This treatment of a large maiolica dish, owned by the Courtauld Gallery in London, was unstable due to failing previous repairs and many areas of loss. The goal of the treatment was to dismantle and re-bond the shards, fill the losses and retouch the fills to be sympathetic with the original surface so that it could be photographed for the client’s collection catalogue and displayed in the gallery.

The desired level of retouching was discussed with curators, and the decision was made to fully retouch the losses on the recto of the dish while leaving subtle evidence of restoration on the verso using tonal retouching.