starting work on a 13th century stained glass window · editorial: 1 august adverts: 14 august ......

ICON NEWS • NOVEMBER 2005 • 1

THE MAGAZINE OF THE INSTITUTE OF CONSERVATION • JULY 2007 • ISSUE 11

Starting work on a 13th century stained glass window

Also in this issue

Two new conservation studios

The Faddan More Psalter – a year on

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ICON NEWS • JULY 2007 • 1

inside JULY 2007Issue 11

2NEWSThe Cutty Sark; the BritishLibrary Conservation Centre

8PROFESSIONAL MATTERSSocial Bookmarking; the 2007Plowden Medal; theConservation Awards shortlists

14INSTITUTE BRIEFINGLinks with Malta, China andECCO; Library News

19 PEOPLE

21WELLCOME HOMEThe Wellcome Collection andLibrary and a new conservationstudio unveiled

25THE FADDAN MOREPSALTERA report on how conservationwork has progressed with thisunique find over the past year

30GROUP NEWSand Graduate Voice

35REVIEWSConferences on retouching;iron gall inks; conservationscience and theatre scenery

42IN PRACTICEA cathedral window; black-dyed harakeke

48LISTINGS

52INTERVENTION

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Institute of Conservation3rd floorDownstream Building1 London BridgeLondon SE1 9BG, UK

T +44(0)20 7785 3805F +44(0)20 7785 3806

[email protected]@icon.org.ukwww.icon.org.uk

Chief ExecutiveAlastair [email protected]

Conservation RegisterT +44(0)20 7785 [email protected]

ISSN 1749-8988

Icon NewsEditorLynette [email protected]

Listings editorMike [email protected]

Production designerMalcolm [email protected]

PrintersL&S Printing Company Limitedwww.ls-printing.com

Design Rufus [email protected]

AdvertisingDP MediaT 0117 904 1283F 0117 904 [email protected]

Cover picture:Detail of a window, CHnIX panel2b, in the Chapter HouseVestibule at York Minster beforeconservation work begins. Image© The Dean and Chapter of YorkMinster.

Disclaimer:Whilst every effort is made toensure accuracy, the editors andIcon Board of Trustees can acceptno responsibility for the contentexpressed inIcon News; it is solely that ofindividual contributors

Deadlines: For September 2007 issue

Editorial: 1 August

Adverts: 14 August

It has been a pleasure and a privilege to visit not onebut two new conservation studios in recent weeks,providing an interesting contrast in scale and style butcomparable in enthusiasm for their new facilities andplans for the future. First was the British Library’sConservation Centre with its large staff complementand important education and training initiatives. Thesecond was the reopened Wellcome Collection andLibrary, where a small team looks forward to gettingthe most out of the astonishingly rich Wellcomeholdings for the benefit of the collections and theirusers. You can read about both of them in this issueand Listings (p.49) carries information about tours ofthe BL Centre specially reserved for Icon members.

Elsewhere, we learn about the issues facingconservators in a range of different areas: dealing withthe Faddan More Psalter since its amazing find lastyear in an Irish peat bog, how to approach an earlystained glass window in York Minster and theproblems of conserving New Zealand Flax. And lotsmore besides.

Lynette Gill, Editor

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around & about

Cutty SarkWhen fire swept through the historic tea clipper, CuttySark, images beamed around the world showed an icon ofworld maritime heritage seemingly lost for ever. But all isnot lost, as more than half the ship’s fabric was alreadysafely stored for conservation work. George Monger,Conservation Consultant to the Cutty Sark Trust, puts us inthe picture:

Conservators may be interested in the current situation atthe Cutty Sark following the fire on 21 May 2007. There hasbeen a great deal of discussion in the press and media asto whether the ship will be ‘re-built’, whether the ‘restored’ship would be a replica and how much of the ship hasbeen destroyed.

There are too many issues here to go into detail in a shortnote; however, the facts are: all of the deck housing,furniture, cabin fittings, collections, masts, figureheads and50% of the hull timbers had been removed in preparationfor, and as part of the conservation work.

The major loss has been the decks. However, the deck inthe hold area was not original and was due to be removedand replaced with a decking which will allow visitors to beable to see the ship’s construction in the bilges. The ‘tweendeck was a replacement and the main deck – although

having some original timbers – was a composite structurewhich was going to be re-laid/replaced.

The remaining hull planks were charred by the fire but arethick, dense wood so suffered little loss.

The big question is how much of the iron work has beendamaged. It is evident that some of the deck stringers, thesheer strake and hatchway covings have buckled but the

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iron frames have yet to be properly surveyed andmeasured but appear to have suffered little damage.

The result of the fire is that the project has been put backseveral months, with much of the work in planning anddesigning the roofing over the dry dock and the cradlingand support system having to be started again.

All of this inevitably has increased the cost of the wholeproject by approximately £5m so that the Trust now needsto raise around £10m which the Cutty Sark Trust and CuttySark Enterprises are working hard to raise.

Meanwhile the conservation project continues and thewhole project team are determined that this fire will onlybe a set-back and Cutty Sark will be properly conserved,interpreted and displayed in all her glory.

Book AwardIn our May issue Icon News carried a warm review of StoneConservation: Principles and Practice, edited by AlisonHenry and published by Donhead Publishing. Confirmingthat our reviewers’ judgements are spot on comes thenews that the book has won The Sir Robert McAlpineInternational Book Award for Construction 2007. The awardrecognises exceptional writing on the construction andrestoration of buildings, building design and buildingmethod and the use of new materials and technologiesacross the construction industry. The award is supported byRIBA and the judges come mainly from the world ofarchitecture; the jury chair commented ‘…there is apassionate dedication to the topic which, although it is a

collection of pieces by different authors, shines outthrough proper writing’. As Donhead’s managing editorand publisher rightly said on accepting the award ‘…for abook on conservation to be recognised in this way is amajor achievement for this highly specialist field’.

In fashion with TyvekEvery conservator knows that Tyvek will protect you fromdirt, dust, UV rays, chemical spills etc.etc. but many of youprobably hadn’t thought of its fashion potential. Well nowthat Prada’s Miu Miu range has brought out a jacket madeof it, there’s no excuse not to get cutting, though – wehasten to add – not at your employer’s expense of course.For those of you a bit shaky on your dress-making skills, werecommend Lara Flecker’s excellent book recentlypublished by Butterworth-Heinemann: A Practical Guide toCostume Mounting. Lara trained as a historical costumemaker and is the textile display specialist at London’sVictoria and Albert Museum.

UCL offerUniversity College London’s Centre for SustainableHeritage is offering free copies of its 2007 publicationEngineering Historic Futures Stakeholders Disseminationand Scientific Research Report, edited by May Cassar andChris Hawkings. To obtain a copy, email your postaladdress to Skye Dillon at [email protected] see page 19 for news of the important role which MayCassar is taking up in science and heritage research.

The Cutty Sark prior to the conservation project.

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more around & about

Collections Link newsMore practical advice and help has recently becomeavailable from Collections Link. First, updated versions oftwo publications in the Standards in Museum Care ofCollections series can now be had from their website. Theseries was originally published by the Museums andGalleries Commission (MGC), now the Museums, Librariesand Archives Council (MLA). Alongside the six otherresources in the series, the updated versions are those onGeological Collections, edited by Mick Stanley in 2004,and Musical Instruments, edited by Patricia Andrew in2005.

Both standards have been revised to reflect changes incurrent best practice, legislation and health and safetyregulations, and are equally applicable to small localcollections or national museums with a huge variety andnumber of objects. They include advice on a wide range ofcuratorial tasks from conservation, disaster planning andenvironmental control to access, loans and research, andinclude sections linking to sources of further advice andinformation.

Peter Winsor, Collections Link Project Director and Iconmember, commented: ‘The Standards in the Museum Careof Collections series is still widely regarded as the bestsource of information on the conservation and care ofdifferent types of collection. We are delighted to be ableto make these revisions available via Collections Link, andit is hoped that revisions of other publications in the serieswill follow.’

The second resource which has become available is CAT.This is the Collections Assessment Tool - a downloadabledatabase developed by the Scottish Museums Council(SMC), designed to enable heritage organisations torecord information about the condition of objects in theircollections and prioritise conservation work or improvedcollection care. SMC’s user guidance notes and acomprehensive set of supporting fact sheets are alsoavailable to download alongside the database.

The CAT was designed to be used by people with a widevariety of experience and skills, and who work with alltypes of collections, from local community museums toprofessional conservation teams in a large service. Oncedownloaded, users are able to adapt the database toensure that it suits the specific needs of their ownorganisation and collections. Gill Findlay, CollectionsDevelopment Manager at SMC, commented that‘museums in Scotland have already found the CAT to bean extremely effective and easy to use resource whichhelps them to achieve best practice in the care of theircollections. We are delighted to be working with

Collections Link to make it available to the wider heritagecommunity.’

CAT and the revised standards join a range of newresources on the website. Also recently added is a sectionon Emergency Planning highlighting resources fromoutside the cultural sector, and the London’s ScreenArchives guide to caring for moving image collections. Todownload any of these or other Collections Link resourcesfor free, visit www.collectionslink.org.uk.

Mobydoc joins MDA PartnersScheme French software company Mobydoc – supplier of theMicromusée collections management system – hasbecome the latest member of the MDA Partners Scheme.The Scheme assists museum practitioners in achieving bestpractice by validating the products of member companiesfor compliance with SPECTRUM, the industry standard forcollections management.

Mobydoc products are used in museums, galleries andarchives across Europe, Canada and North Africa,including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris), theNational Museum of Wales and the Sedgwick Museum ofEarth Science (Cambridge). Their products are developedin consultation with documentation specialists, archivistsand conservators, and are designed to allow users toconfigure systems to the particular needs of their owninstitutions. As the ninth member of the scheme, Mobydocjoins an increasing number of companies working tovalidate their products for compliance with SPECTRUMand their involvement increases the potential ofSPECTRUM in the francophone world. For furtherinformation visit www.mobydoc.fr

The BL Conservation CentreThe new British Library Centre for Conservation opened itsdoors to the public in May to reveal a world class facilityfor all aspects of book conservation and state of the arttechnical facilities for the nation’s Sound Archive.

At around eighty staff, the BL’s conservation operationmust be one of the largest in the world. But this is the firsttime in the Library’s history that all the staff and facilitieshave been brought together. Previously they weredispersed across several London sites and separatelydedicated to the care of particular types of collections. Thepurpose-built accommodation provides a greatly improvedworking environment for staff, as well as conditions tailoredto the requirements of the objects and their care.



The new, three-storey building is approached at its topfloor level via a terrace leading from the existing Librarybuilding. The visitor first enters the Foyle Visitor Centre,which is a display area providing an initial, interactive intro-duction to both paper and sound conservation. Adjacent isthe 60-seat capacity Foyle Learning Centre. Also at thislevel are the four main conservation studios. As one wouldexpect, meticulous attention has been paid to providingtight environmental and security conditions and animportant design feature is the saw-tooth roof which givesindirect, unshadowed north light for the conservation work.

There are four studios altogether. But the main one isdesigned to take nearly forty people: six teams, each

comprising a leader and five or six conservators, along withextra benches for interns and other trainees. Theconservation benches have been designed to the team’sown specifications and a lot of the equipment, such assuction and humidification tables, is mobile. The fourthstudio can act as a team base but also serves as a flexiblespace to be used for project work, workshops,demonstrations and training events.

Running alongside the main studio is a shared ancillaryarea for specialised activities, such as the dedicated wetarea for washing and other aqueous treatments. Thisincludes the treatment of iron gall ink with calcium phytatewhich is currently being piloted at the BL. Other activitiesinvolving noise and dirt (such as sharpening and leatherparing) or solvents are housed in separate areas and thereis a separate space for leaf-casting, a workshop and afacility for archival box-making using a precision cuttingmachine and computer aided design software. Many ofthese are on the next floor down, where there is also aquiet room, an examination room, controlled stores and aloans marshalling area. On the lower floor adjacent to theloading bay is the new quarantine room.

View of the entrance to the Centre across the terrace

The main Conservation Studio In the Conservation Studio

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The lowest floor houses the technical services for theLibrary’s Sound Archive with its three and a half millionrecordings. There are ten transfer studios, one recordingstudio, a small workshop and a laboratory. In these facilitiessix permanent staff, supplemented by others brought in forspecific projects, undertake the work of high-quality soundrecording, digitisation and re-mastering. Exacting audioengineering standards have been required to meet theacoustically sensitive needs. The recording studios areisolated, floating concrete shells, so that even thevibrations of the London Underground trains runningbeneath the building are imperceptible, although you areaware of them in the – uninsulated – corridors.

