Rococo Revival Mirror

Portfolio

United States Senate, Washington, DC

This Rococo Revival mirror is over 7.5 feet tall and 6 feet wide sits in the US Capitol building. The frame had gone through a number of restoration treatments over the years. There was an added layer of gesso and gold over some of the original water gilding and the gold leaf surface had been covered with metal leaf (brass). We removed the metal leaf and preserved as much of the gilding that remained as possible. Repairs were made to the structure, ornament replaced, gesso losses filled and previous repairs refined. The final step was to in-gild areas of gilding that were too distressed to present well and gild where no gold leaf remained. All new gilding was done to match the preserved gilding. The process was fully documented with digital photographs taken before, during and after and a written report describing the materials and methods used. All new materials are detectable and reversible from the original.