On the occasion of the Biennale des Antiquaires, G.F. asked us to restore a parclose ensemble from the seventeenth century, whose sobriety we all admired. After the work of extrication and cleaning, we decided to use a chromatic range based on worn gold and mat green tones that, reflected in the mirrors, are most magical.
The panelling was exposed several days, and treated according to the traditional techniques of water gilding. This calls for over twenty operations, the precision of which may be suggested by their enumeration: rinsing out, mordant, pasting, mounting of the different primers, alternating the piqués and the smooth ones while the percentage of glue diminishes, rough white, softening, brushing, bole, posing the leaf, burnishing, matage, wearing and patina.