As a centre of excellence, the BL is conscious of its role inpreserving not just the material collections but also thetechniques of preservation. Virtually all staff are expectedto have a teaching role as an integral part of their jobs andthe team is eager to develop its role in education andtraining at every level.

From October this year members of the public will be ableto join a regular tour behind the scenes or sign up for aseminar/workshop to learn more about the science ofconservation. A foretaste was provided on Saturday June23 with a Family History Archive Day. Five Heritage Lotteryfunded one-year internships, the first commencing lastNovember, provide opportunities for applicants whoalready have book conservation qualifications and thoughtis also being given to other in-house trainingopportunities, including NVQ training. The British Libraryand Camberwell College of Arts are working together toprovide a Foundation degree in book conservation.Modern Foundation degrees are based on the identified

needs of industry and partner the HE course work withindustry placements to gain valuable practical experienceas part of the learning process. Seven sound archivinginternships, offering up to five months’ training, are alsoavailable for each of the next three years, starting thisautumn.

For those who can’t yet make it in person to the BL, a newmicrosite has been produced, which introduces the FoyleVisitor Centre and its permanent exhibition. The micrositealso informs visitors of other events that are taking place inthe Centre and gives additional information onconservation and sound archiving at the Library andopportunities for professional training.

Visitors to the site can watch videos of the Library’sConservators carrying out treatments on collection items.Information on caring for your treasures is also available, aswell as links to other websites that offer more guidance.You will find the microsite at www.bl.uk/conservation for allof the above and more.

The new Centre will surely deliver wonderful standards ofcare for the Library’s priceless collections, for thedevelopment of the next generation of carers and for theengagement of the public.

The adjacent wet area

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but visible to anyone on the internet1, usually arranged byuser-defined keyword classification (known as ‘tagging’)and/or given a ranking based on user popularity2. The useof social bookmarking sites is generally defined by theusers themselves, as the applications merely provide aframework. All content is provided by individuals who usethese services.

What are the uses?Access and add to your bookmarks from anywhere

At a very basic level social bookmarking sites are usedsimply as a method of keeping track of useful resources –providing easy access to favourite websites and providinga simple way of saving links to newly found pages fromhome, work or any computer with an internet connectionand a Web browser. By adding self-defined keyword ‘tags’to resources that most accurately represent a website’scontent 3, a user can then retrieve relevant links in thefuture by clicking on those tags. By using the same tag forwebsites covering similar topics, users can retrieve all theirrelevant bookmarks at the click of a mouse.

This basic use of social bookmarking is no doubt veryhelpful, but there are further benefits to organising yourfavourite links with such a tool. Many of the most popularbookmarking sites such as del.icio.us 4, Ma.gnolia 5 andFurl 6 will display the number of other people who havealso bookmarked a page you are interested in. It is verysimple to follow the links through to the lists of bookmarksfor other individuals who are interested in similar topics. Itis then possible to explore the sites that like-mindedpeople use, and to see whether they use different tags,thus opening up new routes to explore. Alternatively, it ispossible to search these sites by keyword or tag in order tofind relevant links. Additionally, most social bookmarkingnetworks allow contributors to annotate each of theirbookmarks which can help clarify the contents (andpossible usefulness) of a website should the title aloneprove to be ambiguous.

Ranking of resources by popular consent

Social bookmarking sites such as Digg 7 andStumbleUpon 8 work on the same principles as the moretraditional bookmarking services mentioned above –primarily offering users the chance to save links toresources that they like or find useful. However, these sitesmake greater use of commenting facilities and introducethe capability for users to rate sites, thus adding a furtherdimension to the social bookmarking genre - namelymeasures of popularity.

Digg users who bookmark a site in their personal accountwill find that site added to Digg’s ‘upcoming stories’ page.This page allows other users to see what websites haverecently been bookmarked by other people and, should

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professional mattersCONSERVATION REGISTER

Now regularly exceeding over 2,000 searches each month,the Conservation Register has proved itself a valuableresource for those looking to promote their business. Withdemand continuing to increase, accredited conservatorsare encouraged to apply to the Register for inclusion. Thestreamlined application form is available in Word and pdfformat in the ‘Members’ section ofwww.conservationregister.com; applications can normallybe processed within two months.

Options are available for those who do not wish theirdetails to be included in general searches made bymembers of the public. Entries can be made accessiblejust as part of the listings under business name andthrough the ‘person search’ (by which enquirers type in thesurname of the person they are looking for). This may besuitable for institutions which provide services to otherheritage organisations but not to members of the public,or for private practices with an established client basewhich are not looking to promote themselves to newclients but still wish their details to be publicly availablewhen looked up by name.

The Conservation Register Advisory Board continues tomeet regularly to guide the development and operation ofthe Register. At its most recent meeting the Board agreedthat the Register search terms be reviewed over the forth-coming year and that a survey of users be carried out inthe autumn.

For further information please contact Caroline Saye,[email protected], tel 020 7784 3804.

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

Adding value to your favourite pages on the WebHave you ever found an excellent website whilst browsingthe internet at home, and then used the bookmarkingfacility of your Web browser to keep a note of it for futurereference? Lots of people do. This is a fairly standard wayof organising a list of useful resources ready for easyaccess. However, when you’re at work and in need of thatresource but just can’t remember the Web address, thisbookmark is of no help whatsoever.

What if you could not only access your bookmarks fromany computer with an internet connection, but also usethem to help find other relevant material on the Web? Itsounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Well, thephenomena known as social bookmarking can help you toachieve this, and much more too.

What is social bookmarking?Social bookmarking is a fairly loose term that is often usedto describe lists of Web addresses compiled by individuals



they like what they find, they are invited to ‘Digg it’ (i.e.bookmark it themselves).If a site receives a certain numberof ‘Diggs’ it gets promoted, initially to the main page ofthe category it falls under, and then to Digg’s front pageshould its popularity soar. The measure of popularity canbe interpreted as a sign of quality, but it should beremembered that anyone with a Digg account can rate thepopularity of a website in this way, so quality is by nomeans assured.

StumbleUpon uses the rating system in a much more user-focused way. Users of this service choose topics that theyare interested in when they sign up. Subsequently,whenever the user bookmarks a page they are asked togive it a plus or minus rating. The bookmark is then filteredinto the relevant topic area, allowing people with similarinterests to explore recently bookmarked sites in theirfield. As with Digg, users can then add these sources totheir own bookmarks and rate them according to theiropinion. Again, the more positive ratings that are given,the greater the perceived quality. StumbleUpon calls this‘collaborative opinion’, but as it uses the same principle asDigg’s popularity measures it should be treated with similarcaution in terms of quality evaluation.

Organisation of academic articles and resources online

There are also a number of social bookmarking sitesfocusing on niche groups. A key example is in the area ofacademic research, where sites such as Citeulike 9 andConnotea 10 have developed specifically to cater forresearchers, and offer a time-saving alternative tomanaging citations.2 With both these sites academics andresearchers can save links to journal articles and classifythem using personalised tags, much in the same way asthe services mentioned above. However, they have alsobeen engineered with the needs of citation managementin mind. For example, Connotea will retrieve informationfrom bookmarked websites to allow it to easily organisethe data into an acceptable form of citation. Both Citeulikeand Connotea also offer the option of exportingreferences from their online form to desktop referencemanagement applications such as Endnote (and viceversa).

So, as well as offering the traditional benefits of socialbookmarking (access to favourite resources from anyinternet connected computer, discovery of new resourcesthrough shared interest tagging, etc.) the sites with anacademic focus also provide user-targeted extras designedto benefit their niche audience and encourage greateradoption of the technology.

The pros and cons of social bookmarkingThe benefits

For the average user social bookmarking can have some

very practical benefits. The ability to access links tofavourite sites from any internet-ready computer can savelots of time that would otherwise be spent searching forwhat has already been discovered once. With many ofthese services bookmarks from your Web browser can beeasily migrated to your account ready to be tagged. Thetagging function then allows a user to organise theirresources in a way that is logical to them, thus providingthe ability to narrow their resource lists by topic.

Furthermore, the social element can also provide addedvalue to a user. Searching a site like del.icio.us or Furl bytag or keyword can lead to the discovery of new resourcesthat the user may not have previously discovered, merelyby tracking the bookmarks of users with similar interests. Insome cases users can even track new entries under specifictags by using RSS feeds 11 to inform them that newcontent has been added under a relevant tag. Thecomment facilities that are provided by many of the socialbookmarking sites also offer users the chance to gauge (toa certain extent) the usefulness of that site.

Sites geared to specific audiences (such as Connotea andCiteulike) also tend to have bonus features like thereference exporting facility mentioned above. In the caseof niche services it is often true that they were eitherinstigated or developed by practitioners or interestedparties in that specific field, who were addressing theneeds of both themselves and their colleagues. For thetarget audiences these services can be particularlybeneficial.

Potential pitfalls

Tagging as a method of information organisation is by nomeans a robust and foolproof system. Unlike standardclassification systems that you might be used to (such asLibrary of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), or theDewey Decimal System), tagging terms are user definedand thus uncontrolled. So there are no ways ofguaranteeing that the terminology of one person will berelevant to another. For example, a search of a tag entitled‘conserve’ could bring back both links relating to heritageconservation, environmental conservation, or even recipesfor raspberry jam! Therefore searching social bookmarkingsites solely by tag may result in the user having to wadethrough irrelevant material in order to find useful newresources.

Services whose users provide ratings of websites, such asDigg and StumbleUpon, can often give the impression thatsuch ratings are a measure of quality. Whilst some peoplemay genuinely be attempting to gauge quality when theyrate websites, the reality is that the top rated resources onsuch sites are based around popularity rather thanconsidered evaluation. It is very important not to confusepopular sites with quality sites. Of course, quality resources


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more professional matters

are often very popular, but not all popular resources are ofgood quality. It is up to individuals to use their ownknowledge to evaluate the information provided anddecide for themselves whether a website is authoritative ornot.

Social bookmarking sites are not infallible lists of resources– even the most powerful search engines can’t providethat! They are, first and foremost, personal link managersfor individuals and, as with any site relying on user-drivencontent, are rarely comprehensive or without a certain levelof bias. The sites can help users to find new resources, butshould be used to complement more traditional methodsof information searching and retrieval, rather than toreplace them.

To use, or not to use...Social bookmarking at its basic level can be very useful,especially if you work on various different computers atdifferent times. For this alone it is worth signing up for anaccount. As noted earlier, it is very easy to migratebookmarks from your desktop browser to a socialbookmarking site, and this leaves you free to tag theresources at your leisure. When tagging resources thinkcarefully about the kind of keywords to use, as this willmake retrieving relevant bookmarks a much quicker andeasier process.

When adopting this kind of technology think carefullyabout what you want it to do for you, and then chooseyour service accordingly. For example, del.icio.us is a verygood basic service, and suitable for most resources.Should you primarily want to organise academic papersthen choose one of the specialised sites like Citeulike, sothat you can take advantage of the additional functionsand more streamlined content.

The pitfalls primarily relate to the need to sift throughresources and fully evaluate them. This process isnecessary for any form of Web search, and so on its ownshouldn’t discourage the use of social bookmarkingnetworks. At worst they offer the benefits of personaliseddata collection and storage. At their best they can beinvaluable tools for information searching, gathering,organisation and retrieval.

James AndrewsChantry Librarian

1 Wikipedia (2007). ‘Social bookmarking’. Wikipedia [Online].http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking [accessed 4th June2007].2 Hammond, T. [et al.] (2005). ‘Social bookmarking tools (I): a generalreview’. D-Lib Magazine [Online].http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april05/hammond/04hammond.html [accessed4th June 2007].3 For example, the Icon website may be given the logical tag of’heritage conservation’ by a user.

4 http://del.icio.us/5 http://ma.gnolia.com/ 6 http://www.furl.net/home.jsp7 http://www.digg.com/8 http://www.stumbleupon.com/9 http://www.citeulike.org/10 http://www.connotea.org/11 stands for Really Simple Syndication – these are Web feeds that caninform users of new content on specified Web pages as and when it isadded. RSS requires feed reading software known as ‘aggregators’ togather the information from websites. Aggregators can take the form ofWeb-based accounts (such as Bloglines or Google Reader) or desktopsoftware. Modern Web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and InternetExplorer 7 now have the capability of reading RSS feeds.

AWARDS

VINCENT DANIELS WINNER OF THE 2007 PLOWDEN MEDAL

Dr Vincent Daniels has been awarded the Royal WarrantHolders Association’s 2007 Plowden Medal. The awardrecognises his long and exceptional contribution to thedevelopment of understanding in conservation, theexcellence of his dedicated research and his readyengagement with practitioners of the conservationprofession. He was presented with the Medal by The LordChamberlain, the Earl Peel, at the Royal Warrant HoldersAssociation lunch in London on 5 June.

