This practical guide provides artists, conservators, curators, and other heritage professionals with tools for understanding, evaluating, and approaching the care and treatment of modern metals. The proliferation of new metals—such as stainless steels, aluminum alloys, and metallic coatings—in modern and contemporary art and architecture has made the need for professionals who can address their conservation more critical than ever. This volume seeks to bridge the gap between the vast technical literature on metals and the pressing needs of conservators, curators, and other heritage professionals without a metallurgy background. It offers practical information in a simple and direct way, enabling curators, conservators, and artists alike to understand and evaluate the objects under their care. This invaluable reference reframes information formerly found only in specialized technical and industrial publications for the context of cultural heritage conservation. As the first book to address the properties, testing, and maintenance issues of the hundreds of metals and alloys available since the beginning of the twentieth century, it is destined to become an essential resource for conservators, artists, fabricators, curators, collectors, and anyone working with modern metals.

The sixteen essays in this volume reflect a wide range of research concerning methods for metals conservation, particularly in respect to ancient and historic objects. The variety of issues discussed includes considerations in the cleaning of ancient bronze vessels; the processes involved in bronze casting, finishing, patination, and corrosion; studies of manufacturing techniques of gold objects in ancient African and medieval European metalworking; techniques of mercury gilding in the 18th century; an investigation of patina in the classification of bronze surfaces from land and lake environments; an examination of bronze objects from the Benin Kingdom, Nigeria; the history of restoration of the Marcus Aurelius monument in Rome; the corrosion of iron in architecture; and applications of radiographic tomography to the study of metal objects.

David A. Scott provides a detailed introduction to the structure and morphology of ancient and historic metallic materials. Much of the scientific research on this important topic has been inaccessible, scattered throughout the international literature, or unpublished; this volume, although not exhaustive in its coverage, fills an important need by assembling much of this information in a single source. Jointly published by the GCI and the J. Paul Getty Museum, the book deals with many practical matters relating to the mounting, preparation, etching, polishing, and microscopy of metallic samples and includes an account of the way in which phase diagrams can be used to assist in structural interpretation. The text is supplemented by an extensive number of microstructural studies carried out in the laboratory on ancient and historic metals. The student beginning the study of metallic materials and the conservation scientist who wishes to carry out structural studies of metallic objects of art will find this publication quite useful.

This is a review of 190 years of literature on copper and its alloys. It integrates information on pigments, corrosion and minerals, and discusses environmental conditions, conservation methods, ancient and historical technologies.

"Historic overview of artwork made of painted copper, bronze, tin, steel, and aluminum, with detailed informatin about aluminum in design and art and modern and contemporary achievements and trends. with specific information about artists in the exhibition ""Paint on Metal""."