We begin the week by addressing the lower sections of the main roofs. The roof timbers have significantly warped over the years due to storage in damp conditions, causing large gaps in the joints. After filling these with soft wood (balsa), we re-sculpt the tiles using wood putty. Following meticulous sanding, we stain the grafted sections to ensure these additions blend seamlessly with the whole.
We are placing the “Lotus” lanterns at the corners of the first-floor roofs.
Based on the complete trusses, we create plasticine molds for the ends and cast these parts in resin. We then adjust, position, and stain them.
On Wednesday, July 2, we receive a visit from Chantal Kozyreff, the former curator of the Far East section of the Royal Museums of Art and History, and author of a book on the Chinese Palace. She was the one who had preserved the pieces of the model.
She shares a hypothesis with us concerning the model. According to this, Leopold II would have seen a Tushanwan model presented at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, which would have given him the idea to commission Alexandre Marcel to construct the Chinese Palace. It could therefore be the model we are currently restoring. This hypothesis raises several questions:
If this model was at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, why would it have been presented later and in Brussels to Leopold II (in 1904 according to a note in a site manager’s notebook)?
If the model predated the project, why would Alexandre Marcel have changed the medallions on the initial plans of the Chinese Palace, which are dated October 8, 1901, and preserved in the royal palace archives? The same applies to the facade inscriptions, the roof overhangs…
We show Chantal Kozyreff a photo of a model from a book about the Tushanwan Museum. Thomas Cooman had drawn our attention to this photo because it shared the same characteristics as the Chinese Palace. If Leopold II had seen a model that convinced him to commission the Chinese Palace, it would more likely have been this one. These remain hypotheses.
Madame Kozyreff also tells us about the circumstances of the model pieces’ discovery in the hayloft of the Chinese Palace annex. At the time, she was unaware of the photo from Alexandre Marcel’s archives. It was only much later, while preparing her book, that she discovered this photo. Nor was she aware, before Diane Hennebert showed her, of the existence of the Shanghai Notebook. When she made this discovery in the Chinese Palace annex, she suspected it was the Chinese Palace model due to the shape of the carved wood, which reminded her of roofs.
We mold in plasticine the missing wooden slats and brackets that we will place under the roofs of the ground-floor and first-floor side sections. We stain and position them.
We receive from Gwenaëlle de Spa the prints of the fan-shaped medallions to be inserted into the balconies of the first-floor side sections, as well as the two door tops for the ground-floor side doors.
After receiving confirmation of the spelling of the texts for the last facade panel from Nicolas Godelet, Gwenaëlle de Spa also prints them for us.