During his 33-year career in conservation science, VincentDaniels has generated an outstanding body of researchwork which impacts on most conservation fields. Hisknowledge of materials and their behaviour isencyclopaedic and his work is cited throughoutconservation literature as a reference for research

Vincent Daniels receives his award from the Lord Chamberlain TheEarl Peel



methodology and for the insight it provides on specificconservation issues. His publications cover a wide range oftopics from materials testing to bark cloth, pigments totextiles, and will be of lasting importance to the profession.He has more papers in ‘Studies in Conservation’ than anyother UK conservation scientist and, as a measure of hisinternational standing, he was one of just eleven UKconservators selected by the American Institute ofConservation to be recorded for their oral history project.

His innovative research has focused on real conservationproblems and the results have helped develop bothpreventive regimes and interventive treatments. In the lateseventies he introduced plasma reactions to conservationand in the eighties his rediscovery and application of theRussell effect (an image produced on photographic platesby oxidising material) offered new approaches in the studyof materials behaviour. In the nineties he covered a hugerange of materials and processes including the influence ofmetals on paper. His work on washing paper highlights thesignificance of different treatments and the influence ofsizing on the process. His work on pigments and dyescovers a wide range including textiles, ethnographicobjects, paintings and works on paper.

The award also recognises the quality of his contribution asa teacher and his generosity and good humour incommunicating and sharing his knowledge. A regularpresenter at national and international conferences, healso communicates with scientists outside the field,encouraging them to engage with conservation questions.He lectures to university chemistry societies and organisedan exhibition on Chemistry and Conservation for the RoyalSociety of Chemistry at Burlington House, which wassubsequently exhibited at several UK locations.

Much of his work was undertaken as a member of theBritish Museum’s staff but following early retirement in2003 Dr Daniels was appointed RCA/V&A ConservationResearch Fellow, where he also contributes to thedevelopment of new conservators. He has been anexternal lecturer and examiner at Camberwell College ofArts for several years and an examiner at the RCA andManchester University.

Dr Daniels has always tried to gain practical experience ofthe fields in which he works and for three years studiedbookbinding at an evening class. He is also a painter,stained glass artist and holder of a City & Guilds certificatein precious jewellery making. He is currently involved indesigning a dye plant garden for the Borough of WalthamForest’s Museum.

The Gold Medal, inaugurated in 1999, is awarded by theRoyal Warrant Holders Association in memory of the lateHon. Anna Plowden CBE, the leading conservator who wasVice-President of the Association at the time of her death

in 1997. It is presented annually to the individual who hasmade the most significant recent contribution to theadvancement of the conservation profession and can alsobe awarded to recognise a lifetime of commitment andachievement.

THE CONSERVATION AWARDS SHORT-LISTS

The short-lists for the five Conservation Awards wereannounced on 5 June:

AWARD FOR CONSERVATION 2007 (£15,000)Eura Conservation, Cardiff University and the ss GreatBritain TrustBrunel’s ss Great Britain

The Scottish Conservation Studio for Perth Museum &Art GalleryA rare silk early 17th-century doublet

National Trust Textile Conservation StudioThe Tobit Table Carpet

AWARD FOR CARE OF COLLECTIONS 2007(increased to £15,000 this year)

Durham University LibraryThe North East Collections Care Scheme

Book & Paper Conservation Studio, Dundee UniversityLibrary, for The Linnean Society of LondonThe Linnaean Correspondence Project

Beamish Museum and Tyne & Wear MuseumsThe North East Regional Resource Centre, BeamishMuseum

The Awards judges at Brunel’s ss Great Britain.


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more professional matters

National Preservation OfficeA national assessment of preservation need

STUDENT CONSERVATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD2007 (£10,000)

Rachel Morrison and the Courtauld InstituteSurface cleaning of unvarnished paintings

Sarah Maisey and Northumbria UniversityMaterials and ageing of the miners’ Cavell banner fromBowburn

Julie Eklund and the Institute of Archaeology, UCLEffects of preparation and conservation treatments onDNA

ANNA PLOWDEN TRUST AWARD 2007 (£2500)

Professor Norman Tennent, Fyne ConservationServices, and Dr James Nobbs, University of LeedsColour-Matching for Ceramic Conservation

Dr James Tate, National Museums Scotland, and DrLaurianne Robinet, University of Edinburgh and TheUniversité Pierre et Marie Curie, ParisNew Light on Ancient Glass: development of Ramanspectroscopy

David Watkinson and Mark Lewis, Cardiff UniversityDry storage of chloride- infested iron

DIGITAL PRESERVATION AWARD 2007 (£5000)

The British LibraryLIFE (Lifecycle Information for E-Literature)National Library of New Zealand & The British LibraryWeb Curator Tool software development project

The National Archives of the UKActive Preservation at The National Archives: PRONOMTechnical Registry and DROID file format identification tool

Bodleian Library, University of Oxford & John RylandsUniversity Library, University of ManchesterPARADIGM (The Personal Archives Accessible in DigitalMedia)

CRL, RLG-OCLC, NARA, DCC, DPE and NestorDigital Repository Audit and Certification

The Awards judges are now travelling around the countryvisiting the short-listed projects, and the winners will beannounced on 27 September at the British Museum.

Last year’s winner of the Award for Conservation was TimMartin of Context Engineering for the conservation ofForce Crag mining machinery. A Museum of London teamwon the first Care of Collections Award for their project toimprove access to London’s Archaeological Archive.

The 2007 Judging Panel for the Award for Conservation,the Care of Collections Award and the StudentConservator Award is chaired by Dame Liz Forgan, theChair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and includes Ros Savill,Director of the Wallace Collection, Anna Southall, the firstChair of Icon and now Vice-Chair of the Big Lottery Fund,Gillian Lewis, the former Head of Conservation at theNational Maritime Museum, George Ferguson, a well-known Bristol conservation architect, Maev Kennedy, Arts

Rachel Morrison of the Courtauld Institute with Ros Savill.

Anna Southall discussing the NE Resource Centre with KateReeder, Social History Curator, Tyne & Wear Museums - in theattic where the collections were kept before the opening of theCentre!.



Correspondent of The Guardian, Georgina Nayler, Directorof The Pilgrim Trust, and Alice Rawsthorn, Design Critic ofthe International Herald Tribune. The Anna Plowden Awardwill be judged by the Trustees with advice from Dr DavidSaunders, Head of Conservation at The British Museum.The Digital Preservation Award is judged by a panel ofexperts in the field.

The Conservation Awards are sponsored by Sir PaulMcCartney and supported by Icon, English Heritage, theMLA and the NPO. Additional support is given by TheBritish Library and The British Museum. See the Awardswebsite: www.conservationawards.org.uk for moreinformation. For details of the Digital Preservation Awardshort-list, go to: http://www.dpconline.org/graphics/advocacy/press/award2007.html

TRAVEL AWARDS

Eight conservation students from all over the country haverecently received grants from the Zibby Garnet TravellingFellowship Trust for study fellowships overseas. Four ofthem are Icon members: Matthew Brack from theUniversity of Northumbria; Bryony Finn from LincolnUniversity; Jane Kemp and Rachel Swift, who is anIcon/HLF funded intern at the National ConservationCentre, Liverpool.

With the help of the bursary from the Trust, Rachel will beattending an international conference in Slovenia, whereshe will be presenting a poster about her internship inCeramics and Glass at Liverpool and highlighting theopportunities which work-based conservation training canprovide. She will also travel to the Diana Centre forConservation in Serbia, where she hopes to talk about thework she has been undertaking at NCC. Rachel is currentlygraduate representative on Icon’s Ceramics and GlassGroup committee but will soon be taking over the co-ordination of the Nigel Williams Prize. She is enthusiasticabout the Zibby Garnet Trust and in her words ‘theirfantastic work’.

Since the Travelling Fellowship was set up in 2000 it haspaid for forty nine scholars to travel to other countries tobroaden their knowledge of historic buildings, landscapeand artefacts, with an emphasis of hands on conservationwork. In innovative and adventurous projects, they havetravelled all over the world, to America, Canada, Cuba,Japan, Syria, Peru, Australia, India, Indonesia, and Europe.

Grants are awarded once a year, with a deadline forapplications of 31 March.

The Fellowship is a charity funded entirely by well wishers.Enquiries and donations may be sent to the Zibby GarnettTravelling Fund, The Grange, Norwell, Newark,Nottinghamshire NG23 6JN. Telephone 01636 636288.

CPD FUNDING

For those beyond the student stage but still eager to learn,the deadline is coming up for the last chance this year forsome CPD funding from the Anna Plowden Trust.September 15 is the deadline for applications fromestablished conservators for grants towards the cost ofattending either a short specialist course or a majorconference during 2007. In both cases the Trust willconsider funding up to 50% of the cost. Those applyingshould have more than five years’ experience sincecompleting their training. Write to Penelope Plowden,enclosing a stamped and addressed envelope, at 43Lansdowne Gardens, London SW8 2EL or e-mail her forfurther information at [email protected] forms can also be obtained from the Trust’swebsite, which is annaplowdentrust.org.uk.

FUNDING FOR ARCHIVES

The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust (NMCT)provides financial assistance to owners and custodians inthe UK in preserving the nation’s written heritage.

Closing dates for applications each year are 1 April and 1October. Following the April round, awards of between£5000 and £50,000 were made to Chiswick Parish Churchfor the conservation of the parish archives, to the RoyalAcademy of Arts for the conservation of the papers ofOzias Humphry, to The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchesterfor conserving the Walter Crane archive, to WorcestershireCounty Council (Worcestershire Record Office) for theconservation of early mining records in the Coventrypapers and to The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge for theconservation of Thomas Hardy’s autograph of ‘Jude theObscure’ and the correspondence, notebooks andsketchbooks of Edward Burne-Jones.

Since April 2004 NMCT awards have been administered byThe National Archives. Guidance for applicants is availableonline athttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/preservation/trust/default.htm. For further advice and an informal discussioncontact [email protected].

Rachel Swift consolidating the gilding on a framed WedgwoodJasperware plaque

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LINKS WITH MALTA

Icon Chief Executive Alastair McCapra was recently invitedto join a working group in Malta. Maltese law requires thatanyone who wishes to practise as a conservator in therepublic has to hold a warrant, and the Malta WarrantBoard has been working to develop a mechanism fordeciding who is qualified to hold a warrant. Obviously withsomething as serious at stake as potentially denying aconservator the right to practise their profession, theWarrant Board wants to make sure it is working to veryrobust criteria and operating a completely transparentassessment process. The object of the working group, heldon 1 June, was to review the UK’s experience ofdeveloping and using the PACR accreditation scheme, andseeing what lessons could usefully be learned from that.Naturally Malta will develop its own system to meet its ownspecific requirements, but it was clear from the meetingthat much could be drawn from the professionalstandards and assessment processes of the UK’s PACRscheme. Icon will continue to support and assist the MaltaWarrant Board as it works towards the establishment of anew system.

ICON IN CHINA

Icon was the only NGO (non-governmental organisation)from the UK invited to attend an NGO Forum as part of amajor international festival of Intangible Cultural Heritagein Chengdu, China, from 23–24 May. Chief ExecutiveAlastair McCapra gave a paper showing how conservationof tangible objects and places can contribute to thepreservation of intangible cultural heritage.

At the end of the Forum, more than 40 experts, scholarsand government officials from around the world signed the‘Chengdu Manifesto’, calling for the internationalcommunity and governments in different countries to putmore emphasis on protecting intangible cultural heritage,such as opera, songs, and dance.

According to the UNESCO definition, intangible culturalheritage refers to practices, representations, expressions,knowledge and skills that communities, groups and, insome cases, individuals recognize as part of their culturalheritage.

As a member of UNESCO’s inter-governmental committeeto safeguard ICH, China has been strengthening efforts inICH protection in the past few years. Some of China’sintangible cultural heritages are on the verge of extinction.

UNESCO has proclaimed a number of distinctive Chinesecultural forms to be Masterpieces of the Oral andIntangible Heritage of Humanity since 2001.These includeKun Qu, one of the oldest forms of opera in the country,

the Chinese zither or Guqin, a solo musical instrumentdating back 3,000 years, the Xinjiang Uygur Muqam, ablend of song, dance, folk and classical music, and LongSong, a type of Mongolian lyrical chant.

Chengdu was chosen to host the event because of itsposition as one of China’s most historically and culturallyfamous cities, as well as its leadership in efforts to protectand develop cultural heritage. In recent years the Chengdumunicipal government has established many programs andinitiatives involving surveys on intangible cultural heritageitems and their protection.

