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XIXth-Century Collection of Rarities Restored at Mining Museum

люстра
© Форпост Северо-Запад / Горный музей

Circa 200-year-old rare exhibits have been restored in St. Petersburg. As the Press Office of the Mining Museum informs, restoration works on several centuries-old showpieces were completed on Tuesday, 12 January.

Restoring the historical objects was necessary since, over time, they became distorted and lost their former appearance. The oldest of the items - the 1880's gas chandelier - had unique portrait photographs of XVI-XVII centuries' great Italian artists painted on its surface. However, the pictures taken by German photographer Gustav Schauer were almost completely hidden under several layers of old varnish. As for the black pendant chandelier, its frame in Gothic style, with forged dragon-like decorative fixtures and elements in the form of massive chains, was broken and distorted.

люстра музей горный
© Форпост Северо-Запад / Горный музей

The hardest of the tasks was to recreate the exterior of two late-19th-century vaults.

сейф горный музей
© Форпост Северо-Запад / Горный музей

"The trickiest part of working with the safe boxes was to renew damaged decorative elements and restore surface images. After all, one of the vaults still retains the emblem of its manufacturer - F.Kopic - and images of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Alexander II, the King of Poland," notes Anatoly Suslov, Vice-Rector for Property Complex of Mining University.

горный музей сейф
© Форпост Северо-Запад / Горный музей

As of now, the interior design items have been returned to the Museum.

It is good to mention that at the beginning of January the Mining Museum enriched its collection of rare exhibits with new samples brought from Pskov Oblast. The rare items shed light on how the landscapes of Russia and neighbouring countries looked like in the prehistoric period.