Conserving the Claude Room Fireplace

Renee Jolly, Biltmore’s Objects Conservator, has recently been working on inpainting losses in the gilding of the Claude Room’s marble fireplace.

Inpainting is a conservation term referring to the application of color within areas of loss in a piece—as opposed to overpainting, or applying new color on top of the original paint.

Renee is using a mixture she made that includes an acrylic medium and various mica powder pigments to match the original color.

Per conservation standards, all inpainting applied to pieces in the Biltmore House collection is easily reversible—now and in the future—without causing any damage to the original gilding.