Aliénor for restoration and heritage conservation

The first gold leaf alloy with an integrated marker, verifiable and documentable for restoration and heritage conservation

Visually indistinguishable from conventional gold – but detectable via XRF

The goal of developing Aliénor was to create a gold alloy that complies with the ethical principles of conservation and restoration. To this end, a special marker is added to the alloy: indium, a heavy metal. The indium is melted directly into the alloy without altering the traditional manufacturing process.

This marker is clearly detectable by X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF). This allows objects gilded with Aliénor to be identified retrospectively and precisely documented.

Reasons for using Aliénor:

• Integrity: The physical and optical properties correspond to those of conventional gold leaf. The colour and lustre are comparable to Rosanobel 23.5 K double gold, and it can be worked just as easily.

• Detectability: Aliénor can be detected using non-invasive analytical methods (X-ray fluorescence analysis). Sampling is not necessary. The object remains undamaged.

• Durability: Due to its high carat weight, 23.5 K, Aliénor does not oxidise and is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

• Documentation: The use of Aliénor enables clear documentation and dating of restoration work on historic objects.

Aliénor (23.5 K)

One gold alloy – three product variants

Available in 3 variants:

• Gold leaf: ultra-thin gold leaves in a booklet available as loose and transfer. Suitable for water and oil gilding for both interior and exterior use.

• Shell gold: finely ground gold leaf, bound with water-soluble gum arabic. Suitable as gold paint for painting, writing (calligraphy), for decorations in book illumination or in restoration work to touch up gold leaf gilding.

• Illumination gold: finely ground gold leaf, even finer than traditional gold powder, without any added binder. It is mixed with an aqueous binder as needed and applied directly. What makes it special: once dry, the gilding can be polished to a brilliant high gloss with an agate stone, especially when gelatine is used as the binder.

The Aliénor project was launched in 2012 by the workshops of the Gilded Wood Restoration Department at the C2RMF (Centre de Recherche des Musées de France) in the Louvre, Paris. In collaboration with the French gold beater La Maison Dauvet, which closed its doors in 2019, this special alloy was developed and brought to market from 2015 onwards. Since 2019, we at Eytzinger, German gold beater based in Schwabach, have the honour of continuing this project of major importance for restoration.