Various Gilded Chairs

This pair of side tables had been through many restorations, the first of which had coated it’s punch-work with filler and gold paint.  Once that was picked out, we replaced missing areas, and gilded to match.

This Madonna needed cleaning, and structural repairs. The splits and chips were filled, then in-painted, and gilded.

This rare pair of lion-dogs were restored at least four previous times. They were received covered with a new layer of gilding, that was itself, quite unstable. After poking around, we discovered, what would be the remains of the original ground, with fragments of the original paint, and took it down to that level. They had very few carving loses, which we replaced, and while doing so, discovered the date inscription on the inside of one of the loose pieces of wood.

Full of chips and old touch-ups.  Restored to it’s original glory

This mirror had missing carving, as well as general flaking, and quite a few chips.

This mirror had lots of chips along the fluting, some missing rosettes, and a missing eglomise panel on the bottom right corner.

The ground on this mirror had a lot of chips, and there were structural splits. Under all the old touch-ups, we found the original gilding. The majority of the ball, however, needed to be re-gilt.

Reeded mirrors come in and out of the studio for restoration quite often.   I was asked, by one client, to make a reproduction reeded mirror, so that it could be custom sized.  You can also see the sample in my sample category.  The moulding is a traditional 3 1/4″ width, and has 6 reeds.  It can be ordered in any custom size, and can be fitted with new, or antiqued glass.

These two mirrors were covered in “radiator paint”, which usually means there is a lot a damage that needed covering up.  Once stripped, a surprising amount of original gilding was intact, and the rest was gilded to match.

The corners on this mirror separated, and there were missing carvings to replace, and match in.

This convex mirror was coated with gold paint, and the gesso ground was very unstable. We uncovered as much of the original gilding as possible, and after repairing the damage, gilding the rest to match.

All the high points of the carving were loose, or missing.  All salvageable areas were secured, and missing chips filled.  The mirror was then cleaned, and highlighted with bits of new gold, to give it a little sparkle.  Missing pieces of mirror were replaced with antique glass, cut to size.

This mirror need to be cut down, to fit a clients needs.  Once done, and the corners repaired, the backing and glass needed to be re-sized.