Joint work to restore imperial residence

Besides paper relics, some exquisite artifacts from the hall are also restored by professionals in the department.

Jin Dazhao, a 34-year-old restorer from the metal artifacts restoration group, has completed repairing a pair of lamps that was once installed in the eastern chamber of the hall.

Jin is an inheritor of bronze artifact restoration and replicating skills, another national-level intangible cultural heritage item highlighted at the museum.

The lamps were made with extremely refined skills of cloisonne enameling and glass inlaying, and appear to be in the shape of a gourd when viewed from the side.

According to Jin, like many others collected in the Qing court, the artifacts blend various skills and materials, which made a collaborative restoration effort from different groups of restorers necessary.

For example, wooden relics are repaired by the wooden artifacts restoration group, gems and jades are restored by the gem mounting group, and metal artifacts are fixed by Jin and his colleagues. Due to the desk lamps' various elements, their restoration needed the coordination of four to five groups, says Jin.

"If they had been completely made of metal, then we would not have had to consider so much. But they have enamel, glass, colorful patterns, textiles, gems, and jade. Each material is in a different state and requires various strategies to restore. That makes its restoration more challenging," says Jin.

After spending three to four months on the artifacts, he has finished their restoration in the several days that followed. These restored pieces will then be featured when the complex opens later this year.