Ivory carving technology, referred to as "ivory carving", has always been one of the excellent skills of ancient craftsmen on the mainland. In the Palace Museum, there is a fine cultural relic of ivory carving that has been regarded as the treasure of the town hall, but it has been damaged due to its age. How should the master of cultural relics restore it? If you want to know, let Xiaobian reveal the secret for you:
In the ivory exhibition hall of the Palace Museum, there is an ivory carved cultural relic, which is called "Ivory Sculpture Group Immortal Zhushou Pagoda". According to the records, the "Ivory Sculpture Group Immortal Zhushou Pagoda" is an old collection in the Qing Palace, which was originally used by the emperor and empress to celebrate the birthday, and is a specially customized ivory carving work by the Qing Court Manufacturing Office.
The ivory carvings of Xian Zhu Shou Pagoda are 102 cm high, 98 cm long and 54 cm wide, and are carved from whole ivory. The ivory tower is divided into three parts, namely the front archway, the Jinshui Bridge and the rear pavilion pagoda, and the three parts are naturally connected to each other.
The archway part has carved dragon columns, pavilions, curved pond arch bridges, which are extremely exquisite and transparent, and there is a 13-story hexagonal pagoda in the back of the pavilion, with a tower crown, eaves ridge, fence, each with different patterns, and with dragon phoenix, Fushou, Baoxiang flowers and other ornaments alternately applied to each other, it looks beautiful and unique. From time to time, many immortals and longevity people are carved on the tower, and their postures are different and look like life. The ivory carving group Xian Zhu Shou Pagoda integrates a variety of carving techniques such as engraving, circular carving, mosaic setting, dyeing, etc., and is a unique ivory carving work in the court, and it is difficult for the outside world to have such cultural relics.
Ivory carvings have existed for hundreds of years, and even though the Palace Museum has focused on protecting it, it still can't stop the erosion of the years, resulting in damage to the cultural relics. What are the specific breakages? The first is the dust on the surface of the ivory, followed by the loosening and cracking of the ivory inserts, dots, amber ornaments, and finally the upturned layers of painted layers carved by ivory figures.
In order to be able to repair the damaged cultural relics, cultural relics restoration experts have carefully inspected the damage points. In response to the dust on the surface of the ivory, experts repeatedly cleaned up with advanced dust removal equipment, and the problem of loose and cracked inserts was to use detection technology to detect the composition of ancient glue, and to produce the same fish glue as the original glue for bonding. Experts believe that the problem of the upturning of the painted figures is the result of the dry climate, so they re-mixed the paint and manually colored it by hand.
The above restoration methods are actually only suitable for the small problems of restoring the ivory carving works themselves, but it is difficult to deal with the real big problems. Why? Because the real big problem is not in the shape and appearance of the carving, but in the texture of the ivory itself.
The own structure of the ivory is very special, the front tip is solid, the rear tail end is hollow, in the case of perennial dryness, the internal and external moisture evaporation is different, so the ivory will appear cracked deformation and yellowing dull and dull phenomenon. Although this problem is very difficult, cultural relics restoration experts have their own unique approach.
The cultural relics restoration experts first took pictures and records of the cultural relics, and after determining the repair points, the experts began to repair them. The first thing to deal with is the problem of yellowing and discoloration of ivory, and the tools needed to polish ivory are very simple and special, namely file grass and pieces of paper. File grass, also known as knotweed, is a plant that grows by the river, its internal structure is hollow, and there are many fine horizontal lines on the surface, which can be used as sandpaper.
When the ivory is rubbed with a file, a white sap is produced on the surface of the ivory, which forms a pulp to cover up the fine cracks. The piece of paper is a leaf left by the drying of bamboo shoots, and its surface is rough and grained, and it is specially used for the second polishing to make the surface of the ivory appear a new luster.
How will experts deal with the case of ivory deformation? Experts have come up with a wonderful and good idea. That is, the ivory carving is forcibly reset, and then tightly wound with a soft rope so that it no longer cracks, and then the ivory is completely covered with a wet towel to ensure long-lasting wetness, so that in about a month, the original crack of the ivory can be completely closed.
In order not to let the closed ivory return to its original state, experts also need to drill holes in its interior and firmly clamp the sides of the crack with bone nails, so that the restoration of the ivory can be completed, and the restoration of this ivory work took about a year.
I have to say that cultural relics experts are indeed ingenious, they can rely on their own skills and responsibilities, so that cultural relics "come back from the dead" once again into national treasures, and the spirit of their "big country craftsmen" is indeed worthy of our praise and admiration.
Wen xiucai, editor-in-chief of Wenlan Hairun Studio, written by: Special history writer: Changshan Zhao Zi worm