Restoration of an Art Deco sculpture

This sculpture in lead alloy (Lead+pewter+antimony) is signed Fayral. Its title is "Lysis". The foundry / editor house is Max le Verrier.

Both hands are broken. Half of the right hand is missing, the other hand has been preserved but a finger is missing

This piece is coated with a varnished silver. In places where the varnish has become worn, the silver has oxidized (black spots) .Elsewhere the varnish has aged which gives the silvering this yellowish color. The patina of time will be preserved.

First, i must recreate the part of the missing hand. To do that i must carve one in a piece of hard jeweler wax.

This part is made slightly larger in order to recover the shrinkage of the metal during the cooling. Moreover, an excess of metal at the break will avoid lacking material for fitting.

The hand is then molded with elastomer and then lead cast into the cavity.

The hand is then cut and then drilled in order to assemble it on the sculpture by a small metal rod.

A torch welding is then carried out

After welding the other hand to the wrist, metal is fed with a soldering iron to recreate the blank of the missing finger.

The welds are then thoroughly rectified to conceal their existence.

Then the silvering is remade at the welding points by selective electrolysis with a buffer.