This is the dolphin carving from an early 19th century carved and gilded convex mirror frame from Dorney Court. A piece of each dolphin’s tail was missing, so we spliced-on pieces of matching old pine and re-carved the tails. The repaired tails were then gessoed and gilded.
Dolphins from Dorney Court Mirror
After gilding, the repairs were patinated to blend them into the rest of the mirror frame.
On the mirror frame, areas of gesso had become loose because of shrinkage of the substrate, which is a typical problem. The loose gesso was consolidated, and areas of missing gesso were restored and gilded. The restoration was complete when the repairs were patinated to blend in with the rest of Dorney Court.
Dolphin Mirror after restoration
As with all our work, our gilding restoration service covers our local area of Windsor and Maidenhead, as well as other areas in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire and London.