123mc03-AL-2017_Nichelino, Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, Sofa, inv. 5220

Facilitated description:

 

The sofa in gilded wood and fabric was made in 1700.
The sofa is kept in the bedroom of the Queen of the Hunting Palace of Stupinigi.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the sofa in 2017.
The restorers placed the sofa in an anoxic chamber, an oxygen-free chamber used to eliminate wood-eating insects.
They cleaned the golden wood surface from dust, ruined paint and wax.
They filled the wooden gaps with stucco (plaster and glue layer).
They colored the stucco with watercolor colors.
In the end they spread a protective substance against the sun's rays and dust.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

The sofa of the Queen's Bedroom of Piedmontese manufacture has been restored as part of the project to complete the restoration of the rooms of the Queen's Apartment (Bedroom and Toilet Room).
Initially, the work was disinfected in anoxic chamber for a period of three weeks. Subsequently, the widespread lifts on the decorative surface are consolidated with injections of acrylic resin and the detachments near the joints have been correctly positioned, glued and pressured.
Following appropriate tests, the layer of natural varnish that obscured the brilliance of the colour scheme and did not allow the work to be correctly legible was lightened. Incoherent dust and deposits were removed with rubbers. In addition, some wax residues found on the legs were also removed by chemical cleaning.
The gaps on the pictorial and gilding surface were filled with stucco (Bologna plaster and animal glue), added with bismuth, then blunted with scalpel and brass canvas and chromatically integrated with the technique of dotted with watercolor colors and micacea powder.   
The missing moulding part was reconstructed with the same kind of wood (walnut) and adhered to the support by means of vinyl glue; subsequently it was supplemented with stucco added with bismuth and retouched chromatically with watercolor colors.
In the vicinity of the abrasions of the decorative surface, watercolor additions were made which made it possible to recompose an aesthetic unit. In the presence of the metal foil, micacea powder has been added to the application with watercolor. Finally, a protective layer was applied to the entire surface with a brush.