HERITAGE SCIENCE IN THE LORDS

Many Icon members took part in a letter-writing campaignsix months ago following the publication of a report intoconservation science by the House of Lords Science andTechnology Committee in November 2006.The lettersurged Culture Minister David Lammy to appoint a ChiefScientific Advisor to his department who wasknowledgeable about heritage science. They also askedhim to fund a post within English Heritage to run asecretariat for the development of a new national heritagescience strategy. ‘To date we have had a somewhat mixedoutcome’ said Alastair McCapra. ‘David Lammy has so farignored the wishes of the Icon members who wrote to him.No Chief Scientific Advisor has been appointed yet, andthe Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS)hasrefused to fund a secretariat post within English Heritage.On the other hand, English Heritage has made acommitment to funding the post itself, and work isunderway to develop the national heritage sciencestrategy. The Arts and Humanities Research Council hasalso announced a funded programme for conservationscience research [see the piece about May Cassar’sappointment on page 19]’.

On 12 June the Report was the subject of a two-hourdebate in the House of Lords, in which over a dozen peersspoke. Virtually all of them took the opportunity ‘to put theboot into the DCMS’ (as one of them put it) for abdicatingits responsibilities to take a lead role. A lot of praise wasforthcoming for what has been achieved by the researchcouncils and English Heritage and there were severalinstances of warm words for Icon. You can read more onthe Icon website and there is a link to the full debate.

PARTNERSHIP WITH UNIVERSITIES –RESULTS IN EUROPE

The European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers’Organisations (ECCO), of which Icon is a member, hadbeen working for some time on a professional profilewhich will be used to define the profession. Indeed, in

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some counties it will be used to regulate it and to preventpeople from practising if they do not comply with it. Forthis reason it is a very serious matter and essential that wehave a profile that reflects our real needs. The originalECCO draft would have excluded from the profession allthose who did not have five years of university educationleading to a Masters degree, and the consequences of thiswould have been very severe for conservators not just inthe UK, but internationally.

Together with the Verband der Restauratoren (Germany),Icon has been working hard to chance this profile. As partof our efforts we contacted UK universities offering Mastersprogrammes in conservation and asked them to considerwhat the effect would be on their student recruitment ifthey could only take on people who had a Bachelorsdegree in conservation. They were unanimous in declaringthis prospect to be potentially disastrous for them, andthey wrote a collective letter to the ECCO President tomake this clear. At the ECCO General Assembly itself Iconproposed a motion to throw out the draft profile, and afterextensive debate we won the argument, carrying the votewith a decisive majority. Work will now begin with otherprofessional bodies in ECCO to develop a newprofessional profile based on competencies rather than oneducation pathways.

DISPOSALS – WHAT IS THE ROLE OFCONSERVATORS?

The Museums Association has published proposals tochange its ethical guidelines on disposal, and if museumsare going to start thinking more actively about disposal,there will certainly be implications for conservators. On 7 March Icon held a disposals seminar bringing togetherconservators from a range of national, regional and localmuseums as well as participants from MLA London and theMuseums Association. The meeting was chaired by formerIcon Chair Anna Southall and included a presentation byAndy King, curator of the Industrial & Maritime HistoryMuseum of Bristol Project.

The purpose of the meeting was to review the rolesconservators currently play in the decision-making processabout museum disposals, and then discuss the proposedchanges coming from the Museums Association andconsider their effect on what conservators in museums mayneed to do.

Among the key points arising from the meeting were:

• the need for active and intelligent collectionsmanagement

• the role of conservators in advising for or against newacquisitions

• the role of conservators serving on museum collectionspolicy committees

• in many instances conservators are already the driversbehind disposals programmes

The purpose of the seminar was to produce a range ofviews on the topic of disposals which can be published forthe information and guidance of Icon members. A recordof the views exchanged during this meeting, together withother material on disposals and the role of conservators,will be made available to members during the summer.

In his summing up at the end of the disposals seminar,Icon Chair Simon Cane, of Birmingham Museums and ArtGalleries, said ‘We have a responsibility not to pass on thesame mayhem as we inherited to the next generation. Forme, professionally, that is the key driver. Having spent 25years watching objects condemned to slow, cruel andunusual deaths in storage around the country, I don’t wantto leave that as my own legacy. That is what drives me on.’

HERITAGE WHITE PAPER

On 8 March 2007 the government published a HeritageWhite Paper for England and Wales (with some UK-wideprovisions). The White Paper proposals are based on threecore principles: the need to develop a unified approach tothe historic environment; maximising opportunities forinclusion and involvement; and supporting sustainablecommunities by putting the historic environment at theheart of an effective planning system.

Proposals include abolishing the existing systems for listingbuildings and scheduling monuments, and replacing bothwith a uniform designation system. The proposed systemwill offer all those with an interest in the historicenvironment a clearer record of what is protected and why.It will also enable people who own or manage historic

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buildings and sites to have a better understanding of whatfeatures are important. Overall, it will streamline theconsent procedures and create a more consultative andcollaborative protection system.

Icon responded to the White Paper as part of a collectivesubmission through Heritage Link. Together with fortyother heritage organisations Icon said:

• We welcome the opportunity for wider publicengagement with the historic environment which theWhite Paper envisages

• We welcome too the major contribution the voluntaryheritage sector can and wants to make

• We are concerned that the White Paper makes no directstatement about the value of heritage

• We feel it represents a limited vision of heritage’s role insuccessful development and regeneration

• If it is to have the desired impact, the White Paper mustbe supported by investment, training and guidance

The government will consider the responses it has receivedto the White Paper and will then have to identifyparliamentary time within the next couple of years to takeits proposals into law. Icon News will report on thisinitiative as it develops.

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE LIVE?

Held at Olympia over the first May bank holiday weekend,Who Do You Think You Are Live? was a new family historyevent drawing together family history experts, celebrityguests and other sources of advice pertinent to the familyhistory market. Three new titles in Icon’s ‘Care andconservation’ series were produced in time for the eventcovering documents, books and art on paper. These, andothers in the range, were eagerly collected by visitorswanting advice on the care of personal possessions. Thenew titles are available as pdfs online atwww.conservationregister.com/caring.asp.

FROM THE LIBRARY

As noted previously, although the Library specialises inbook and paper conservation, we also hold technicalinformation on preservation, analytical techniques,materials research, disaster planning, pest management,environmental conditions, plus works on specific materialsand techniques, such as textiles, pictures frames, pigmentsand dyes and many other subject that may be of interest.

New additions to the library’s collection this month includesome very recent publications on textiles, glass andarchitectural conservation. Amongst our new holdings arethe following titles:

Muños Cosme, A. (2005). La vida y la obra de LeopoldoTorres Balbás.

British Standards Institution (2001). BS 5454:2000 –Recommendations for the storage and exhibition ofarchival documents.

Mills, J.S. and White, R. (1999). The organic chemistry ofmuseum objects – 2nd ed.

Barclay, R.L. (1998). Mount-making for museum objects –2nd ed.

Koob, Stephen P. (2006). Conservation and care of glassobjects.

Albus, Stefan [et al.] (2007). Plastic art: a precarioussuccess story.

Rhys-Jones, Jonathan (2001). The enemy within!: aciddeterioration of our written heritage.

Museums & Galleries Commission (1994). Towards agovernment policy for museums: the MGC’s policystatement and the MGC’s response to the DNH policyreview.

Lafontaine, R.H. (1984). Silica gel – CCI Technical Bulletin10.

May, E. & Jones, M. (eds.) (2006). Conservation science:heritage materials.

Boersma, F. (2007). Unravelling textiles: a handbook forthe preservation of textile collections.

Shacklock, V. (ed.) (2006). Architectural conservation:issues and developments.

International Council of Museums (2006). ICOM code ofethics for museums.

Please feel free to come and use this growingcollection. We also supply photocopies of chaptersfrom books or journal articles and conference paperswhich we can send to you on quoting your Iconmembership number.

Introductory tours of the library for you or your group canbe arranged and we welcome all donations from members’personal collections of professional literature. Pleasecontact James who will be happy to hear from you.

Librarian James AndrewsEmail [email protected] + 44 (0) 1865 251 303Fax + 44 (0) 1865 251 303 Address The Chantry Library, Grove Cottage,

St Cross Road, Oxford, OX1 3TX,United Kingdom

Website http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/ipc-chantry/

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Recently published articles Below is a selection of recently published articles that maybe of interest to Icon members. For a complete list pleasevisit the Chantry Library website athttp://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/ipc-chantry/ and follow the ‘NewTitles’ link.

From Restaurator, 28(1) Kim, S-S. and Park, E.G. (2007). ‘Restoration ofMukujungkwang Dharani Sutra: the oldest and extantwood-block printed Buddhist scripture’. pp. 1–10.

Adamo, M., Magaudda, G. and Omarino, S. (2007).‘Biological measurement of damage occurring to theinner structure of paper after gamma irradiation:preliminary tests’. pp. 39–46.

From PH: Boletin del Instituto Andaluz del PatrimonioHistórico, 61Villa, J.L.G., Segovia, C.R. and Morón, A.G. (2007). ‘Arte ysímbolo para el poder: intervención en la Cruz AlzadaProcesional de Osuna’. pp. 24–51.

Zamora, E.L. and Moliner, C.D. (2007). ‘Materiales ytécnicas de dorado a través de las antiguas fuentesdocumentales’. pp.110–129.

From Art business today, 2007 no. 2

‘Framing: trade secrets’. p. 52.

From Discover NLS, 4Cunnea, P. (2007). ‘Digital collections: the gold you can’thold’. pp. 22–25.

From CBBAG Newsletter, 25(1)

Leeb, M. and Isley, L. (2007). ‘The material culture andarchitecture of tipis and its application to artist’s books’.pp. 4–6.

Muller, R.E. (2007). ‘Textile narratives in book format’.pp.10–14.

Hartline, S. (2007). ‘PB+J press: hands-on printing anddesign’. pp. 18–20.

From Journal of the American Institute for Conservation,46(1)

Smith, C. (2007). ‘George Washington’s last will andtestament: the manuscript and a pioneering restoration’.pp. 1–14.

Bacci, M. [et al.] (2007). ‘Non-invasive identification ofwhite pigments on 20th-century oil paintings by usingfiber optic reflectance spectroscopy. pp. 27–37.

Emery, S.N.D. and Charola, A.E. (2007). ‘Coatings onbrick masonry: are they protective or can they enhancedeterioration?’. pp. 39–52.

From Western Association for Art ConservationNewsletter, 29(2)

Phenix, A. (2007).’Generic hydrocarbon solvents: a guideto nomenclature’. pp. 13–22.

From The Quarterly, 62Chamberlain, D. (2007). ‘History of paper testinstrumentation part 5: colour & brightness testers’. pp.20–30.

From The Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter, 22(1)

Padfield, T. [et al.] (2007). ‘Passive design, mechanicalsystems, and doing nothing: a discussion aboutenvironmental management’. pp. 10–16.

Maekawa, S. and Beltran, V. (2007). ‘Collections care,human comfort, and climate control: a case study at theCasa de Rui Barbosa Museum’. pp. 17–21.

Other titles received include The Quarterly 61; AIC News32 (2); Association des Relieurs du Québec: Le Bulletin15(2); National Library of Australia News, 17(7) and 17(8);ICOM News, 60(1); AICCM National Newsletter, 102.

CORRECTIONUnfortunately, Icon News was supplied with a misleadingcaption for a picture in our May issue. Queen ElizabethScholar Josephine Beney was shown apparently workingon a marble statue. This is, in fact, being conserved by oneof her fellow students and the photograph was intendedsimply to illustrate the range of Josephine's conservationstudies.


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FRAME TREATMENT RESPONSE

What can I answer to the letter from the Committee of theGilding and Decorative Surfaces Group published in May’sIcon News other than the Group is absolutely right? Yes,frames should be treated with the same respect aspaintings or any other objects in public ownership. Yes, Ishould have taken the time to search the collection formore suitable corners to copy.

The brief was: ‘We have spent all the money on thepainting. We have four hours (including the report andphotographs) to spend on the frame’. I first employed thesystem described in the article (Icon News, September2006) on a carved and gilded wooden frame for which wehad asked for an estimate from a specialized frameconservator. The quote was £900. I thought that wasreasonable as several pieces would have had to be carvedto make the frame complete and it would have beenbeautifully gilded (for real). Sadly, the whole conservationbudget for the exhibition had already been spent, mostlyon paintings. The other problem was that once beautifullyconserved that frame, which was part of a displaycomprising eight paintings with similar frames (none ofthem sparkling), would then have shone out and it wouldhave become very noticeable that the rest needed workfor which Ipswich had no money. I had three to four hoursto do something decent and that is what I did; the frameblends in with the others and nobody has yet noticed thatthere is a lot of plastic involved.

