Sculpture Repair and Conservation


Restoration of Indonesian Ceremonial Staff Finial

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  DETAIL
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  It is sometimes difficult to balance the wishes of the client with appropriate sculpture conservation. Our customer wanted a real brass replacement on an Indonesian ceremonial staff finial, and he asked us to make it in the precise style of these objects. A strong joint was needed to support the weight of the brass head, but it would have been inappropriate to solder the new head on because it would have severely damaged the old patina on the sculpture. There was, however, a hole in the original casting at the neck, which afforded a large enough hole to glue it. Working from several books on the subject, Nelson carved a wax head of the right size and features using his skills as a figural sculptor. We then had it cast in bright brass, leaving a long stump on the bottom which would fit securely into the existing hole. The new piece was then solidly attached. In this case an epoxy was called for because, unlike the museum environment, the demands of the owner's house suggested it needed to be strong. On metal objects, epoxies are reversible. The head was then painted and aged with chemicals and acrylics to match the body of the piece.  

Statue Repair

Antique Statue Restoration-Before Antique Statue Restoration-After
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This is a Tang Dynasty horse, one of many beautiful horses to come from China in the last century. There are many fakes being produced now, and we do sampling for a thermo-luminescent testing lab in Connecticut called Daybreak Nuclear. This process is the only way that most of these wonderful artifacts can be authenticated. Provenance is also very useful in dating, as in this case the horse came from a family that probably brought it into the U.S. around the end of the nineteenth century.

Most of these horses were made to go into graves, and hence there was no thought given to durability. Because of this, many Chinese horses and camels have broken legs, ears, and tails. In the case of this horse, the legs had been broken and mended so often that many pieces were actually missing. Thus, an originally weak structure had become completely unstable and required the unusual measure of drilling through the pieces with a diamond drill and anchoring them all together with the sturdy wires that you can see in the photograph. After that, the whole area could be filled and inpainted with some assurance that normal care would not break it again. (Conservation for a museum requires that any painting-to-match be done within the areas of new filling only and not cover any original material. This is called "inpainting.") The home environment is much more rigorous than a museum, and frequently repairs and adhesives are called for which are not usually used in museums, although they are reversible. Nonetheless, in a case such as this, we think the extreme measures are justified by the result of this antique restoration.

 
 

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