Pleco as a cleaning tool to remove the tarnishing of gilt silver threads, sequins and foils adorning the coronation mantle of Charles X

November 2, 2023

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This news follows on from the previous one, in which Pleco was used to study the tarnishing of silver-based decors of the coronation mantle of Charles X (King of France between 1824 and 1830). The cleaning is currently carried out in two stages: firstly, the reduction of Ag2S to Ag and then the dissolution of the reduced Ag to Ag+ to recover the golden appearance using Pleco and an electrical supply. The electrolytic cleaning parameters are those defined during the study of silver tarnishing. In the slide show, the cleaned areas regained their gold appearance compared with the tarnished areas.