I was approached by the City of Portsmouth NH to restore and re-gild the Liberty Eagle from the flagpole in Prescott Park for the city’s 250th anniversary. Dated 2002 the current eagle was carved in mahogany by Ron Raeselis, the cooper in residence at Strawberry Bank. The original eagle can be seen on display in the Portsmouth Public Library.
When it arrived at my studio the bird was suffering from a variety of malaises. much of the gold had been stripped away by the ravages of time. Lichen grew in swaths over many areas. Perching birds had stripped the the high areas down to bare wood, allowing repeated infiltration of water. This, in turn, had caused cracking and slow checking to radiate downward over time.
After chemical softening and removal of the lichen, the paint had to be methodically stripped from the whole bird. This allowed access to the various structural problems in the wood itself. Cracks were filled and areas of dry rot were stabilized. Losses were filled back in and shaped to match. Once the bird was returned to a whole and stable state it was primed with two layers of oil paint, and then a coat of yellow tinted sign paint.
Then came the gold. Over 500 sheets of gold were applied with a 12 hour gold size. And this is the final surface. Gold, which is inert, will remain until removed by abrasion over time. Any clear coating put on would become the fail point, stripping the gold back off as it degraded. Sleet, snow, scratching birds. These things, as before, will ultimately be what it takes to mar the finish. As such, the city installed bird spikes on the bird when it was returned to its roost.
And here it should perch, keeping watch over the harbor for the next 20 years.
You can read more about it here.
Tuveson Studios 