Museum and private collection pieces returned to glory
Three decades of unbroken gilding tradition
23k, 24k, white gold, palladium, silver, copper leaf
Trusted by leading institutions across Europe and North America
Each commission begins not with tools, but with understanding — the object's history, its soul, the light it was made to hold.
We practise gilding as it was taught in the Renaissance workshops of Florence — bole preparation, water gilding, and hand burnishing with agate stones, each step unchanged in five centuries.
True gilding cannot be hurried. We allow each layer — bole, size, and leaf — to cure fully before proceeding. A single commission may demand weeks of unhurried attention before the first leaf is laid.
Gold leaf is among the thinnest materials humans have ever made — 0.1 microns. Treating it with reverence means understanding that even breath must be managed when leaf is in the air.
From intimate objects to monumental architectural commissions, each service shares the same uncompromising standard — gold applied with reverence, lasting centuries.
All ServicesOur studio in the city's old quarter faces north — chosen for its constant, shadowless light that reveals the true brilliance of burnished gold. Every surface here carries traces of two thousand years of accumulated knowledge.
Each step is irreversible. That is what makes gilding a discipline of attention — there is no undoing, only understanding.
Multiple coats of rabbit-skin glue gesso, followed by burnishing with coloured Armenian bole clay to create a breathing foundation for the gold.
Water gilding employs a brief moistening of the bole; oil gilding uses carefully timed mordant. Each method produces a distinct final lustre.
Gold leaf — 0.1 to 0.5 microns — is lifted with a gilders' tip and laid without wrinkle onto the prepared surface, guided only by breath control and a steady hand.
An agate burnisher compresses the gold into the bole, releasing the mirror brilliance that distinguishes water gilding from all other finishes.
Founded in 1989 by master gilder Édouard Merillon following his apprenticeship under Maître Dupont of the Paris Louvre conservation workshops, AURUM has spent three and a half decades restoring, creating, and preserving.
Our work spans the frames of the Musée d'Orsay's reserve collection, the gilded plasterwork of two Baltic opera houses, and the private commissions of collectors who understand that gold — properly applied — outlasts stone.
Gold does not age. The gilder's task is only to ensure the gold endures where it was placed.
— Édouard Merillon, Founder
About the AtelierA commission begins with a conversation. Describe your object, its history, and what you wish for it — we will respond within five working days with a detailed assessment.