The art of gilding has existed for centuries. We offer a full range of gold leaf restoration services including application to decorative paint, stencils, wood and plaster moldings, weathervanes, tower clocks and historic cupolas. We can perform gold leaf conservation, restoration and new applications on wood, metal and painted surfaces. Gold leaf is an extremely durable exterior finish when properly applied as it does not oxidize or otherwise tarnish. The leaf is pounded out of nearly pure gold, alloyed with other metals for color, malleability or other properties.
The State House Library contains six arches over the main reading room decorated with gilt coffers and rosettes. Blackbkurn first applied gold leaf to match the original. This surface was then coated with a red brown glaze and sealed and toned with orange shellac to preserve the sheen and provide depth to the color. ARCHITECT:...
The gilt ornament and decorative paint on the doomed ceiling had been damaged as a result of a chronic roof leak. After repairing the plaster surface and restoring the decorative paint, Blackburn carefully resurfaced the damaged gilt surface, matched the color of the gold and applied the gold leaf where required....
This project involved the gilding and restoration of the library's wooden cupola. The windows and decorative woodwork were also repaired with epoxy consolidant and new members were fabricated to replace those that could not be conserved. As part of the project, Blackburn also restored the wood windows throughout the bulding and repaired the portico columns.
Application of gold leaf is always a cost effective maintenance solution, since gold leaf can remain in place for forty years of more. We were contacted by Phillips-Andover School to gild a weathervane that had previously been painted. This was done while staging was already in place on the building, making removal...
During the restoration of the Chapel exterior we were asked to conserve and renew the gold leaf on the 4 clock dials including the numerals. We were able to remove the hands and numerals and complete the leafing in the shop. When we installed the numerals, we also leafed the minute...