Marengo Rides Again.
Over the past two decades we have worked on many interesting museum jobs, from interactives, replicas and restoration work - no job is ever the same. So when the Natural History Museum contacted us about the restoration of Napoleons horse, Marengo, we were intrigued.
After a long time on display at The National Army Museum, Marengo needed some conservation work. Not only was his pose odd,his bones had resettled themselves, his head had begun to droop, and he no longer stood like a natural horse would. Our task was to work alongside Natural History Museum conservators and remove Marengo's skeleton from its original mount and reposition him.
Once the cleaning of the skeleton had been done the next challenge was to carefully remove the thick metal bars from the centre of the horses legs - they had been holding the horse together for over 30 years. This was a painstaking part of the job - great care had to be taken not to damage any of the bones.
Next we set to work building a new armature to better support Marengo and to give the skeleton a much more lifelike stance. At the same time, his skull got a good cleaning to remove some of the grime that had built up over the years.Finally Marengo was ready to ride out again.
We thoroughly enjoyed working on Marengo and feel very lucky to have played a part in the restoration of something of such historically significance.
If you would like to visit Marengo in all his glory - visit The Battle Gallery at The National Army Museum.
https://www.nam.ac.uk/
Below are some links the media coverage of Marengo and a YouTube link showing a little behind the scenes of the restoration:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/24/napoleons-horse-marengo-rides/
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/dec/26/napoleons-warhorse-marengo-gets-ready-to-ride-out-again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKYjZg94Xxc&feature=youtu.be
