Tony Sigel
Restoration has become a dirty word in our profession. Increasingly, we dismiss restoration, or “aesthetic reintegration” as a legitimate activity. The essential tasks of restoration—re-creating elements, filling and inpainting losses are often devalued as merely “benchwork” or “hand-skills.” In truth, restoration work is often one of the most complex, difficult, rewarding, and necessary aspects of the profession. And so, when an object is so severely damaged it requires significant restoration to be exhibitable, what principles guide us?
My most recent treatment, Love Restrained by the Graces modeled by Conrad Linck for the Frankenthal Porcelain Manufactory (c.1763-77), called for restorative work at the highest level. The complex, beautifully modeled and decorated figural group was heavily damaged. Older restorations, remedying several broken-off limbs and a head, were clearly failing. The most consequential losses, however, were to the extensive colorful network of draped floral garlands. The delicate porcelain vines, leaves, flowers, and bows were almost entirely missing. I imagined a naughty child had methodically broken them off, leaving mere stumps.
Restoration was obviously required, but how much, and what kind? Only two poor quality photos of other versions were found and no other examples in other collections could be located. To provide a semblance of the original appearance, significant interpretive restoration was needed. I created colored wax mock-ups for curatorial conversations to help define the scope of the treatment. My plan was to restore only those elements for which sufficient physical evidence remained, but as the work progressed and my confidence and understanding of what the composition needed increased, so did the scope of the restoration. I returned to the photographs for inspiration, as my conservative approach evolved to allow the re-creation of more of the missing elements, aware that no two pieces were decorated exactly alike.
Porcelain sculpture is an unforgiving material to restore; its perfect surfaces and minute detail require a high degree of expertise. While remaining within the mandate of reversibility, I drew upon traditional porcelain restoration methods, also developing novel techniques to recreate, attach, and inpaint innumerable missing elements. After much experimentation and many failures, I arrived at a process of direct modeling and casting the individual flower types, leaves, and ribbons, using epoxy putty, Paraloid B-72 and cyanoacrylate adhesives. I formed the vines from metal wire of different gauges and adhered them to existing broken stubs, using temporary plasticine props to aid in positioning and joining the elements. Afterwards, I inpainted the restorations with acrylic media and used an airbrush to re-integrate original glaze damaged during a previous restoration.
The results exceeded expectations. The restorations integrated invisibly with the original elements. The newly-fashioned garlands restored a sense of unity and completeness to the composition, presenting a balance and imparting a rhythm only found to have been missing when the treatment was complete. This success validated both my initial plan for limited restoration and my subsequent willingness to expand it.