Water gilded antique furniture, on a substrate of gesso and bole, is by nature fragile. Often the surface has been ”brightened“ over the years with metallic paint which has tarnished and areas have chipped away. Any paint must be cleaned off and the original techniques used to make repairs and burnish the work. The final stage is to tone and age the new gold so as to be indistinguishable from the rest.

This 18th century planter had completely lost one side of its carving. Carving was copied from the other side and it is shown here after applying gesso, before the red bole and gold.

A set of three finials from a Dutch longcase clock. These were gilded using oil size.

Verre Eglomisé is a technique involving water gilding onto the reverse side of glass, incising a design and applying a backing of coloured wax resin, lacquer or paint. The wax on these panels from an 18th century dressing table mirror had delaminated, pulling away the design.