• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.1 no.1 s.1
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• pp.60-79
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• 1992

In relation to the scientific conservation treatment of ancient gilt bronze, the gold film coated on the bronze excavated from Hwangnam Great Tomb of Old Silla Kingdom(A. D. 5C) was studied in the view of coating technology and metallurgy of bronze. The uniform and dense gold film containing $2.44\sim12.40%$ of Hg with the thickness of $5.99\sim12.97{\mu}m$ was found to be coated on the bronze objects by amalgam coating method. On silver objects, the film with the thickness of $19.96{\mu}m$ was coated also continously and uniformly with gold by the same method. The bronze objects was fabricated by forging technique and contained almost $4.7\sim11.5%$ of Pb. Its microstructure was $\alpha-phase$ solid solution including Pb segregation in the matrix. The amount of $0.4\sim2.0%$ Zn was added in the bronze for the purpose of easy fabricating of Cu alloy. Based on the data studied, the gold film on bronze sample was reproduced by amalgam coating method and compared with the ancient gold film.

• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.9
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• pp.105-116
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• 2008

The Conservation Science Team of National Museum of Korea has established the data base of lead isotope ratio as the scientific research of bronze patina, which was acquired from conservtion process of metal objects, and based on this result, it intends to conduct the research related to the origin of raw material for the bronze objects. As the equipment for analysis of lead isotope ratio of the bronze patina, the thermal ionization mass spectrometer(TIMS) was used. As a part of this study, in 2nd year 2008, lead isotope ratios of total 18 samples inclding 2 samples of Round-type gold-bronze belong to Baekje period, the 2 items of head of bronze arrow belong to Nangnang(Lelang) and 10 items of the flower-shaped bronze dishes from the Unified Silla period, the 4 items of the bronze patina from the objects(era of 1 item not identified) of Wonpungtongbo(year 1078-North Sung) were analyzed.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 2009

The purpose of metal artifacts conservation is recovering the original state of objects and preventing it from further corrosion. Four different consolidants are selected that are widely used for bronze objects conservation. This study found out the characteristics of thin film by various experiments and analysis for the bronze plates coated using each solutions. After a series of analysis, resin B and V showed good coating properties. However, the evaluation point suited to this purpose are adhesive strength, stability against yellowing and corrosion resistance. Therefore, resin B of four different consolidants could expect to get the most suitable consolidation effect for consolidation purpose.

• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.8
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• pp.81-95
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• 2007

The Conservation Science Team of National Museum of Korea has established the data base of lead isotope ratio as the scientific research of bronze patina, which was acquired from conservation process of metal objects, and based on this result, it intends to conduct the research related to the production places of raw material for the bronze objects. As the equipment for analysis of lead isotope ratio of the bronze patina, the thermal ionization mass spectrometer (TIMS) was used. As part of the research, in 2007, the 11 samples of the bronze Patina from the objects, believed to belong to of Nangnang(Lelang), the 6 items of bronze patina from the flower-shaped bronze dishes, belong to Unified Silla period and 4 items from the Goryeo bronze bell were acquired and analyzed the lead isotope ratio. Based on the data of the lead isotope ratio from the galena of Korea, China and Japan, the provenance raw materials were estimated through the comparison of their lead isotope ratios. In the future, the Conservation Science Team of the National Museum of Korea will collect as much bronze patina as possible from the process of conservation treatment of metal objects, and analyze them in order to conduct the study of provenance with the type, period and the region of the objects.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.296-305
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• 2020

Konbaung Dynasty was the last unified dynasty that ruled Myanmar from 18^th to 19^th century. During this time Buddhist art flourished in Myanmar due to the interest of the rulers toward their traditional culture. Metal decorative artifacts in the 18^th century are classified into structures and Buddha statues. They are further subdivided into gilt-bronze and bronze objects, depending on their material component. Three-dimensional gilt-bronze decorative artifacts were cast with a brass alloy of Cu-Zn-Sn-Pb and their surfaces were gilded with extremely thin gold leaves (less than 1 ㎛ in thickness). The gilded layer approximately comprised 10 wt% silver in addition to the main element, gold. The lack of Hg in the gilded layer, indicated that the amalgam gilding technique was not applied. The analysis results indicated that the lacquered gilding technique was applied to the objects. Bronze decorative artifacts without gilding were cast with materials containing Cu-Sn-Pb. The bronze pavilions and bronze Buddha staues were crafted using the same alloy of high-tin bronze, which approximately contained 20 wt% Sn. No heat treatment was applied to reduce the brittleness of the objects after they were cast with a large amount of Sn. The most significant difference between the gilt-bronze and bronze decorative artifacts lie in their elemental compositions. The gilt-bronze decorative artifacts with their gilded surface were manufactured using brass containing zinc, while the unplated bronze decorative artifacts were composed of bronze containing tin. Artifacts of the same type and size are classified differently depending on the materials utilized in the surface treatment such as gilding.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.101-108
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• 2016

