, but with the colorful flags of the world represented on the watch’s face.

The images of the flags also link the contemporary wristwatches to earlier days of Louis Vuitton, when travelers could customize their LV luggage with flags of the countries where they traveled.

This watch was introduced in 2010, and there is still an Escale line. Louis Vuitton’s annual designs include a resort collection also called Escale.

I have a pair of gold-tone costume jewelry earrings that I love even though they are not real gold. A small green spot has appeared on each one where the post attaches. Can the spots be removed? Are the earrings safe to wear?

The green spots, called verdigris, are a patina that can form on copper, bronze, brass and gold or silver plate. You can clean it off your earrings and continue wearing them.

You can try removing small spots with a toothpick, soft-bristled toothbrush, pencil eraser or microfiber cloth. If you need something stronger, mix a small amount of dishwashing detergent with warm water and use this to clean your jewelry.

If your earrings don’t have pearls or foil-backed rhinestones, you can dilute white vinegar or lemon juice in water, soak a cotton ball in the solution and hold it to the green spot. Or, apply ketchup to the spot; it is acidic, and its thick consistency means it won’t run like a liquid.

But be careful when you use acids to clean jewelry. They can discolor gold-tone metals, damage pearls, both real and fake, and foil-backed stones, and weaken some glues.

To keep verdigris from forming, store your pieces separately, avoid exposing them to moisture, oils and cosmetics, and make sure your skin is clean and dry when you wear them.

Tip: Use eyeglass-cleaning tissues to clean the glass on small pictures.

Current Prices

Blown-glass bowl, cobalt blue, flared-out sides, short rounded foot, Millville Glass Works, N.J., c. 1890, 9 3/8 x 7 1/2 inches, $125.

Photograph, Civil War lieutenant, albumen, hand-colored, nine-button frock coat, officer’s sash, belt with sword, oval, frame, 12 x 9 1/2 inches, $240.

Pair of terra-cotta planters, neoclassical style, rectangular, bulbous sides with raised panels, acanthus leaf corners, flared rim with molded egg and dart border, metal liner, c. 1930, 13 x 24 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches, pair, $475.

Toy, Space Man, Colonel Hap Hazard, white space suit with NASA logo, red trim, walks, spinning antenna with red and green lights, battery operated, Louis Marx & Co., 2 inches, $755.