Lighting an antique at home

A bronze, a marquetry panel or a piece of faience should not be lit like a white wall. A warm source around 2700 kelvin restores golds and woods; above 3500 everything turns grey.

Angle matters just as much. Raking light reveals relief, chasing and the grain of the wood; frontal light flattens them. Shift the source by forty-five degrees and the piece regains volume.

Finally, conservation. Textiles, papers and stained woods fear UV and heat: prefer a good LED at a sensible distance to a halogen spot placed close.