Lead isotope ratio of bronze artifacts excavated from Dongchon Site in Sunchang have determined by TIMS. As results of comparison lead isotope ratio of bronze objects with the provenance data of galenas of Korea, China, and Japan, the provenance of three material of bronze objects were turned out to originate from the southern and northern part of China. On the other hands, data were plotted either in zone 3 of the South Korean galena map. The results of these scientific analysis of bronze objects can be used as basic data in comparison researches on manufacturing technology, provenance of bronze objects to be found in the future.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.453-457
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• 2020

Tomb No. 1 (Donghachong) of the Buyeo Neungsan-ri Tomb complex (listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site), is a royal tomb of the Baekje Sabi Period. One wooden coffin unearthed there is an important relic of the funerary culture of the Baekje. This study examines the production techniques of gilt-bronze objects attached to the wooden coffin excavated from Donghachong. The base metal of the gilt-bronze object is pure copper, with single α phase crystals in a heterogeneous form containing annealing twins; Au and Hg are detected in the gilt layer. We suggest that the surface of the forging copperplate is gilded using a mercury amalgam technique; it is thought that the annealing twins of the base material formed during the heat treatment process for the sheet metal. The gilt layer is three to five times thicker for the gilt-bronze objects found near the foot of the coffin than those near the head. We estimate the plating process is carried out at least three times because three layers are identified on the plate near the head. Therefore, it is likely that the materials and methods used to construct the gilt-bronze objects found in different parts of the coffin are the same, but the number of platings is different. This research confirms the metal crafting techniques used in Baekje by the examination of production techniques of these gilt-bronze objects. Further, our paper presents an important example of restoration and reconstruction for a museum exhibition, through effective use of scientific analysis and investigation.

• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 1999

More than 200 objects selected for the newly-opened Kimhae National Museum were treated for conservation. The objects which represent ancient Kaya culture, were mainly composed of metallic such as gilt bronze, silver, copper alloy and iron. The corrosion products on gilt bronze and copper alloy objects were preserved or removed according to their stability. Minimum treatment was done for preserving the original state of the objects. For silver objects and iron objects with silver-plate decorations, silver surfaces were revealed after treatment of corrosion products and treatments to prevent corrosion of silver and iron were done emphatically. For iron objects, which were stabilized, the original shape of objects was restored and acrylic coating was applied to prevent further corrosion. For the objects which were being corroded, 2-step de-chloride treatments were undertaken. The first step was immersing the objects in a solution of 0.3M sodium hydroxide and the second was the pressure de-chloride treatment using borax-distilled water. The main purpose of those treatments was to get rid of the causes of corrosion. Besides, conservation treatments for potteries, making of special mounting board for exhibition and amendment of various modeling were done too.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.197-207
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• 2013

In the midst of increasing importance of modern cultural assets, especially, most modern bronze objects are exposed to outdoor environment, and as the objects are corroded steadily due to environmental factors the objects lost their original colors on the surface. We performed artificial patinas on the bronze sample per each color of red, black and green and checked cuprite and tenorite which are detected from actual bronze corrosion by analyzing the components. In addition, we applied the existing corrosion removal methods of grinder and sand blaster on a similar sample of bronze mirror per injection pressure and performed comparative analysis on the result with Nd:YAG laser. As a result of Nd:YAG laser cleaning artificial patina from bronze samples, all of the patinas were removed by laser wavelength 1064 nm better than 532 nm. Upon applying to a similar sample of bronze mirror, the artificial patina could be selectively removed from substrates without surface damage when Nd:YAG laser was conducted other than the existing removal method, and so it showed the possibility of application.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.4-23
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• 2015

Buried bronze objects are naturally corroded by their surrounding environment, which results in producing corrosion layers containing a number of constituents. Corrosion layers in stable condition protect the objects from the environment and also could provide information in terms of the objects. Characteristic and mechanism of the corrosion layers is likely to be valuable information for the conservation treatment. Many research have been conducted to figure out the formation and characteristic of the corrosion layers, but the more research should be conducted with various approach and analytical methods. Raman spectroscopy is one of the analytical methods to identify microcrystal as a compound while other analytical methods are used to identify element. Therefore, the aim of this research is to identify the characteristic of corrosion layers of both excavated bronze objects through the raman spectroscopy. Two analytical methods, which are raman spectroscopy and SEM~EDS, were used to analyse four excavated bronze bowls. In the case of bronze bowls, malachite was found from the exterior corrosion layer and albite, quartz, and microcline, which are minerals, were also found. Cuprite was detected from the interior corrosion layers illustrating slightly different spectrum due to the combined compound. Lead segregation shows the form of PbO, $PbSO_4$ and $PbCO_3$ or it replaced as cuprite. In this study, small number of samples were analysed. This research is likely to be useful information to figure out not only the characteristic of the corrosion layers but also the authenticity of the artifacts if relevant research will be conducted. Therefore, further comprehensive researches on the various archaeological objects and corrosion environment condition are required in the future.