For the exhibition “EVA'S BEAUTY CASE“ the LVR LandesMuseum Bonn originally wanted to display parts of the famous “Prince's grave in Waldalsgesheim“ – especially the Celtic neck rings, arm rings and ankle rings.
The important grave of Waldalgesheim contained numerous grave goods of a woman from the Celtic upper class, probably a princess.
Unfortunately, these grave goods had been loaned to a museum abroad at exactly the time of the planned exhibition, so that the Bonn museum had to resort to replicas from its own museum holdings. Unfortunately, these replicas had not been presented to the public for a long time and therefore required an optical upgrade.
So I finally got the order to re-gild the replicas of Celtic princess jewellery. At the beginning of 2016 I was able to receive the replicas of the museum:
The gilding of the replicas was heavily rubbed and tarnished and all four objects were dirty.
In addition, upon closer examination of the museum replicas, it was noticed that some of the casting seams were still visible. Together with the head of the restoration workshop of the LVR LandesMuseum Bonn, it was then decided to carefully remove these casting seams.
After a subsequent intensive cleaning of all jewelry parts, I decided to apply a galvanic barrier layer beforehand to better stabilize the new gold plating. Only then did the galvanic gilding with fine gold take place.
Just in time for the opening of the exhibition, the replicas of the famous Celtic pieces of jewelry shone in new splendor and were presented to the public once again.