Unfortunately, visitors do not notice frames, as long as theyare not in ruins. The frames are there to enhance thepaintings and they certainly would enhance a whole lotmore if they sparkled, but explain that to the moneypeople. I know, I know, it would be great if the frames weregiven the importance they deserve and the labels shouldalso tell about them…but…this is not a perfect world.

Is the treatment being attacked in any other way than lackof ‘subtlety’?

• Is it the ammonia? It was rinsed with distilled water andammonia evaporates without leaving any residue.

• Is it the B72 and Mica? It consolidated the moulding byseeping inside the cracks, gives a bit of glitz and what isleft on the surface is very reversible with acetone.

• Is it the use of resin mouldings? Again, because of theuse of HMG cellulose nitrate, they can be removed withacetone very easily without any damage to the gildingunderneath.

Even if the money and time was available, I would still useresin mouldings rather than carved wood or compobecause it prevents most effectively the restoration to bemistaken for part of the original in the future.

letter

Documentation may be lost; one can mix barium sulphatein the compo to make it show under x-ray or uv orsomething (I was taught about it at college and mymemory of it is dim, I have never heard anybody mention itsince); the simplest way remains the use of a material soradically different that no mistake can be made. If theplastic is gilded only the sound of it would show what it isbut it would be unmistakable.

I would be grateful if anybody could share their knowledgeof a methodology as reversible, as easily identifiable(close-up) as a restoration, as effective at cheering up theframe and as cheap. Nevertheless, I DO regret to not havehad the time to recreate corners that are more suitable..

Unlike the Institutions quoted in the G&DS letter, Ipswich isnot blessed with ‘in house’ frame conservators and if it wasthey would still have to account for the cost. IpswichMuseum owns more than a thousand paintings, most ofthem could have money spent on them. At an average atcurrent rates of £500 each, this is half a million pounds justfor the pictures. The frames would probably only add aquarter of a million to the bill and Ipswich collectionswould be the best cared for in the world. When can westart? Where is the money?

Dominique Rogers, MA. BSc (Hons), ACR.e-mail: <[email protected]>



peopleON THE MOVE

Good luck to Melangell Penrhys Jones who is leaving herposition as Textile Conservator for Bristol City Museums totake up a post at Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of NewZealand, where she will join Rachel Collinge in the TextileConservation section. She is looking forward to working ona varied and world class collection of textile objects andthe new experience of working in a bi-cultural institution.Her new e-mail address from 16 July will be:[email protected].

CONGRATULATIONS

In its June ballot the Society of Antiquaries of Londonelected another conservator to the ranks of its Fellows –Ian McClure, who is Director of Cambridge’s Hamilton KerrInstitute and an expert on the conservation of Englishmedieval panel painting. As we approach the ConservationAwards season, readers will recall that the Institute won thecoveted Award for Conservation in 2004 for its work on themedieval altarpiece – the Thornton Parva Retable.

PROFESSOR FOR PROGRAMME DIRECTOR

Congratulations to Icon member Professor May Cassar,who has been appointed Programme Director for the newUK Science and Heritage Research Programme. Thisappointment follows the 2006 enquiry by the House ofLords Science and Technology Committee into Scienceand Heritage, to which Icon was invited to give evidence.

The committee produced a report which argued that theUK needs to develop a research programme in heritagescience, and this appointment marks an importantmilestone towards the establishment of such aprogramme, whilst also recognising May’s expertise and

eminence in this area. The appointment has been madejointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Council(AHRC) and the Engineering and Physical SciencesResearch Council (EPSRC) and will run for five years fromJune 2007 to June 2012.

May Cassar, who is Professor of Sustainable Heritage atUniversity College London said ‘ This is a wonderfulopportunity for this interdisciplinary field to grow thecapacity of the sector so that the best heritage science isundertaken at the best academic and heritage institutions.More importantly, the programme is about increasing thenumber of quality researchers involved in this work.’

Icon Chief Executive Alastair McCapra said ‘Conservationdepends on a continuing flow of scientific research to tellus what we need to know about materials, treatments andtechniques. Up to now conservation science has had a veryhard job to make its case for funding, as it is often quitesmall-scale and can fall between the stools of variousdifferent funding programmes. The establishment of adedicated Science and Heritage research fundingprogramme is really tremendous news and Icon will beworking closely with Professor Cassar to ensure that theconservation community makes best use of this wonderfulopportunity.’

VANISHING TRICK

This is the title of Stuart Welch’s Intervention column in thisissue of Icon News and he has performed a vanishing trickof his own recently, having sold Conservation By DesignLimited (CXD) to neighbouring company Arqadia Limited,suppliers to the picture framing industry. Arqadia are partof the International Larson Juhl group of picture framing

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suppliers. CXD will remain an independent company butwill be able to call upon the resources of the group whendeveloping new products and services and keepingavailable difficult and eccentric products.

Stuart started off as an artist but veered off into a career inbusiness and involvement with paper and conservation in1977, subsequently founding CXD in 1992. It was talking toArqadia representatives at the Icon Launch eighteenmonths ago which started the process that has nowculminated in his company’s sale. Michael Brown,Managing Director of Arqadia Ltd takes over Stuart’s roleas MD of CXD. Stuart is staying on, happily released fromthe daily responsibilities of company management toconcentrate on creative product and businessdevelopment – and hopefully now find time for his ownartistic pursuits.

Stuart says: ‘I have been humbled by the many goodwishes for my future and I would like to use thisopportunity to thank the conservation profession for all thehelp I have received over the years. I started myprofessional life as an artist and getting involved in theconservation world was a bit of an accident but one of thethings I like best about working alongside conservators istheir integrity and dedication to the work they do. I havebeen asked to remain in CXD as Development Director forthe next five years and I am excited by this opportunity torealise many new ideas while giving me the chance tospend more time painting’.

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Stuart Welch setting up an image for an advert on the newrecycled board and boxes



Wellcome Collection and Library are part of TheWellcome Trust, which is the largest charity in theUK and the second largest medical research charityin the world. Wellcome Collection explores theconnections between medicine, life and art,providing radical insights into wellbeing and thehuman condition. It is the first venue of its kind inthe UK and forms a significant cultural landmark forLondon and the country. Wellcome Collection willuse contemporary and experimental techniques tochallenge and inspire visitors to consider issues ofscience, health and human identity through theages, biomedical research and its impact on healthand wellbeing. Wellcome Collection is a £30 millionvenue from the Trust.

The main focus of the work of the Preservation andConservation Department at the Wellcome Library for thepast five years has been the planning of the space andpreparation of the collections for the move back to 183 Euston Road, London, in the aptly named WellcomeCollection. With numerous meetings and debates and

Wellcome Home:a collection moved, preservedand displayed

countless reports, headaches and sleepless nights, this wasa steep learning curve for all involved. The final result is atruly wonderful space which has considered preservationand conservation in all aspects of design and planning.

HENRY WELLCOME AND HIS COLLECTION

As I reported in Icon News last November (issue 7, page 6),Sir Henry Wellcome – pharmacist, entrepreneur,philanthropist and collector – amassed an extraordinarycollection which he intended to accommodate and exhibitin 183 Euston Road. His passionate interest in medicineand its history, as well as ethnography and archaeology, ledhim to gather more than one million objects from acrossthe world. Added to that figure the material collectedsince his death in 1936 and the total equates to well over2.5 million objects.

Wellcome Collection (www.wellcomecollection.org) housesa contemporary version of Sir Henry’s vision. The ninestorey building will showcase over 1,300 objects from hisvast collection, spanning six centuries in three galleryspaces totalling 1,350 square metres. Wellcome Collectionalso includes the Wellcome Library, a café, events space,bookshop, members’ club and conference centre.

Caroline Checkley-Scott, Senior Conservator at the Wellcome Library, isenthusiastic about the Collection’s new premises, the new conservationfacility and the new tasks facing the conservation team.

The new studio

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THE BUILDING PROJECT

Hopkins Architects re-modelled Euston Road to createWellcome Collection. In order to do that, a huge teamcomprising various user groups provided the brief, in all itsstages. The Library’s work included relocating to temporaryaccommodation across the road, designing new storageareas to British Standard 5454:2000 and preparing thecollections for the move (these include manuscripts,archives, paintings, prints and drawings and sculpture). Upuntil this time, the majority of the collections were storedon various sites and had to be ferried on trolleys under atunnel on Euston Road. Input into gallery design andconservation of objects and preparation of conditionreports for the exhibitions – these were all part of theprocess. The most exciting and rewarding part for thePreservation and Conservation Department was the designand build of a new state of the art conservation facilitybased on the fourth floor.

THE NEW ROLE OF CONSERVATION

There has been a conservation presence at the Wellcomefor over thirty five years. Many conservators, from both theUK and abroad, have visited or spent time there on

student placements or internships during their studentdays. The previous studio was designed mainly aroundpractical conservation of single objects, concentratingmainly on rare books.

Understanding the role of the Preservation andConservation Department in a new building like this wasthe first step. Our role has always been the preservationand conservation of the collections, monitoring the stores,some exhibition work, and other conservation tasks.Exhibitions have recently formed a major part of the workof the team. Added to that, having three new floors ofgallery space of our own with frequently changingtemporary exhibitions will mean a marked increase in theamount of material to be surveyed, assessed andprepared. External loans are bound to increase now thatthe collections are more widely known.

Outreach and ‘in-reach’ now play an important part of

View of 183 Euston Road

Henry Solomon Wellcome: three-quarter length. Oil painting

Medicine Man Gallery

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library and museum activities and form a major part of ourwork as conservators. This type of educational activityrelies on galleries as aids, and the public exposure of suchaids also increases the request for loans from collections.Regular visits from gallery-goers and also conservationprofessionals will be added to our day. Conservation workon core collection material will be re-established, and withinternship programmes, student placements and trainingsessions the new department will be kept constantly busy.

THE NEW STUDIO

The Preservation and Conservation suite, which coversapproximately 270 square metres, includes a bright andairy main studio, wet room, analytical lab, workshop area,conservation library, material store and air conditionedovernight collection store. A team including architects,designers, engineers and furniture specialists to name buta few came together to create an area which really issomething to be proud of, and we are! The new studioprovides a state of the art facility which will allow bothpractical and research elements to come together toprovide high quality and, hopefully, leading results inconservation.

Each conservator has a bench 2.5 � 1.5m with integratedlight box and storage area. All tables are on wheels so asto allow full flexibility; and include a flat screen computerand nipping press. One of the studio highlights are thechairs, which harmonise excellent contemporary designwith ergonomics, and a foot massage ball…and the colourwill definitely catch your eye.

Plenty of storage was planned into the design and areference library adjacent to the space is proving veryuseful. An early request was to have a dedicated collectionstore for the department at 16–19 degrees centigrade and45–55% relative humidity adjacent to the main studio. Thismeans that objects waiting to be worked on have the samestorage conditions as those in our stores, keeping thestudio uncluttered. After a Health and Safety visit we wererequired to upgrade our chemical storage, as the previous

metal cupboard did not comply with current legislation.Following a full risk assessment and due to the smallquantities of chemicals used by this department, a stand-alone, portable, alarmed, un-ducted fume cupboard withintegrated filters was chosen. In the event of a chemicalspill, to prevent the spread of chemical fumes the lab isfitted with a damper button which will cut off the airconditioning.

Medicine Man Gallery

Caroline Checkley-Scott removing Henry Wellcome’s hair from alife mask

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Getting to this point has been a huge commitment both inhuman terms and financially. Mapping the studio,designing furniture, proofing the many iterations of IT andmechanical and electrical drawings and project plans,pawing over colour and material swatches have meantmany long nights for the Preservation and Conservationteam. Adding to this, we have been involved in the movingof the Special and General Collections and have justcompleted the migration of the 250,000 prints anddrawings held within our Iconographic Collections; as wellas prepared exhibits for the galleries, we have also runrefresher handling and disaster training sessions. The threeWellcome conservators have certainly been kept on theirtoes.

Working at the Library is an immense challenge and weneed to constantly balance resources against priorities. Butin saying this, the invaluable experience we have gainedon this project has been tremendous and we have vastlyimproved the level of collection care of all the WellcomeLibrary Collections, which received Museums Library andArchives (MLA) Designation status in 2006.

CURRENT AND FUTURE WORK

Moving forward, the Preservation and ConservationDepartment has many plans regarding prioritising projects.This includes looking at the DNA of parchment and HenryWellcome’s hair; re-thinking the way we conserve and re-house papyri and assessing the display life of objects indifferent sensitivity categories. With regard to theexhibition sensitivity of objects, fortunately even during thefrantic process of exhibitions, we have had the advantageof spending some time on undertaking visual assessmentsand spectrophotometry readings, and bringing in a

pigment specialist to analyse pigments on exhibitionobjects. This information will all be used as a guide tocontinually assess the exposure status of objects currentlyon exhibition, and aid the decision making process withregard to future preservation.

