Chapter 1829: National treasure restoration, no shortage of masters
Use the method of brushing mud to make it look old. After the mud is brushed on, adjust the knife again and flick the mud on the toothbrush according to the exposed leather shells of the surrounding objects. This will give the feeling of the rust layer falling off.
After the mud spots are dry, use mineral pigments such as sand green and bean green, add a little fine sand, loess, mix in shellac, and use a toothbrush to dip into the prepared color juice.
In this way, go to the stained area and pick up the granular rust color.
Wait for the first layer of color to dry before applying the next layer of paint.
Color it repeatedly to make it coordinate with the surrounding colors.
After the color is dry, use clean water to wash away the mud spots on the surface of the object, so that the layered look will appear.
If the desired effect is not achieved, you can repeat the above steps to achieve the perfect rust color.
The last step is corrosion inhibition and sealing. Corrosion inhibitors will be used to repair the bronze casket.
This kind of thing will inhibit the corrosion of the bronze box.
Sealing agent should be applied to the surface of the utensils. The surface sealing treatment of bronze burial utensils in the Western Han Dynasty is an important protection task.
It is a protective treatment during the repair process, including rust removal, penetration reinforcement, welding, filling defects, and coloring, so that it can be preserved for a longer period of time.
It is to prevent harmful substances, gases and moisture in the air from corroding the body of cultural relics, thereby creating a relatively protective small environment for the bronze casket.
This kind of sealing uses polyvinyl butyral which is colorless and transparent, resistant to air pollution, strong permeability, chemically stable, and anti-aging.
At this point, the true restoration of a bronze vessel is complete.
And this is just a little-known ordinary bronze, like some heavy treasure-level bronzes, which are even more difficult to repair.
For example, Chen Wenzhe had seen the Siyang Fangzun before. Although he saw a replica, he didn't know that the original was a restored one.
Among the cultural relics that were most difficult to repair was the Siyang Fangzun, which was broken into more than 20 pieces at the time.
In fact, this national treasure is relatively easy to repair, because the two national treasures that are not easy to repair were both broken into more than a thousand pieces, and the repair time took eight years.
For cultural relics conservators, discovering new cultural relics is quite a surprise.
Not only is this cultural relic extremely valuable, but it also contains rich history and culture.
But if it were found that this cultural relic had been broken into pieces when it was unearthed, experts would be heartbroken.
Damage to cultural relics is inevitable because environmental self-damage and man-made destruction are ubiquitous.
If it's damaged, it can't be saved? Of course not.
Cultural relic experts with superb restoration techniques can restore them to their original appearance in most cases.
Among the rare national treasures collected in our country today, some have been restored.
From a scrap of debris to a complete creation, the efforts and efforts put in by the experts are immeasurable.
The most representative restored cultural relic is the large bronze ritual vessel of the Shang Dynasty, the Siyang Fangzun.
It is more than half a meter tall and weighs about 70 kilograms. It is cast in one piece and has an exquisite and gorgeous shape. It is the top grade among bronzes.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Nanhu farmers dug it up while reclaiming wasteland, and later sold it as a treasure to a businessman for 400 yuan.
The businessman wanted to resell it, but it was confiscated by the Shachang County government.
During the Anti-Japanese War in Shachang, the Siyang Fangzun was lost, and when it was found again it had been blown into more than 20 pieces by Japanese artillery shells.
The national treasure was destroyed, and countless people were heartbroken.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of masters in our country. The Siyang Fangzun was finally successfully restored by Zhang Xinru, a master of cultural relic restoration, which took only more than two months.
The fact that the Siyang Fangzun was able to be restored to its original state is not only due to the master's superb skills, but also because the degree of fragmentation was relatively minor.
Reassembling more than twenty fragments was relatively easy.
In comparison, the bronze chariots and horses from the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum that were broken into thousands of pieces were really difficult to repair.
After the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum was excavated, many rare cultural relics were unearthed, including two luxurious bronze chariots and horses.
However, the two cars were severely damaged when they were unearthed. One was broken into 1,325 pieces, and the other was broken into 1,685 pieces.
It was really broken into pieces, so you can imagine how difficult it is to repair.
Fortunately, with the joint efforts of several experts, the two bronze carriages and horses were restored and put on display, which took a total of eight years.
Also difficult to repair is the tiara of Princess Li Jue of the Tang Dynasty.
The princess was buried with a rich burial, and the most precious thing was the crown on her head. Almost all the jewelry decoration materials that could be found in the Tang Dynasty were used.
Because her tomb was flooded, the crown was completely unrecognizable when it was unearthed, with only a bunch of parts left.
In order to restore it to its original state as much as possible, our country specially invited German experts to jointly restore it. It took a year and a half to finally make it shine again.
It can be seen from this that although ancient craftsmen were highly skilled and the things they made were exquisite and meticulous, modern experts are no less generous.
Thanks to them, those rare cultural relics can be restored to the world.
And the restoration of these treasures is not actually the most time-consuming.
Because Chen Wenzhe knew another one, but it took him fifteen years.
It was a bronze prison built two thousand years ago. It took 15 years to successfully restore it because the 12 steps involved in the restoration process were extremely difficult.
In the 1990s, the former director of the Maritime Museum rescued a 2,000-year-old bronze prison from Xiangjiang.
Compared with the two pieces of King Wu's Fuchai prison that have been collected by Shangbo, this bronze prison is larger.
It is 45 cm high, 79 cm in diameter, and 39 cm in base diameter.
Curator Ma, who has a unique eye, found it among the crowd and immediately determined that this antique with a dusty appearance was unique in terms of historical value, artistic value and research value.
Due to the age of the bronze prison, the damage caused by nature and man-made was extremely serious, and the restoration work was difficult from the beginning.
Moreover, the complicated procedures involved in turning an unearthed cultural relic into an exhibit in a museum showcase are beyond the imagination of outsiders.
The restoration work of the Bronze Supervisor has been intermittent due to various technical problems that cannot be solved.
It was not until recently that the leader of the Shangbo bronze restoration team finally devoted 15 years of efforts to complete this difficult work.
Shangbote held an exhibition for the Bronze Supervisor, allowing the audience to have the opportunity to touch the Chinese civilization 2,000 years ago.
A person and an antique have known each other for 15 years.
No matter who knows it, they will be surprised by how long and rough this experience has been.
Of course, I will also be curious about the anecdotes that happened at every point in time during this time together.
There are 12 extremely difficult processes, each of which is a difficulty.
Since accepting the task of restoring the bronze prison in 1996, this treasure has entered the life of the restoration master.
For 15 years, he observed it, pondered it, and tried every means to conquer it.
The restoration of cultural relics is actually a confrontation between human intelligence and time.
This bronze prison is considered to be the most severely broken and damaged piece of bronze wares and the most difficult to repair since the restoration work was started.
Such bronzes are very rare no matter which museum they are in.
Generally, when encountering this kind of bronze, they give up. Where can I repair it?