The vintage crown as I received it
The crown after repairs and restoration
Crown restoration
This Victorian theatrical crown had been owned and worn on stage by an ancestor of my client.
The brief was to straighten and reshape the bent and distorted frame, and replace the missing elements.
I was specifically instructed not to polish or re-plate the metal-work but to match the new elements to the finish and colour of the crown after the accumulated dirt had been removed.
Only two of the original eight points, or "Strawberry Leaves" remained so I made a mould from one of the existing ones and cast the outer shells in pewter which I soldered onto copper back-plates. These were electro-plated to match as far as possible the colour and finish of the existing points. After attaching them, and after repairing or replacing all of the smaller stone mounts as necessary, I aimed to match all these new components to the exact look of the originals with carefully applied acrylic paint.
I removed all the stones from their settings in order to clean them thoroughly and then re-set them into the crown. Many of the smaller stones were missing or badly broken, and I managed to source vintage stones to replace the missing "diamonds", and the coloured stones on the replacement points.