The mercury gilt and steel balustrade had been constructed by Allard and Sons. Over time this gold plate had become discolored and required conservation to prevent its eventual loss. In several places over aggressive restoration had all but removed the thin layer of gold, exposing the deeper colored bronze.
We carefully removed several sections at a time, leaving the steel in place. The conservation process began with the immersion of each gilt bronze section in a detergent solution several brief periods of time to loosen the discoloration. Special care was taken to neither handle nor scrub the fragile gold surface, since any pressure risked damage or removal of the gold leaf. After thorough drying damaged areas were repaired using gold leaf of the appropriate color. Prior to re-installation all oxidation on the steel frame was removed and the original deep brown finish was re-applied. The cleaned and conserved gold sections were then re-attached to their frames.
