Age : probably XIX century
Dimension : 57 cm x 21cm axies
Material and techniques :
wooden object realized with carving technique. The painting de- coration is realized in tempera and varnish colours. The relieves parts are realized in pastille, over that there is silver plating
Location : private collection
Destination : private collection Previous cataloguing : 1040/2
Previous restoration : probably the object, broken ,was repare just with glue in the middle of the split . |
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State of Conservation :
The piece is composed of two crossing axis : in the up-side these axis create two arms for support the Koran while in the down side the axis create two legs for sup- port the heavy of the object. The Rahle’s borders are use up .In one of the two legs there is a very big split , in the middle of the carving.
On the joint there is also an excess of old animal glue
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The up-side is totally painting , with geometric and flowers decorations. The internal side is painted with tempera and is protected with a var- nish that has allow a good state of conservation ; on the surface there are some burn marks.
In the down-side just the external surface is decorated with pastille relieves and varnish colours ; the internal surface presents only red tempera colour
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 The painting film was covered
probably , by a protein varnish , that now it’s becoming old and that had change the real colours. In the points where the colour is missed, we can see the dirty that now is stick with the preparation colour of the wood .
The decoration is realized also in some points , with a relief technique , that used another material called “pastille”.
This part before was also painted, but after had lose the colour
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Under the varnish In some place there is still some signs about old de- coration with silver |
The Rhale’s borders are use up .In one of the two legs there is a very big split , in the middle of the carving .
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Reperation process:
1) superficial cleaning of dust , for a good point of view of the ob- ject .
2) profound cleaning of the painting part .
3) rearrangement of the split .
4) repainting with a water colours , using a neutral gradation , in some empty points
5) put protective varnish . |
Restoration steps:
After the first analyse of the object without dust , we started to try dif- ferent kind of cleaning , with dif- ferent substance , for understand which kind of colours they were. We used first distillate water and white spirit in the twice side ; the distillate water applicated on the decorations of the legs gave not a good result , but was too much ag- gressive for the up side ;
so in this last part we used white spirit.
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After this step we checked , that the type of colours was varnish , and the dirty upside was about protein origin ; so it is insensible at the wa- ter .
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For the second step of cleaning we used another chemistry component, that worked
so well on the animal glue ,and for his removal we used a mixture; this chemistry solution was also used for the action in some areas where the colours were more feeble (like blue and green )
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At the end of the cleaning we started to rearranging the split at the rahle’s leg.
For this process we used a special glue .
 
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After with bisturi , so mechanic technique , we removed the ex- cess of an old animal glue , very strong . For do this we took the help of the alcohol . During this moment we saw also signs of an- other kind of glue (artificial glue ) about a previous restoration .
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The another consequently moment was repainting with a natural gradation of colour ( similar at the original pigment that was for preparation of the wood ), in some empty points
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How final layer we put a chetonic varnish applicated by spray, for pro- tection on all the surface of the object .
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