Now that we have this fantastic working space, we plan tomake real inroads on practical projects that have beenidentified as priorities in the past but held back while thisand other projects took up our time. Watch this space!

YOU ARE WELLCOME!

We are now open. Please come to visit or [email protected] for more informationwww.wellcome.ac.uk

Lara Artemis taking spectrophotometer readings of objects ondisplay in the galleries

Amy Junker Heslip conserving a Hogarth print

SuppliersDesks – Conservation By Design Timecare Works, 5 Singer Way,Woburn Road Industrial Estate,Kempston, Bedford, MK42 7AWTelephone: (01234) 853555Fax: (01234) 852334Email: [email protected]

Chairs – HAG sourced throughCrib5303 Teabuilding, 56 ShoreditchHigh Street, London E1 6JJwww.crib5.co.uk

Chemical Cupboard – SafetyCabinet Solutions Ltd PO Box 3456, Wokingham, RG41 1XX [email protected] [email protected] Telephone (44) 0118 9775302

Fume Cupboard – Air ScienceTechnologies Limited Suite 10, Jubilee House, AltcarRoad, Formby, Liverpool. L37 8DL Tel: +44(0)1704 833338, Fax: +44(0)1704 833500 Mob: +4(0)7940 425347 Email: [email protected],www.airscienceuk.com

Water System – Elga Labwater,Marlow InternationalParkway, Marlow, BuckinghamshireSL7 1YLTel. 01628 897000, Fax. 01628 897001E-Mail: [email protected]:http://www.elgalabwater.co.uk

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The Faddan More Psalter is an eighth century illuminatedvellum manuscript, in its original limp, tanned leather coverthat was found in a bog in Co Tipperary, Ireland in July2006. The find has stirred up a great deal of interest, bothin the book itself and in the genuinely unique conservationproblems that it presents. It is the intention of this reportto outline the approach that has been taken to date and tosummarise the work that is currently being undertaken.

THE DISCOVERY AND CONDITION OF THEBOOK

The book was found on the afternoon of 20 July 2006 byMr Eddie Fogarty, who was operating a mechanical diggerin the bog at Faddan More, near Birr. Mr Fogarty,somewhat astonishingly, spotted the book as it sprungopen in the bucket of his digger and then dropped intothe 2 metre deep trench adjacent to where he had beenworking. He immediately contacted the bog owners, Kevinand Patrick Leonard, who gathered together the fragmentsand covered them with wet peat before notifying the staffof the National Museum of Ireland. We were indeedfortunate on a number of fronts – that the book survived atall, that it was spotted under these circumstances, and thatthe landowners had made archaeological discoveriesbefore, had a keen interest in local history, and knew from

past experience exactly what to do with the find to ensureits preservation while still in the bog.

Conservation and archaeological staff from the Museumtravelled to the site on the following morning and we wereastonished by what we found. It was immediately clear thatwe were dealing with an early book from the survivinglettering and traces of a yellow border, which were visibleon top of the remains. The book itself lay open on theleather cover. However the condition of the find was thecause for a great deal of concern. Descriptions at the timevaried from ‘like lasagne’ to ‘alphabet soup’. We clearlyhad a find of enormous importance but one in very poorcondition. The landowners had laid the book on a plasticsheet, which we were able to slide on to a board toremove it from the trench. We then covered the find withcling film and encased it in ‘cellocast’ resin bandages toencapsulate it for transport back to the National Museum’sconservation labs in Dublin.

In Dublin, the Psalter was exposed as fully as possible forrecording, was recorded and was then put in to storagewhile we worked out what to do with it. We did not wantto introduce biocides or freeze the book, due to the risk ofreactions with the inks and pigments from biocides and thepossible deterioration of the vellum from freezing. Wetherefore stored it in a refrigerator at 4 degreescentigrade, lying on its bed of wet peat from the site, andcovered in a ‘cellocast’ resin cover, moulded to its contourswith an intervention layer of silicon mylar. This technique,which has proved valuable at the NMI in storing bogbodies, relies on the natural biocides in the bog water toprevent deterioration. Although mould will grow eventuallyon any organic material (eg ties, labels etc) stored with thebook, it is now nearly a year since discovery and thoseparts of the Psalter that are still in storage awaitingtreatment are completely stable with no signs of mouldgrowth or deterioration.

Examinations showed the vellum book to be a Psalter oflarge format with a folio size of approximately 30 � 26cm,and 5 gatherings. It was found lying with gathering 3 open,with part of Psalm 83 visible. Early examination found areasof illumination, particularly what may be the remains of anilluminated page with display lettering, found by gentlyeasing the book block back from the cover. The eighthcentury date is derived from the style of the lettering used,making this the first Irish manuscript book to be discoveredfor over 200 years.

The Faddan MorePsalterJohn Gillis, Senior Conservator from Trinity College Library, and AnthonyRead, Head of Conservation at the National Museum of Ireland, give aprogress update on last year ’s extraordinary find

The Faddan More Psalter as found with overlying peat removed.

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the vellum, the nature of the hide cover and the area ofthe animal that it has been taken from. Condition variedfrom surprisingly good, with a ‘natural’ vellum colour andfull legibility, to areas where the inks had partially tannedthe surface directly below where they were applied, butthe surrounding vellum had become gelatinous. Areaswere also found where the letters have survived but thevellum matrix of the pages has been lost leaving the lettersfree to float around with only slight encouragement. Thereare large areas (60% �) of complete loss. The cover of thebook was in good condition and, though ripped by thedigger in places, appears to be complete.

It became apparent, as the manuscript was examined andits importance assessed, that a complex conservationproject was required, with systematic recording anddismantling in order to extract as much information aspossible about it as treatment proceeded. A project wasinitiated to carry out this process with a high level steeringgroup from the National Museum of Ireland and TrinityCollege Library, with specialists in different aspects of thework sought for consultation as material related to theirfields became available.

OVERVIEW OF THE APPROACH TAKEN TOTHE CONSERVATION

It was obvious from the outset that the book presentedmajor conservation challenges, straddling as it does, thefields of book and vellum conservation and archaeologicalconservation. Archaeological survival of vellum is extremelyrare (we have only been able to find one previous instance)and we have not been able to find any record of a previousdiscovery of this nature.

The first task in the programme of conservation was one ofconsultation. We could not find any previous discoveries ofsuch a find, so we consulted widely in the fields of botharchaeological and book conservation, getting people’sreactions to the find, and the approaches that they wouldundertake if faced with it. We received a quite surprisingnumber of different ideas with regard to approach.Unfortunately this also led to a situation where we havereceived conflicting advice from a number of highlyregarded conservators and have had to act on the basis ofexperimentation. The range of advice was very wide withthat received from the book and archaeologicalconservation fields hugely varying at times. We have alsoheard of an initial publication of photographs that wasproduced of the Psalter, being left in a ConservationDepartment tea-room as a horror story!

At this point in the process, the Conservation Departmentof the National Museum of Ireland had been consultingvery closely with the Conservation Department of Trinity

The book is lying open on its original cover, a limp tannedleather structure with a fore edge flap to which areattached 3 large ‘buttons’. The binding has generatedparticular interest as a unique example of an early bindingstyle that has not otherwise survived in Western Europefrom this date.

The condition of the folios, which early tests showed it waspossible to separate while wet, varied a great deal. Survivalcan vary enormously within a single folio and betweenadjacent pages, presumably depending on such factors aslocal conditions in the bog, treatment used in preparing

Careful easing back of the text block from the front coverrevealed a tantalizing glimpse of the highly decorated first pageAt the time of going to press this folio remains un-treated.

An orpiment border and a capital letter were among the excitingfeatures visible before conservation commenced. ©NationalMuseum of Ireland

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Library, which holds seven of the ten pre-1000AD Irishbooks still remaining in Ireland. We arranged for JohnGillis, a Senior Conservator of books and manuscripts tobe seconded to the Conservation Department of theNational Museum, and it is this combination of experience– archaeological conservators from the National Museumworking with a book conservator from Trinity CollegeLibrary, who are conserving the Psalter. We are immenselygrateful to Trinity College Library and their ConservationDepartment for agreeing to this arrangement and for thelevel of support that they have given.

An overall approach was agreed for the conservationelement of the project with the following structure.

PHASE 1

All investigations of the book that could be undertaken ina non-destructive manner would be carried out, and theobject recorded in its ‘as found’ form in as many differentways as possible. This eventually included photography,drawing, MRI scanning (unsuccessful), multi spectralimaging (unsuccessful) and High Definition filmingincluding close ups. CT scanning and X-ray were ruled outon the basis of reports of X-rays accelerating vellumdegradation. Meanwhile tiny samples of the vellum weretaken for degradation analysis and bookbinding specialistswere brought in to analyse and record what structure in thebinding was visible.

PHASE 2

While phase 1 was occurring, samples of historic (18th century) parchment were taken, waterlogged and putunder pressure for a period of two weeks. These samples,though by no means the same as the waterloggedarchaeological vellum, were used for experimentation toestablish the comparative effectiveness of the variousdrying techniques that had been suggested to us.

As a basic principle, it was agreed that no chemical beadded to the vellum that would remain after thecompletion of the drying process. This principle wasestablished primarily because of concern over the possiblelong-term effects of chemicals such as polyethylene glycoland glycerol on the inks and pigments present in themanuscript, and unfortunately ruled out some possiblearchaeological conservation techniques.

The following drying techniques were eventually tested: -

Air-dryingFreeze-dryingAir-drying on a vacuum tableAir-drying under blottings and glass weightsDrying between blottings using a ‘vacuum packing’ system

All of the drying techniques above were tried from water,but all the techniques given above with the exception offreeze drying were also tried, drying from various solvents,to establish if shrinkage could be reduced by reducing thesurface tension of the liquid being removed. Solventstested included ethanol, acetone and an acetone/ watersolution.

A SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS IS ASFOLLOWS: -

Please note that these are broad statements regardingaccurately measured and carefully controlled experiments.The statements included here are intended to give an ideaof the approach taken, but the experiments will be writtenup in full elsewhere:-

Drying from WaterAir-drying: (this really acted as a control method and wasnot expected to be considered as a viable method oftreating the manuscript). Very distorted. Loss of flexibility.Becoming translucent in places, leaving a blotchyappearance. 5% shrinkage

Freeze-drying: No distortion. Opacity maintained, butsample ‘pulped up’ with a noticeable increase in thickness.Loss of natural pigmentation on hair side, becomingalmost white, surface now ‘spongy’. 3.5% shrinkage

Air-drying on a vacuum table: Vacuum struggled to holdthe samples in position. Translucent in places. 5%shrinkage

Air-drying under blottings and glass weights:Considerable colour changes in some samples with slighttranslucency in the sample dried through water. 3.5%shrinkage through water

Drying between blottings using a ‘vacuum packing’system: No distortion throughout all samples, sampledried through water became very translucent. 1.5%shrinkage.

Effects of solventsSolvents were tried in conjunction with each of the dryingprocesses (except freeze drying)

Ethanol: Generally reduced shrinkage effects, compared towater and gave a good ‘visual’ result. Samples thatbecame opaque when dried from water, did not whendried from ethanol

Acetone: Drying was so rapid as to be impossible tocontrol, and the dried parchment had a ‘horny’ feel.

Acetone 80% Water 20%: The parchment was unstable inthe solvent and pieces began to break off the surfaceduring impregnation.


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After further trials using the best performers from aboveand taking into consideration other working aspects ofeach method, the technique of vacuum pack dryingbetween blottings from ethanol was selected as thetechnique most likely to give good results when drying thePsalter. The technique involves the replacement of thewater in the vellum by ethanol, by immersion in ethanol for48 hours, changing solution half way through. The ethanolsoaked vellum is then placed between layers of fine‘bondina’ and then between 100% cotton blotting paper.This is then placed within a vacuum packing bag and putin the vacuum packing machine. The vacuum causes theethanol to diffuse from the vellum into the surroundingblottings, while the even pressure of the blottings, held inplace by the vacuum, controls shrinkage. It is sometimesnecessary to change blottings once during the process,which takes about 48 hours.

PHASE 3 – THE SITUATION AT PRESENT

After the test pieces, the technique was tried on a smallstray fragment of the Psalter and was found to besuccessful (after solubility tests for the inks). It was thentried on larger fragments, and eventually large pieces,again with remarkable success. Shrinkage of substantialpages of the Psalter is controlled and is consistentlyaround 2% to 5%. This should be compared to a small andout of context fragment (with no text), which displayedapprox. 75% shrinkage and massive distortion when air-dried.

