Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 31. (Budapest, 2017)

Veronika SZILÁGYI: Rebirth of the Gundel Centrepiece: Methodological Experiments in the Restoration of Enamelled Metalwork

VERONIKA SZILÁGYI

REBIRTH OF THE GUNDEL CENTREPIECE

METHODOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS IN THE RESTORATION OF ENAMELLED METALWORK

The Gundel Centrepiece,1 which joined the collection of the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts in 1963 as a gift from the Gundel Restaurant, is a unique piece of fine metalwork, not only in Hungary, but also internationally. (Fig. 1) There are very few surviving works of silversmithing that are so multifaceted and complex, using such a diverse range of metalworking techniques in their manufacture (casting, repoussage, soldering, electrotyping, appliqué, enamelling, etc.) and referring to so many different style periods in their decoration.

The distinctive decorations of the artwork in question, which was made partly from gilded silver and adorned with al- mandines, emeralds and pearls, were made using enamelling techniques. This enormously problematic and challenging area of metalwork restoration is of particular interest to me, which is the reason why I chose to restore this object as my diploma

1. The Gundel Centrepiece before restoration. Photo by Gábor Nyíri

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