Diagnosing heritage metals: a skill available to all?

Château de Germolles, Mellecey, France

May 06, 2023

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In France, within the Cultural Season 2022-23 devoted to the Château de Germolles, more specifically in the section The Rich Hours of Germolles, the ENDLESS Metal coordinator, Christian Degrigny, delivered a talk on Science and Heritage, to evoke the work of restoration or scientific research carried out on buildings, decorations or objects of medieval heritage.

Abstract of the talk:

Metals were used very early on by mankind to make all kinds of artefacts: these human creations, whether very old or much more recent, constitute heritage metals.

The first requirement in the presence of heritage metals is to know the material, to identify it, to understand its properties and to observe the alterations that affect it in its environment.

The second step consists of evaluating the "value" that our societies can attribute to these objects and which makes them representative of a culture and a particular use: their aesthetic or artistic quality, the specificity of their context, their archaeological or historical interest, their scientific or technical nature are then taken into account. For there is nothing in common between a gold coin, a steel beam, a copper shrine and a pewter cup...

For conservation-restoration professionals, there are very expensive analytical tools that can meet all these needs. But more qualitative approaches such as those developed in the ENDLESS Metal Cost Innovative Grant project provide the preliminary diagnosis needed to make decisions about the conservation of objects. The possibilities of the MiCorr application in the identification of the metal object family will be demonstrated.

Cultural Season 2022-23 flyer.