124mc02-AL-2017_Agliè, Ducal Castle, G. Capello (Moncalvo), Coffee table with support surface in opus sectile, inv. 302

Facilitated description: 

 

The coffee table is made of wood, colored marble (stone) and metal. 
Gabriele Capello, known as Moncalivo, made the coffee table in 1840. 
The table is kept at the Ducal Castle of Agliè. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the coffee table in 2017 for an exhibition. 
The restorers placed the coffee table in an anoxic chamber (room without oxygen that serves to eliminate insects that eat wood). 
They put on the wooden parts a product against insects that eat wood. 
They cleaned the coffee table from dust with different methods for the wooden parts and for the marble parts. 
They cleaned the damaged metal parts for contact with air. 
The restorers painted the scratched parts with watercolors.
In the end they painted the coffee table to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

Restoration carried out on the occasion of the exhibition on display Genius and mestria. Furniture and cabinetmakers at the Savoy court between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Reggia di Venaria, Sala delle Arti 17 March - 15 July 2018). 

Restoration

The intervention on the small table, kept in the Tuscolana room of the Ducal Castle of Agliè, began with disinfestation in anoxic chamber for a period of three weeks and subsequent treatment with anti-moth solution (permethrin) to eliminate symptomatic attacks. Cleaning from the deposits was carried out with solution, while the larger deposits were mechanically removed. The metal portions were treated with solution to eliminate oxidation. The marble top has been cleaned with a product suitable for stone surfaces. The abrasions were supplemented with watercolor colors. Finally, the surface has been protected with varnish with a UV filter. 

 

Bibliography

A. Giovannini Luca, Sheet 76, in Genius and mestria. Furniture and cabinetmakers at the Savoy court between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (catalogue), edited by S. De Blasi, Turin, Allemandi, 2018, pp. 296-297.