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Restoration of the small Coat-of-Arms of the Russian Empire Restorers: Natalia Bolshakova and Andrew Karpechenkov In 2006 the Ceramics Restoration Section of the Laboratory for Scientific Restoration of Works of Applied Art carried out a complex and exceptional project - the restoration of a porcelain coat-of-arms of the Russian Empire that was intended for display in the exhibition "Diplomatic Gifts and the Language of Peace" held in the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna. The stocks of the State Hermitage's Department of the History of Russian Culture contain a pair of porcelain coats-of-arms. No similar articles or even mentions of porcelain double-headed eagles in the literature on the history of porcelain or heraldry have yet been found. The porcelain emblems were made from a design for the small Coat-of-Arms of the Russian Empire produced by A. Fadeyev. This version was approved on 8 December 1856 in the course of the heraldic reform carried out by Baron Boris von Koehne. The curator I.R. Bagdasarova is currently researching into the attribution of the work; some of her results were published in the Hermitage magazine, No 3, 2006. It is an established fact that these coats-of-arms entered the Hermitage in 1928 from the porcelain factory that had belonged to the Kornilov brothers, but was by that time renamed the Proletarian Factory. The eagles are impressive for both their size (they have a one-metre wingspan) and virtuoso execution, but they came to restoration in a very poor condition: the metal carcass on which the porcelain elements were mounted had become deformed; the surface of the porcelain was covered with grime; there were numerous losses, some of them major - of compositional elements affecting the construction or meaning of the whole. The restorers' main work was preceded by standard preparatory measures: disassembly (removal from the carcass), cleaning the porcelain of grime, gluing and making good relatively small losses by moulding and casting in situ. Then, after the degree of losses to both coats-of-arms had been determined, it was decided to restore only one eagle by June. However, the one chosen was missing the following elements: a head, the central shield, St Andrew's Cross, sceptre, crosses from the orb and small crown, the large crown and ribbons. All these are significant compositional elements of a coat-of-arms. The restorer, Natalia Bolshakova, was faced with a difficult task - to carry out a major reconstruction of large parts of the work without being able to refer to any similar item. The reconstruction of the porcelain coat-of-arms was discussed at a meeting of the Restoration Commission with Georgy Vilinbakhov, the museum's Deputy Director for Research and State Master of Heraldry of the Russian Federation. It was decided to make good the missing parts in accordance with the heraldic canons, and also the style and character of the modelling employed in the work. For the recreation of details of the eagle's head, the second work of the pair was used. This element was made by moulding and casting. For the recreation of St Andrew's Cross two indirect analogies were found - a terracotta bust of Alexander II made by the sculptor Alexander Timashev (Imperial Porcelain Factory, 1882) and a marble bust of this emperor by Johann Halbig. The following stage involved work with pictorial analogies. A study of the literature helped to establish a certain framework - which details of the coat-of-arms had a shape laid down by heraldic rules, for example, and which might be altered as the artist's imagination dictated. Working from graphic sketches approved by Georgy Vilinbakhov, the restorer shaped models that were used for making moulds and casting details. After grinding work the shield bearing a depiction of St George was mounted on the body of the eagle, on the reverse side of which elements of the carcass had been recreated. The remaining elements were also ground and tinted. The colours used in tinting were selected in accordance with the glazes on the original and the heraldic canons. The coloured surface was covered with varnish imitating the texture of porcelain and the process was completed by gilding. The finished elements were mounted on the carcass by the restorer Andrew Karpechenkov. After restoration the coat-of-arms was displayed at the exhibition opened on the occasion of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in St Petersburg in 2006; in late 2006 - early 2007 it was exhibited in Moscow at the 5th Triennale "Restoration of Museum Values in Russia". |
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