Gilding
Our studio’s extensive experience in restoration and gilding enables us to undertake commissions of every scale, from individual decorative objects and pieces of furniture to complex architectural projects. Whether the work requires delicate conservation or the creation of bold decorative schemes, each assignment is approached with the same level of care, technical understanding, and attention to detail.
Alongside the execution of gilded and painted schemes, we offer a comprehensive research and project management service to support clients throughout the life of a project.
For restoration projects, this may include condition reporting, technical assessment, and scientific analysis where appropriate.
We closely work with designers, architects, contractors, and specialist consultants to ensure that every stage is managed with clarity and precision.
Areas covered are period furniture, architecture, gilded glass and Verre Églomisé.
There are three principal types of gilding. Water gilding is the most refined and prestigious, traditionally reserved for fine furniture. Built up through successive layers of gesso and clay/bole, it is finished with gold leaf that is then burnished or left matte. Oil gilding is a more cost-effective alternative, equally at home on furniture and architectural elements. The third is gilded glass, or Verre Églomisé — a technique that combines gilding with painted decoration applied directly onto the glass.
When freshly completed, gilding requires a little care, but once fully dried and settled it becomes a pleasingly hard and resilient surface. That said, the method of cleaning does vary depending on the type. Water gilding is the most delicate and should only ever be dry dusted or cleaned by a specialist. Oil gilding is somewhat more forgiving — a little mild soapy water, applied and carefully dried off, is generally acceptable. Gilded glass and Verre Églomisé, however, requires no special maintenance at all. As all decoration is applied to the reverse of the glass, the face remains a perfectly normal glass or mirror surface, cleaned in exactly the same way as any other.