Bushy Park is a Royal Park of London. At its heart is the Diana Fountain, which dates from the 17th Century. Commissioned by Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria it was the centrepiece of Sir Christopher Wren’s approach to Hampton Court Palace. In 2006 a £7.2 million project began to restore the Park and this culminated in the conservation and restoration of the fountain back to full working order in 2009.
Plowden & Smith were commissioned to restore the bronze statuary. This was a large and challenging project which included site work to remove and replace the statuary, and all conservation and restoration work was carried out in Plowden & Smith’s workshop.
The bronzes were heavily stained by lime scale and guano and had not been cleaned or repatinated for some years. The aim of the restoration project was to revive the original intended colour on all the sculptures, removing all staining and encrustation and to replace and match-in any broken or missing detail.
Evidence of gilding was found on all of the figures in the form of a yellow ground rather than gold leaf itself. In consultation with the client it was decided to gild Diana and to colour the remaining sculpture with a rich, dark brown patina. Lost details were replicated by taking moulds from other areas of the identical statues and the wax casts were sent to a foundry for reproduction in a bronze, equivalent in colour and make-up.
