Intangible Cultural Heritage - Bronze Restoration and Reproduction Techniques

The bronze restoration and reproduction skills of the Palace Museum are generally believed to have originated from the craftsman "Waizui Yu" during the Guangxu period. He was a Qing eunuch famous for restoring ancient bronzes in the Qing Palace. His apprentices laid the foundation for the "Beijing School" bronze restoration and reproduction skills. After the founding of New China, the fourth-generation inheritors of the "Beijing School" Li Huisheng and Zhao Zhenmao entered the Palace Museum to work. At present, there are three national intangible cultural heritage representative inheritors of the "Bronze Restoration and Reproduction Skills" project of the Palace Museum, namely Wang Youliang, Yun Xiaogang and Lv Tuanjie. This restoration team has introduced professionals from different disciplines year by year, and based on a large number of bronze restoration practices, it has ensured the healthy development of the inheritance of this skill, which has now been passed down to the seventh generation. The restoration of traditional bronzes generally includes several steps: shaping, fragment matching, welding and bonding, matching and coloring. First, the broken bronze fragments are shaped, then sorted and pieced together, and then soldered or bonded together to form a complete object. If there are any missing parts, the object must be completed according to the shape and curvature of the missing parts. Finally, the repair traces are processed according to the color.