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The photo illustrates one of the eight treasury rooms within the Green Vaults, created during the period 1723 to 1729 based on designs of August the Strong - the Silver-Gilded Room. The Elector's fundamental idea in creating the world's first museum centred on Saxony's State Treasures - in the first instance in keeping it safe and, in the second instance, in displaying it in an optimal way.
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| The historic Green Vaults within Dresden's Royal Residence, the Silver-Gilded Room
Photo: Rainer Boehme, Dresden |
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A predominant feature of Europe's historic baroque interiors is to be found in the use of mirrors. The concept of mirror glass only became possible in about 1670 in France, as a result of the development of casting and rolling processes in flat glass production.
August the Strong embraced the visual and optical enhancements of mirrors so wholeheartedly, that he commanded four of the rooms within the Green Vaults to be almost completely clad in mirrors, despite the extremely high cost involved. |
After around 280 years the mirrors are now showing signs of decay. A large number of the mirrors within the Green Vaults went missing in the confusion of the war. In order to restore the Green Vaults to the glory of 1729, the missing mirrors had to be replaced.
For a successful outcome, it was necessary to rekindle old expertise and rejuvenate former manufacturing methods, as the effect of mirrors is determined by the glass and the reflective coating used. The silver-nitrate coating used on mirrors today would in no way complement the noble, grey-tinged, stifled atmosphere of earlier mercury-pewter-amalgam-mirrors.
Professor G. Glaser, the retired State Curator for Saxony, hit the nail on the head in 2003: "If the precious treasures in the Green Vaults were placed in front of modern (i.e. silver-nitrate coated) mirrors, they would look like objects from the costume jewellery section of a department store."
My commission was to manufacture mirrors using original, historic techniques. The first step was to construct a suitable laboratory. This entailed extensive construction work, but, from 2004 onwards I was able to experiment continuously and without constraints. I was able to submit the first test pieces for assessment to the Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden in mid 2005. Inspection under an electronic microscope showed no differences to the existing mirrors dating from the beginning of the 18th century. The mirrors I created would age in exactly the same way as the mirrors manufactured in the 17th and 18th century.
Production of the mirrors for the Green Vaults could now take place using traditional processes.
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