Letter from Plenderleith to Schaeffer answering his various requests and his technical report on the sectionHarold James Plenderleith

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… in order to make the repair as strong as possible.

The final stage consisted in cleaning and assembling such of the gold ornament as had become detached. Working from the X-ray photographs, the pieces of gold were replaced in the positions they had occupied originally using the same adhesive either alone or with some ivory black where it was necessary to simulate a decayed niello foundation,and this was distinguishable from genuine niello by its mattness and its more intense blackness. Any of the repair work, except the soldering, can be softened and removed by acetone should this ever be desired.

Having regard to the frailty and complexity of the design, the gold ornament has survived remarkably well. The X-rays show and that some of the inlays were lost before corrosion took place;/some were, no doubt, lost in the course of disintegration in the ground.