The Psalter is currently being kept refrigerated and isbrought out of storage solely for the removal of pieces tobe treated. Treatment involves the removal of substantialpieces – generally the remains of entire gatherings, but the

book itself and the way it lies dictate the precise nature ofthe pieces selected.

A piece is identified, carefully recorded and lifted from thebook by means of hand tools, some fabricated as required,bondina and silicon mylar – gently inserted as the pagesand fragments are teased apart.

The piece is then separated out, using the sametechniques, into its bifolia, and is gently cleaned withsuitable instruments, deionised water and ethanol. It isagain recorded, often by a tracing at this stage. Eachfragment is sandwiched between layers of bondina duringthe process to facilitate handling. When cleaned, it is driedusing the technique outlined above.

During the process of dismantling and conserving thebook, new discoveries are continuously being made asnew pages are revealed, analyses undertaken, and asdetails of the binding structure become clearer. These aremaking this a particularly exciting project to participate in.

The project is very much a team effort and we are gratefulto everyone who has contributed to it with their time andto the numerous members of the conservation communitywhom we have spoken to and who have been so generouswith their advice.

An outline traced from a small detached fragment of vellum fromthe Psalter and the same piece when allowed to air-dry.

folio 28v 31r before and after the drying process.

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news from the groups

ARCHAEOLOGY GROUP

We are pleased to announce the programme of lecturesand posters for the joint Icon Archaeology Group/Fitzwilliam Museum conference ‘Decorated Surfaces onAncient Egyptian Objects: Technology, Deterioration andConservation’, to be held at the Fitzwilliam Museum,Cambridge in September.

The two-day conference (Friday 7 September and Saturday8 September) will address topics raised by a broad rangeof Egyptian decorated object surfaces and substrates.There will be lectures on coffins, mummy shrouds, mummyportraits, cartonnage, basketry, wooden statuettes andbronze, as well as talks on pigments and on the use ofradiography in studying Egyptian objects. Conferenceposters will cover a similar range of topics but also includepresentations on decision making and on-site conservation.

Conference attendees are invited to an evening receptionand private view of an exhibition of the FitzwilliamMuseum’s fabulous, recently conserved papyrus Book ofthe Dead of Ramose on the Friday evening, and onSaturday evening, to the Fitzwilliam’s annual Egyptologylecture (Stephen Glanville Memorial Lecture). This year itwill be given by Professor Barry Kemp of the McDonaldInstitute for Archaeological Research, University ofCambridge and Director of the Amarna Project. His talkwill include discussion of the methods of site conservationdeveloped at Amarna over the last decade.

On Sunday after the conference (9 September), there willalso be plenty to do. The Fitzwilliam Museum is offeringfree guided tours of the Egyptian galleries, conservationlabs and stores. There will also be a lecture and film by theteam who rescued the Tarharqo wall painting at QasrIbrim, and Dana Goodburn-Brown will be conducting herfamous mummy-wrapping workshop (charge of £10 tocover materials).

And, as a reminder, on the day preceding the conference(Thursday, 6 September) there will be small-groupworkshops and practical seminars, primarily intended forprofessional development, which will allow detailedexamination and discussion of objects in the Museum’scollection.

Full details of these events, including a list of conferencelectures and posters and the Sunday events, are nowavailable on the conference web-site,http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/dept/ant/aeo2007/. For further information, contact Julie Dawson (e-mail:[email protected]; tel.: +44 (0)1223332930) or Susi Pancaldo (e-mail: [email protected];tel.: +44 (0)207-679-4137). For queries regardingconference bookings, please contact Charlotte Cowin (e-mail: [email protected]; tel: +44 (0)20 7785 3807).

BOOK AND PAPER GROUP

SurveyHave you seen our survey form? Please complete online oron paper as soon as you can. The web-address is on theform and there is a direct link from the Icon website.

We are keen that everyone takes part, including ourInternational members, in order to gauge your response tothe services we are currently providing and so we caneffectively plan our future programme. The surveyconcentrates on Training, Publications, Conferences andthe Membership Directory and we very much hope that youwill support us by taking a few moments to complete it.

Also, if you are keen to have a hard-copy MembershipDirectory we need you to indicate this on thequestionnaire and provide us with your up-to-date contactdetails. The Data Protection Act will not allow us to printyour contact information without confirmation that youauthorise us to do so for this purpose.

LeafletsWe are pleased that this issue of Icon News also includesour three up-dated leaflets – Care and conservation ofprints, drawings and watercolours, Care and conservationof documents and archives, Care and conservation ofbooks – plus an order form if you wish to receive morecopies. We hope that you will find them a valuableresource to use with your clients or members of the public.

Hope everyone has a good summer but please DON’TFORGET to send in your survey form before you go onholiday. Thanks for your support.

Helen Lindsay Chair, Book and Paper Group

GILDING AND DECORATIVE SURFACESGROUP

As reported in the last Icon News, we awarded our firstannual student award to Elizabeth Walker for her final yearthesis on the Amalgam Mirror. We are now inviting applica-tions for the 2007 award, which will be jointly sponsored bythe Group and John Mylands Ltd. More information andapplication forms are available on the website.

METALS GROUP

Our study day on Thursday 20 September, ‘Submergenceand sculpture’, offers an opportunity to visit two verycontrasting West Yorkshire attractions.

The morning session will be held at the National CoalMining Museum for England, where delegates will be sentplummeting 439 feet beneath terra-firma to enjoy theunique experience of an underground tour of Caphouse



Colliery, one of Britain’s oldest working mines. The tour isled by an ex-miner, who, using models and machinery todepict methods and conditions of mining from the early1800s to the present, will expertly guide the group throughthe tunnels whilst adding a personal touch by sharing theirmining stories. After the tour, there will be a briefpresentation about conservation at NCM.

After a countryside pub lunch, the afternoon will continuewith a visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. A curator will beprovided by YSP to navigate us through the many exhibits,which include some important Henry Moore sculptures.

As the venues for this study-day are fairly remote, a coachwill be arranged to collect and return delegates fromWakefield Westgate Station (on the East Coast main-line).The coach will also be used to take the group from NCMto lunch and then on to YSP. Timing for the coach will bemade to coincide with the train timetables and will beconfirmed closer to the date.

For further information please contact Fran Clarke,[email protected] 01924 848806

PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS GROUP

The Group’s Annual General Meeting is to be held on 7 November 2007 at Icon headquarters.

Call for papers

Practical Photographic PreservationHave you just completed a photographic preservationsurvey?Are you struggling to identify the photographs in yourspecial collections?Concerned about which descriptive system is the right onefor you?

Then we would like to hear from you!

We are looking for case studies that involve thepreservation and conservation of photograph collections.We would particularly like to hear from students working inthis area. These can be large or small, ongoing orcompleted projects.

Subjects that we hope will be covered at the meeting are:

• Case studies of remedial conservation projects

• Cataloguing— methodologies and practice

• Identification of photographic materials and processes

• Practical preservation tips

• Special collections in small specialist libraries andmuseums

• Digitisation as a preservation tool for photographs

• Family and local history collections

• Photograph albums

• Managing slide collections

• Storage and handling of photographic materials

Proposals for papers covering these issues would be mostwelcome. Please send short abstracts to:

Icon Photographic Materials Group, (November meeting)3rd Floor, Downstream Building, 1 London Bridge, London,SE1 9BG, UK. Telephone: +44(0)20 7785 3805 Fax: +44(0)20 7785 3806 or by email to:[email protected] by 31 August, 2007

Free student places Again we are offering two free students places. If youwould like to apply please send a short summary (up to300 words) telling us how your studies will benefit fromattending the meeting

SCOTLAND GROUP

The Group has continued to develop the eventsprogramme for the rest of the year, with the annualPlenderleith Memorial Lecture high on the agenda. Therewill also be further meetings of the pub group and an arttour of the Scottish Parliament to come, details to follow.The Committee is now also involved in the organisation ofthe forthcoming ‘Art, Conservation and Authenticities:Material, Concept, Context’ symposium (12–14 September2007, University of Glasgow) as Gillian Keay is on theTechnical Committee. A number of other collaborationsare being explored, including working with a CollectionsCare Group for Aberdeenshire/Angus-based museumvolunteers, conservators, collections care professionals andcurators. The presentations from the March Iron Gall InksMeeting in Dundee have been collated and will shortly beavailable via the Group’s page on the Icon website, whileabstracts are to be found in this edition of Icon News. Anysuggestions for future events, including a speaker for thePlenderleith Lecture, are very welcome. Please contactKirsten Elliott on [email protected].

In other Committee business, a grant to supportconservators in the PACR process has been re-established.Applicants must be full members of Icon, members of theScotland Group, and living and working in Scotland. Anapplication form can be downloaded from the Group pageof the website or is available by [email protected]. Completed forms should be sent to:The Chair, Icon Scotland Group, c/o Icon, 22–26 GeorgeStreet, Edinburgh EH2 2PQ. Awards to successfulcandidates will normally be £100 paid on receipt ofconfirmation that accredited status has been conferred.Icon Scotland Group hopes to make four awards a yearand, in the event of multiple applicants, preference will begiven to equal distribution between the disciplines.Applications are reviewed by the Group’s office bearers


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and awards are conditional on achieving ACR status. Allapplications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

The Group is also looking for a new Scotland Trustee forIcon’s Board as Jim Tate will be standing down at the AGMlater this year. We would be delighted to hear from anyonewho is keen to represent Scotland. Please get in touch withthe Chair ([email protected]) or with Jim himself([email protected] or 0131 2474290) for an informal chatabout responsibilities and demands of the role. The IconBoard guarantees one place for a Scotland representative,but the Group’s members can, of course, apply for anyother vacant places on the Board as well.

Finally, the Committee welcomes Linda Fabiani MSP, thenew Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture atThe Scottish Parliament, and we look forward to workingwith this new ministry.

The next Group Committee meeting will be held onTuesday 14 August, between 6 –8pm in General RegisterHouse, the National Archives of Scotland. The Committeeis as follows:

Chair: Linda RamsaySecretary: Amanda ClydesdaleVice Secretary: Antonia CrasterTreasurer: Audrey WilsonVice Treasurer: Gill KeayEvents team: Helen Creasy, Kirsten Elliott, Erica

Kotze, Elizabeth MainPublications/ Stephen Umpleby publicity team: and Ruth HoneyboneOrdinary Committee Wilma Bouwmeester, Julian Watson,Members: Sophie Younger and Mo BinghamIcon Scotland Representative on the Icon Board ofTrustees: Jim TateObservers: Carol Brown and Clare MeredithFor further information on the Group’s events andactivities, please see the website.

STONE AND WALLPAINTING GROUP

Three new members have been welcomed on to thecommittee. These are:

Clara Willett on two year secondment from EnglishHeritage to run the HLF fundedTraditional Building Skills Bursary Scheme

Sophie Stewart Director of Paine & Stewart; currentlyinvolved in the conservation of the Burgesinteriors at Cardiff Castle

Fiona Hay Student representative from the City &Guilds of London Art School,Conservation Studies degree course.

Much of the work of the committee involves establishing aregular series of meetings and symposia. After thesuccessful ‘Problem Stones’ day held at the Tower ofLondon in February, there is to be series of two days on‘Polychromed Wood’ at Hampton Court Palace – these willbe on 26 October 2007 and 22 February 2008 – seeListings.

During this summer, it is hoped to combine a site visit withthe AGM. Other meetings in the early planning stage are:

Spring 2008 Damp in Buildings

Summer 2008 Problem Stones (Part 2)

Any suggestions as to ideas for meetings, or ways ofimproving them would be gratefully received.

David Odgers – Chair, SWP [email protected]

TEXTILE GROUP

This year’s Spring Forum ‘Dress in detail; display, storageand conservation considerations’ offered a very informativelook at issues concerning the conservation of historic dress.Speakers focused on practical conservation techniquesdealing with complex and varied items of dress, how tocope with making and adapting mannequins often within atight deadline, and two case histories of how specific sitesdealt with the display and storage of collections of dress.Over 120 people attended the Forum and there was agreat mix of conservators, curators and collectors. Thepostprints of the papers presented will be sent later thisyear to all those who attended. Copies will be available topurchase for those not able to come and details will begiven about the cost in due course.

New committee membersAt the Forum two members of the committee came to theend of their term of office. Claire Golburn has been a veryhard working and conscientious Treasurer who has smoothlysteered the Group through the convergence process aswell as helping to organise past Forums and events.Marilyn Leader has been a stalwart of the committee,being the liaison for the Textile Group web pages andhelping with the organisation of past Forums and editingthe 2006 postprints. She has also put together and leadseveral Weave Analysis workshops which have offered arelaxed and straight forward approach to an often complexsubject. Both Claire and Marilyn’s support, patience andgood humour will be missed on the committee.

