International audience.
Gilt leathers, ancestors of our wallpapers, are luxurious decorations used all over Europe between the 16 th and the 18 th century. Despite their name, gold is not present in the composition of these artifacts.These decors are usually made by applying to the leather a silver leaf, which is covered with a yellow varnish to give it a gold-like appearance. Polychromy is then generally applied on top. As gilt leathers are generally not signed, assumptions concerning their provenance are generally made from stylistic studies. The present research focuses on the implementation of an analytical methodology by non-invasive ion beam analyses to characterize the silver leaf in order to identify possible physico-chemical markers of the decors’ provenance.
