The sixteen essays in this volume reflect a wide range of research concerning methods for metals conservation, particularly in respect to ancient and historic objects. The variety of issues discussed includes considerations in the cleaning of ancient bronze vessels; the processes involved in bronze casting, finishing, patination, and corrosion; studies of manufacturing techniques of gold objects in ancient African and medieval European metalworking; techniques of mercury gilding in the 18th century; an investigation of patina in the classification of bronze surfaces from land and lake environments; an examination of bronze objects from the Benin Kingdom, Nigeria; the history of restoration of the Marcus Aurelius monument in Rome; the corrosion of iron in architecture; and applications of radiographic tomography to the study of metal objects.

• Preface
  Miguel Angel Corzo and John Walsh
• Foreword
  David A. Scott, Jerry Podany, and Brian B. Considine
• The Monument of Marcus Aurelius: Research and Conservation
  Maurizio Marabelli
• Restoration of the Monument of Marcus Aurelius: Facts and Comments
  Paola Fiorentino
• Bronze Objects from Lake Sites: From Patina to “Biography”
  François Schweizer
• The Royal Art of Benin: Surfaces, Past and Present
  Janet L. Schrenk
• Considerations in the Cleaning of Ancient Chinese Bronze Vessels
  Jane Bassett and W. T. Chase
• Tomography of Ancient Bronzes
  Stephen D. Bonadies
• Chinese Bronzes: Casting, Finishing, Patination, and Corrosion
  W. T. Chase
• The Corrosion of Bronze Monuments in Polluted Urban Sites: A Report on the Stability of Copper Mineral Species at Different pH Levels
  Andrew Lins and Tracy Power
• The Technology of Medieval Jewelry
  Jack Ogden
• Gold Foil, Strip, and Wire in the Iron Age of Southern Africa
  Andrew Oddy
• Conservation of Architectural Metalwork Historical Approaches to the Surface Treatment of Iron
  Frank G. Matero
• Techniques of Mercury Gilding in the Eighteenth Century
  Martin Chapman
• Production and Restoration of Nineteenth-century Zinc Sculpture in Denmark
  Knud Holm
• Real-time Survival Rates for Treatments of Archaeological Iron
  Suzanne Keene
• Conservation of Corroded Metals: A Study of Ships’ Fastenings from the Wreck of HMS Sirius (1790)
  Ian Donald MacLeod
• The Conservation of Outdoor Zinc Sculpture
  Carol A. Grissom