08mc16-MT-2014_Santena, Castello Cavour, Divided by Officer of the Guards of the Marquis Augusto Cavour, inv. II/282

Facilitated description: 

 

The military uniform of the Marquis Augusto Cavour is a wool and cotton dress. 
Augusto Cavour was the nephew of the Italian politician Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour.
With this uniform Augusto Cavour lost his life in battle.
The uniform was made in 1848. 
The uniform is kept in the Cavour Castle in Santena.
The uniform was folded into a wooden and glass box.
The La Venaria Real Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the divide in 2014-2016.  
Restorers have begun cleaning the glass box to eliminate wood-eating insects.
They then repaired and painted the box.
Then they cleaned the uniform (jacket and pants) from dust with a small vacuum cleaner. 
They've eliminated the old repairs. 
They sewed the trousers and tears with transparent fabrics to show the parts of the dress ruined during the battle.
The restorers did not repair the hole in the blow that killed Augusto Cavour. 
They cleaned the metal buttons.
In the end they exposed the uniform hanging vertically in a new box. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

The intervention on the officer uniform of the guards of the Marquis Augusto Cavour is part of the restoration of the furnishings of the bedroom and study of Cavour of the Castle of Santena on the occasion of the refurbishment of the entire residence. The uniform is a fond memory for Camillo Benso, as it was worn by his nephew Augusto Cavour on the battlefield in Goito in 1848, where he was mortally wounded. For this reason, the restoration choices have been oriented towards the conservation of all the traces and dramatic signs of the battle present on the textile surfaces. The restoration also involved the bulletin board in which the uniform was kept. 
The intervention began with a disinfestation of the bulletin board in the anoxic chamber to block the xylophagous attack in place. The bulletin board was then treated with anti-moth product, integrated in correspondence of the wooden gaps and painted with a protective. 
Subsequently, the uniform was cleaned of atmospheric deposits by means of micro-aspiration. The previous repairs were therefore eliminated and the stitching was carried out at the level of the trousers. Then the needle consolidations of the lacerations were carried out with organza or tulle supports, suitable to block the degradation but also to make visible the traces of the fight. The lack of fabric caused by the mortal blow received by the Marquis Cavour in battle has not intervened. 
The metal buttons have been chemically cleaned.
Finally, in agreement with the construction management it was decided to expose the uniform vertically within a new bulletin board.