Marble plaque

Debra-Kay Palmer <debbiepal99 [at] yahoo__co__uk> writes

>I am a Conservation Officer treating a marble plaque, which has lead
>used to fill in the space of the letters. However, some of the
>letters have fallen out and I'm not sure what can be used to replace
>these lead letters. Does anyone have any suggestions about what
>could be used, something that could also survive daily exposure to
>the sun.

In a similar situation I have proposed simply in-painting the lost
letters with a suitably toned enamel paint. At a normal viewing
distance it will not be noticeable, the point being that visual
completeness is achieved. Refilling with lead is problematic because
the marble surface is worn and the edges of the letters originally
cut into the marble have lost definition. Using lead to restore the
letters would require recutting of the letters in the marble and
probably re-working of the entire marble surface, both of which I
think is unacceptable for the obvious reasons.

Detlef Klein
Conservator
Manawatu Museum Services Ltd
Palmerston North
New Zealand


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:38
                Distributed: Wednesday, February 7, 2007
                       Message Id: cdl-20-38-005
                                  ***