The restorers of Beijing and Hong Kong jointly conducted a "consultation" for the Ming Dynasty black lacquer inlaid luodian table case. Courtesy of the Hong Kong Palace Museum
Locomotive clock from 1900. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Shen
Qi Haonan restores a 1900 locomotive-style clock. Courtesy of the Hong Kong Palace Museum
Under the dim spotlight, a 1900 locomotive-style clock quietly displays its "new life" in a glass cover. As with it, there is also a table case with black lacquer inlaid in Luodian in the Ming Dynasty.
In the recent exhibition "Collecting Together – The First Batch of Donated Collections of the Hong Kong Palace Museum", these two cultural relics attracted attention as soon as they were unveiled.
"This is thanks to the conservators of the Palace Museum, whose exquisite skills have brought these cultural relics back to life. Liang Jiafang, director of the collection restoration room of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, said.
Cultural relics unveiled to "diagnose diseases" first
Each artifact has its own restoration plan. The greatest success of the restoration of ancient clocks has been the restoration of the "dead" clock to its timekeeping and performance functions.
"The overall preservation of this old clock is quite good, but we found that it had a reversed dial in the previous restoration, and some of the wheels of the train were rusty and peeled off, and the movement could not be operated. Liang Jiafang introduced.
As a result, the restorers of the Hong Kong Palace Museum began to consult the literature to find artifacts that could be used as references, and to show them to the audience in their original form. The restoration of ancient clocks and watches not only requires cleaning and dust removal, but also requires mastering professional clock mechanical maintenance techniques in order to accurately restore the functions of ancient clocks.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum, which officially opened to the public in July 2022, is still a very "young" museum, and its restoration team is relatively young. "The restoration of cultural relics is extremely profound, and different types of restoration methods are also different, such as calligraphy and painting, clocks and watches, porcelain, gold and silverware, etc., all have different professional knowledge and technical requirements. Liang Jiafang said.
Another type of cultural relics restored this time is lacquerware, which has strict requirements for changes in temperature and humidity. "When the Hong Kong Palace Museum received this Ming Dynasty black lacquer inlaid luodian table, it was found that not only cracks appeared in the table, but also the snail pieces fell off and were missing. Liang Jiafang said.
On the basis of the repair of lacquerware, the repair and inlay of spiral pieces are superimposed, and the difficulty of restoration is increased. Liang Jiafang said that the actual operation of lacquer restoration is very complicated, and the composition of the lacquer used in the original cultural relics, the method of painting, and the influence of weather conditions on the lacquer are all beyond the reach of the instrument.
The principle of restoration of Chinese lacquer cultural relics is "repair the old as the old", which should not only be visually the same as the original, but also be restored with traditional craftsmanship, emphasizing the unity of the whole. "We don't have as many cultural relics as the Palace Museum, and we don't have enough experience. Liang Jiafang said, so he specially contacted the Palace Museum and asked experts to "go to the clinic".
A conversation with the ancients
The work of a restorer is a dialogue with the ancients. During the restoration, the restorer has a deeper understanding of the craftsmanship, background and even cultural core of the artifact.
Many of the locomotive ancient clocks come from abroad, most of them are unique, and there are no drawings to refer to due to their long history. An experienced restorer will make a preliminary judgment based on its appearance, but the internal system will still need to be opened to know.
"The first time I saw this old clock, it was dysfunctional in terms of performance and timekeeping. Not only the exterior structure was corroded, but the connecting rod devices in the wheels were also badly corroded. Qi Haonan, a research librarian at the Palace Museum and head of the clock restoration team, said.
Qi Haonan has been engaged in the industry for nearly 20 years and has restored more than 100 ancient clocks and watches, and is the fourth generation inheritor of the restoration skills of intangible cultural heritage ancient clocks. "This is an old locomotive clock from France, made around 1900. We have an ancient clock like this in the Palace Museum and another in the Summer Palace, all of which I have restored by hand. ”
The repair work should be dismantled and cleaned, then polished and polished, and assembled and debugged after the repair. "The most tedious part of the locomotive clock is the debugging, and it took us more than a week and many times to adjust the position and angle between the train wheel and the connecting rod to the best. In this way, the locomotive can run smoothly after winding. Qi Haonan said.
For this work, Qi Haonan came to Hong Kong more than once to study and make restoration plans together. After two months, the locomotive clock was finally restored.
Another restored artifact is a flower bonsai picture flat head case from the Ming Dynasty. After the "consultation" of Min Junrong, the head of the lacquer restoration team of the Palace Museum, and the restorers of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, the wooden tire of this cultural relic was cracked, the paint surface was aged and worn, the screw and the paint layer were loose, hollow and warped, and the screw pieces were missing.
Lacquerware restoration is very particular about the selection of lacquer. "We showed Mr. Min all kinds of lacquer that we had prepared, but we didn't expect it to work, because they all have chemical compositions. Liang Jiafang said that after the research of the restorers in the two places, it was decided to choose the pure natural lacquer brought by Min Junrong from the Palace Museum to ensure that "the old is as good as the old".
Another difficulty in the restoration is that there are many missing snails on the lacquerware. Min Junrong said that during the restoration, the screw should be selected with the same color and luster as the original screw, and the screw should be carved out according to the original groove shape on the lacquerware, and then inlaid on the lacquerware.
Liang Jiafang said: "We use machine cutting and polishing, while Mr. Min uses pure hand grinding, and the score is exactly right, which makes us marvel. ”
Hand in hand to inherit Chinese culture
After working with the restorers of the Palace Museum for a period of time, Liang Jiafang was deeply touched: on the surface, the restoration of cultural relics is through a pair of skillful hands to restore the brilliance of cultural relics, but in fact, it conveys the tenacity of craftsmen in the restoration of cultural relics in a big country, and all links contain the perseverance of the Chinese.
"There are many kinds of craftsmanship involved in lacquerware, and it is necessary to gradually master the methods and techniques through countless hands-on practices in the inheritance of experience bit by bit. That's what it's all about. Liang Jiafang said.
"There is no way without a tool. "Let the cultural relics speak and let the history speak, and the restorers need to better highlight it with a knife and a file, and also need a platform for display and exchange.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) is a young exhibition with a new curatorial approach and a global perspective, showcasing the treasures of the Palace Museum and other important cultural institutions around the world, promoting the research and dissemination of Chinese culture and art, and promoting dialogue among civilizations.
Wang Yiyou, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, said that the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Palace Museum are long-term strategic partners and have carried out cooperation and exchange projects in many aspects. The Palace Museum has loaned more than 900 artefacts to the Hong Kong Palace Museum for its seven inaugural exhibitions in 2022.
In 2023, the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Palace Museum will co-organise the special exhibition "New Stories: Masterpieces of Ming Dynasty Figure Paintings from the Palace Museum's Collection", and in 2024, they will co-organise a special exhibition "The Old Summer Palace: The Culture of Imperial Gardens in the Qing Dynasty" in collaboration with the Management Office of the Old Summer Palace in Haidian District, Beijing, to provide visitors from Hong Kong, the Mainland and around the world with an in-depth understanding of the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
For the future, Wang Yiyou looks forward to continued cooperation between the two sides and in-depth exchanges in research, publishing, cultural relics protection, public education and talent training, so that Chinese culture can be better disseminated in the inheritance and promote China to make greater contributions in the field of international museums.
(According to Xinhua News Agency, Hong Kong reporter Wang Qian)
Editor: Wu Jiahong
Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition