Michael Brook Antique Metal Restoration
We are a small team of professional conservators/restorers with many decades of experience who collectively form a company whose aim is the pursuit of excellence in all we do. Our company is known world wide as one of the foremost studios specialising in the restoration and conservation of Fine English and French metalwork.
Our reputation has been achieved through linking the skills and experience of our master craftsmen, and combining it with the knowledge of modern scientific conservation ethics and practices.
Our clients include important private collectors, museums and galleries, trusts and the international antiques trade. Michael Brook is an Accredited member of BAFRA and a full member of the metals section of the UKIC.
London SE5 England UK
Over zealous cleaning of steel and iron sadly can cause damage to the object. We clean and repair steel and iron in sympathy with the material and are careful to keep the integrity of the piece.
English and continental metalwork is often found, as with furniture mounts on commodes, on objects that incorporate more than one material to make a complete object.
We provide a complete restoration service to our clients coordinating teams of professional restorers who work in other media including: wood, marble, porcelain, glass and Blue John.
As well as practical hands-on restoration we also act as consultants caring for collections by way of planning, support and advice in the safe handling transportation and display of metalwork. We can provide condition reports, proposals for treatment and estimates.
In-depth discussions with the object's owner(s) both before and frequently during the restoration process can help to evaluate between essential and desirable work e.g. Does the object need stabilizing? How can we repair while preserving what is already there?
Before any work is carried out a careful examination of the object is essential to assess how to proceed. An informed respect for the unique integrity of all objects is important to help insure their preservation.
The majority of English furniture mounts i.e. handles, escutcheons, gallery rails etc produced in the 18th century, even on the highest quality pieces, were not gilded but lacquered. The brass firstly being prepared by chemically cleaning with acids, then burnished and lacquered. This process is known in France as "mis encouleur d'or."
We specialize in the cleaning of all types of furniture mount, cleaning in sympathy with the original surface, removing 'dirt' layer by layer, leaving intact the original patina and if required original lacquer. Many of the cleaning techniques used today by restorers/conservers do not have sufficient subtlety to achieve this, often removing the 'dirt' and lacquer together, which can alter the integrity of the piece. We use both traditional shellac based lacquers and modern conservation lacquers, depending on what is required. The shellac lacquers are applied in the traditional way with buds and brushes. Applying lacquer by spraying invariably will lead to the mount "looking sprayed" i.e. flat and lacking depth. Mounts found on large pieces of furniture i.e. commodes were often made on different days in the foundry. A small variation in the mix of metals contained in the pour can cause a wide variation of colour in the mount, along a yellow to red spectrum. This can be adjusted now as it was then through skilful colour toning.
Matthew Boulton (1728 -1809) was the great pioneer of English orÕmolu and one of the most influential figures of the early Industrial Revolution. He was described by Josiah Wedgwood as the 'first manufacturer in England' producing beautiful ormolu mounted objects for a very brief period from 1768 to 1782. A master of great self promotion and marketing, he was the only Englishman to successfully challenge the French bronziers pre-eminence of this decorative art form and succeed in supplying the French court.
Based in Birmingham, he developed his father's button, buckle and 'toy' making business into a remarkably efficient centre of production. Under Boulton's hand the business quickly produced fine classically inspired gilt metal mounted objects, frequently incorporating vase forms to satisfy the seemingly insatiable fashion for this icon of classicism following the excavations at Herculaneum. The bodies of his objects incorporated costly marble, glass and most famously blue john, the unique English and beautiful fluorspar found only in Derbyshire. Boulton, using a novel assembly line system of craftsmen each fashioning individual component before the final construction, oversaw every element of manufacture and design.
Soon King George III, the Prince of Wales, Catherine the Great of Russia and numerous fashionable aristocrats were counted among his clients. The range of his objects varied from small perfume burners, casolettes and clocks, made for prospective sale, to magnificent specially commissioned objects such as the sumptuous 'King's' vase candelabra and garnitures supplied to Windsor Castle and his masterpiece, the Sidereal clock commissioned in 1772.
The business enjoyed great popularity until the death of BoultonÕs business partner, John Fothergill in 1782. The venture soon became un-commercial as Boulton had already become distracted by his next great project of inventing the steam engine with James Watt.
Boulton's work has remained extremely sought after by collectors and many examples survive in both public and private collections that include the Royal Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Metropolitan Museum, New York and the Art Institute of Chicago among others.
We are recognised as the leading conservation/restoration studio specialising in Matthew Boulton. We have conserved many of his most important pieces including the 'Tew' table, 'Sidereal' clock, Minerva' clock & 'King's' candle vase.
We are specialists in the gilding and colour matching of mounts to blend to existing mercury gilding. We insure the correct thickness of gold and surface finish, i.e. dead gold, burnishing, colour and tone to match existing parts or mounts.
Whenever possible all the separate pieces of an object should be cleaned individually to prevent the trapping of moisture between sections. All too often well meaning but disastrous attempts at cleaning lead to objects becoming time bombs, quietly being destroyed by the corrosion and verdigris that results from not following this rule.
To dismantle an object safely a full knowledge and understanding of the materials, techniques, methods and sometimes even the thought process of the original craftsman becomes essential.
We cast in all the methods appropriate to the original piece, be it sand or lost wax. Often sculpting the wax to increase its size and so allow for shrinkage which in the lost wax process can be up to 6%.
Chasing is a process of adding definition to the surface of an object by way of a selection of hammer struck steel punches to put back the fine detail which is lost during casting or repair. The skill of the chaser in most cases defines the quality of the object. Our chasing is of the very highest standard. If a correct match is required their skill has to at least equal or exceed the original chasers skill.
When cleaning bronzes or patinated surfaces great care is taken to preserve the original patina lying beneath the layers of dirt, verdigris etc. If the original patina no longer exists we can research the correct colour and re-patinate to match.