Elemental analysis of orthodox copper art casting as a method of chemico-technological attribution

Purpose. The object of research is elementary composition analysis of flotages of orthodox copper-casted plastics as one of the methods to attribute the items produced during certain periods. The research source is a collection of the Museum of History and Culture of Siberia & Far East Peoples of IAET SB RAS. We studied under-clothes crosses from Ilim сity (196 units) dated by academician Vyacheslav I. Molodin as the XVIII - the beginning of the XX century and icons-«skladen'» (20 units) made during the last third of the XIX century. The investigation was carried out using the non-damaging diagnostics method of X-ray fluorescence analysis. We provide statistical analysis of our research results as well. Results. We determined the elementary composition of the 196 samples studied and discovered a group of under-clothes crosses with silver as a component of the alloy. During the analysis of under-clothes crosses' compounds we used the method of statistical analysis (the program SPSS Statistik) for the RFA results. As a result, all elements' compositions and percentage were found for all the items studied, and minimal & maximal content of particular elements was specified. The use of alloying agents gave an opportunity to identify silver items. Conclusion. Our analysis of the bronze items (icons) showed absence of gold in their content. These products were made of brass - an alloy with copper, where zinc is the main alloying agent, which colored the samples with golden shades. All samples were made by using the same recipe in the professional workshop, in one center. This group of items is dated by the end of the 19th century. Our analysis of the icons' enamel showed that all of them were created on the zinc basis. Enamel color depends on the coloring pigment used, for example, white enamel was colored by adding arsenic (As). Cooper (Cu) was the coloring pigment for green enamel. Black enamel was obtained by adding iron (Fe). Thereby, the elementary analysis of alloys and enamels let us specify and update visual information. It may be used as one of the methods to receive additional data in order to attribute the samples found and to refine the time of their production. We also state that the form of the item depended on the alloy used as certain alloys, due to their plasticity, allowed producing items with more complicated forms.