Hear the Conservator (PP308.1–2)

This was a long and painstaking restoration with many stages: I had the stones trimmed and “CLASS OF 1879” lettering recut. I traveled to a Washington, DC, Walter Reed medical campus to take molds from an identical lion whose foreleg had not been sawn off and which still had a few smaller features Princeton's Lions had lost. I made the replacement leg and other replacement features in polymer plastic, and I attached them in place. I reassembled and reinforced the Lions using an interior system of supports and connections which I designed and fabricated. For refinishing, I carefully cleaned and prepared the zinc and replacement surfaces and applied an undercoat of primer paint formulated specifically for zinc, with red pigment mixed in. I bronzed over that red base using bronze dust which I had color-matched to the original flakes and mixed into a clear synthetic polymer varnish, and I applied a final coat just of clear varnish. In 1998 we brought the Lions back to campus and installed them right here, for Princeton's heritage and your enjoyment.