Riddles and mysteries of grandfather clocks from the palaces of Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo

The article is devoted to the conservation and restoration of the upper part of the wooden carved gilded case of the grandfather clock from the White Dining Room of the Grand Peterhof Palace, which lost its expositional appearance as a result of the distortion of its appearance by late multi-layered oil painting, as well as the reconstruction of the lost lower part of the watch case with its subsequent finishing on the basis of an analogue and documentary research. The novelty of the topic lies in the comprehension and understanding by the restorers of the uniqueness of artworks, both at the time of their creation by the authors, and in the individuality of the conditions for their utilitarian use, storage, and exhibition, which were reflected in the distortion of the exhibition view as a result of various negative impact factors. The study subject was the works of European arts and crafts of the 18th century with a wooden base and decoration in the form of combined decorative gilding. The study object was the combined gilding of the wooden case of an 18th-century grandfather clock with a musical mechanism, made in Berlin by watchmaker Konrad Erbar. The study purpose was to identify the author’s finish of the object of restoration and to determine the methods of its conservation and reconstruction in order to return the work of exposition. In the study course, historical-archival, iconographic and comparative-analytical methods were used. The article highlights the process of technology research related to the history of finishing the wooden gilded case of the 18th-century grandfather clock, created by the watchmaker Konrad Erbar; the process of removing late multi-layered layers of oil paints from the author’s finish in the form of decorative combined gilding, conservation of the ground with finishing, reconstruction of various types of gilding on gesso, applying tinting to restoration gesso and gilding are described