Two new committee members were appointed at theForum and we welcome Rachel Langley and Nicola Yates.The post of Treasurer for the Group has been taken byJane Taylor, an existing committee member. Thank you toall three for offering their time and energy to work on thecommittee.

more news from the groups



‘Back to Basics’ workshops 15 and 16 October 2007 We anticipate high demand for these workshops becauseof the practical review of detergents and so have offeredthe course on two days. We are also hoping to run thecourse in Edinburgh sometime in 2008. Numbers have to

be restricted because of the studio space needed to runsuch an event. Due to popular demand we will make everyeffort to run the course in the future and will alertmembers via Icon News and the Textile Group web pages.

Graduate VoiceFor my work placement experience at the end of mysecond year on the Conservation and Restoration Degreeprogramme at Lincoln University, I chose to work at theRoyal Armouries, Leeds because of my interest in armsand armour. I had visited the Royal Armouries on anumber of occasions and knew that it was a uniquecollection of international importance.

My time there was spent, as a volunteer, on a project toconserve and audit the Hall of Steel collection. Thepresentation of the objects on open display has meantthat many of them were suffering from corrosion andextensive cleaning and re-labelling was required. The lasttime the collection had been conserved was for installationten years previously in 1996 when it was moved from theTower of London to Leeds.

The Hall of Steel is a giant staircase that connects all fivegalleries: war, hunting, oriental, tournament and selfdefence. The exterior walls are glass and some of thedisplays on the walls are visible from the outside of themuseum. Displayed on the interior and exterior walls ofthe tower are trophies amounting to over 2,500 items: 448staff weapons, 291 armour pieces, 119 pistols, 4 muskets,21 cannon, 102 swords, 10 armours, 176 rifles, 1400bayonets and 4 axes. The trophies mainly consist of 17thcentury armour and 19th century military equipment.There are many items from the periods of the NapoleonicWars and English Civil War.

The condition of theobjects was generally goodand there was no significantdamage but the protectivelayer of synthetic wax thatthe objects had beencoated with before theywere placed in the Hall ofSteel had broken down andcorrosion had set in. Theobjects were generallycaked in dust and there wasa thin layer of corrosion onthe surface of the ironobjects. Some of theaccession tags were missingas their plastic ties were not

UV resistant and had broken off after several years ofdisplay. The condition of the objects was recorded andpictures were taken and entered onto the museum’scomputer database.

The project had been planned before I arrived at theMuseum by the Head of Collections Care. Its phases were:preparing for the de-installation of the objects; the de-installation and recording of the objects; their conservationand re-labelling; preparing for their re-installation and re-installing them. This was a process that had to berepeated for the interior wall objects, as it was notpossible to treat the interior and exterior objects at thesame time. I was lucky enough to work on all but thereinstallation of the interior walls on the Hall of Steel.

There was a lot of work involving moving the objects fromtheir exact individual mounts to temporary storage toensure the items were kept in their trophy groups. Thiswas hard work as it required working on scaffolding andcarrying items up and down the staircases in the heat ofthe summer.

The conservation treatment took place in the museum’sNewsroom, which is usually used as a multimedia centreand for lectures. This had been transformed into aconservation, recording and storage area. Treatment was

The display before theconservation project

Reinstallation

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quite straightforward and of minimum intervention. Dealingwith a trophy at a time, the treatment method consisted ofusing a museum vacuum with a soft head to remove thedust from the object, then old layers of synthetic wax andany old grease or oils were removed with the application ofa solvent on a cotton wool swab. Wire wool withRenaissance Microcrystalline wax was sometimes used toremove corrosion, but it could not be used on objects withpatinas, blued firearms or the inside surface of the breastplates because they had been painted. If the object hadany wood that needed cleaning a solution of deionisedwater with non-ionic detergent was applied using a damp,lint-free cloth. After this any residues were removed withdeionised water applied again using a damp, lint-free clothand then dried. A protective layer of Renaissance micro-crystalline wax was then applied to the surface of the objectwith a soft bristled brush. On metal surfaces the wax wasapplied heated. The object would then be lightly buffedwith a lint-free cloth and the accession tag would be fixedwith a UV resistant cable. A brief condition/treatment reportwould be filled in for each object. The objects forming atrophy would then be placed back in the mounts wherethey originally came from on the Hall of Steel, after thewalls of the hall had been painted and left to off-gas.

The project took place from the 5 June 2006 to the 23September 2006 and in addition to working with the Headof Collections Care and fellow conservators I also workedwith members of other departments from within themuseum, such as the Museum Registrar and the ScienceOfficer, and other volunteers from various institutes.

The project had a fixed budget of £58,000. This money paidfor the conservation staff, conservation equipment, specialistscaffolders and their equipment, paint, painters, lighting andgraphic panels etc. By the end of the project the Hall ofSteel had been completed to schedule and a dustingprogramme put in place should ensure the protection of theitems for another ten years. The newly painted walls of the

Hall of Steel combined with the newly conserved objectsand good lighting provide an eye-catching display of armsand armour that will inspire all who see it.

My work placement gave me the experience of working aspart of a professional team under pressure because of thetime schedule. And I was able to learn about preventativeconservation techniques and the conservation of arms andarmour. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

Geraint DugganConservation student at Lincoln University

Near completion

THE BEER MEETING

Imogen Herford has handed over the task of organisingthe beer meetings to me. So first off, a big thank you toher for her sterling efforts on our behalf.

I’ve decided to move the meetings to Wednesdays,mainly because I can’t do Tuesdays, and also becauseit’ll be a nice mid-week break to bridge the gapbetween weekends. They’ll be every six weeks, so putthe following dates in your diaries: 25th July, 5th September, 24th October, 7th Novemberand 19th DecemberThe venue for the July meeting is a pub called the Nordic,which is 25 Newman Street, London W1T 1PN. Nearesttubes are Goodge Street and Tottenham Court Road,although it’s not that far from Oxford Street either. (Trywww.streetmap.co.uk if uncertain.) I will be there for 5.30.

The September meeting will be at the St. Brides Tavern,1 Bridewell Place, EC4V 6AP, close to Blackfriars tube.From 5.30 as usual!Do contact me if you have any questions [email protected] or 07973 918 738I look forward to seeing you there,

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reviewsproject. I am strongly tempted to choosethe textile chapter too, where the authorstook a rather different approach and dealtwith the science and conservation behindthree case studies – one being a sail fromHMS Victory. The dimensions (24m across)and the casual statement ‘… weighssomewhere in the region of half a tonne’make it clear why it is important to reallyunderstand the mechanisms of degradationof the fibres and to determine theirremaining strength.

The main weakness of the book to me isthat it reads as a series of independentchapters, the range and depth of whichappear to have been left to the individualauthors. Thus the second chapter, Methodsin Conservation, outlines some analyticalmethods, but not in relation to those usedin subsequent chapters, nor do the briefstatements about conservation treatmentsrefer the reader to in-depth studies insubsequent chapters. So this chapter,leather (where I would have preferred fewerschematic diagrams of organic moleculesand more links to case studies), metals(which concentrates very interestingly oniron and ships, but with no counterbalancingsection about archaeological or historicalmetals or alloys), were less satisfactory.Equally, stone, while presenting reallyinteresting information about the role ofmicroorganisms in stone decay, otherwisejust discourses about building stone.

However, no book on such a wide subjectcould be expected to be fullycomprehensive, and even with only half thecontent the book would be welcomed. I wasa little disappointed by the low quality ofsome of the images and their captions –would anyone ignorant of the expectedshape or function of a rudder pintle be anythe wiser from the radiograph shown? Andsurely a publication by the RSC should notshow SEM and other images with no scale,details, or descriptive captions to explainthe features. The book has the longestindex I’ve ever seen (46 pages, 12% of thebook!) – although sadly not including‘scrutched’, ‘hackled’ or ‘scroop’ which Ienjoyed in the text. I would have preferredsome of this space to have been given toeach chapter to allow references throughoutthe text rather than just a few referencesand further reading at the end.

In spite of these quibbles, the Editors are tobe congratulated on producing a book thatshould be in every conservation lab andwherever conservation science is practicedor considered. It should do a lot for raisingthe profile and understanding of a keydiscipline.

Jim TateHead of Department of Conservation &Analytical ResearchNational Museums Scotland

CONFERENCES

RETOUCHING COMPLEX SURFACESCourtauld Institute of Art 20 April 2007

‘Retouching Complex Surfaces’, jointlyorganised by Icon and BAPCR, was the thirdand final instalment of a series ofconferences based on the theme ofretouching. The previous two conferenceswere informative and thought provokingand so this promised to be as equallyinsightful. The event was aimed ataddressing the difficulties associated withretouching complex surfaces, ranging fromthe appropriate selection of materials to theethical considerations that need to bemade. Practical solutions in the form ofinnovative techniques and use of materials,as well as the application of new technology,were presented in case studies fromconservators from Holland, Italy and the UK.The day was organised in a similar way tothe previous conferences, with morninglectures followed by workshops and a tradefair in the afternoon. This was a successfularrangement, where it was possible toimmediately put to the test information wehad been given in the morning.

The first section of lectures focussed onexamples where practical solutions werefound to potentially complex situations.Oriana Sartiani and Leonardo Severini fromthe Opificio delle Pietre dure di Firenzepresented their innovative treatment of alarge painting by the 17th century artistMichelangelo Ricciolini, which formed partof a series of paintings at the Palazzo Chigiat San Quirico d’Orcia in Siena. The paintinghad suffered considerable damage in theform of losses to the support and paintlayer. In this case, the technique employedby the artist posed particular problems inthe retouching stages, as Ricciolini hadapplied paint directly to the canvas in orderto create the effect of a tapestry. Thisresulted in a pronounced weave pattern,which could not be achieved throughretouching alone. In order to recreate aweave texture, a canvas that had similarcharacteristics to the original was re-wovenin areas of losses. These areas were thenreintegrated by applying pastel directly tothe canvas inserts by use of the technique ofchromatic selection, as this was found to bethe most effective method for capturing theintense colours of the original.

Laurent Sozzani of the Rijksmuseum inAmsterdam presented the treatment of twopaintings that required substantialreconstruction to large areas of losses. Thisfascinating paper highlighted the practicalapproaches, techniques and extensiveresearch that were used to reintegratelosses where information on the original is

BOOKS

CONSERVATION SCIENCE: HERITAGEMATERIALSEric May and Mark Jones, eds.Royal Society of Chemistry 2006ISBN: 10: 0 85404 659 3 ISBN-13: 978-0-85404-659-1376 pages £34.95

What excellent timing, for ConservationScience to appear at the end of 2006, justwhen the House of Lords completed theirstudy of the same subject and published itas Heritage Science. A moment of glory forconservation science – or confirmation thatthe discipline has come of age?Conservation Science leaves us in no doubt,it is a book which shows throughout how anunderstanding of the composition andcondition of the material of artefacts,combined with scientific knowledge abouthow and why they degrade, is key todelivering the best conservation treatments.The message is clear: the application ofscience and scientific methods toconservation are essential elements in thepreservation of heritage material.

The book is arranged as twelve separatechapters. All except the first twoconcentrate on different groups of materials– paper, textiles, leather, metals, glass &ceramics, plastics, stone, wall paintings,conservation of ancient timbers from thesea, and in-situ preservation of waterloggedarchaeological sites (well, maybe this one isnot exactly a material, but it is quitespecific). The first chapter sets the scenewith an essay on the roles of the differentdisciplines, while the second discussesMethods in Conservation. From thisinformation alone it is clear thatConservation Science is a rather wider titlethan the actual breadth of subjects covered:for example there is nothing about easelpaintings, preventive conservation, or thedevelopment or testing of new materials forconservation.

Each of the chapters is written by aspecialist author or authors, and this givesboth strengths and weaknesses. Thestrengths are that it is extremely informative,covering many important aspects ofmaterials science and the consequentconservation approaches or issues in anaccessible and interesting way. Somechapters stood out for me for their clarity ofpresentation and for the quality andrelevance of the material; if I had to choosethree they would probably be glass &ceramics, plastics, and the most substantialchapter, on ancient timbers. One is awarethrough the book that most chapters can berelated one way or another to issues whichmust have arisen during the Mary Rose


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limited. Sozzani also raised the question ofhow far retouching should be taken and theethical concerns that play an important rolein that decision. One of the treatmentsdiscussed was that of a small oil painting byvan Kessel, entitled Still Life with Insects andFlowers, where nearly a quarter of the wholecomposition was missing. Removal of aprevious retouching campaign that coveredintact areas of the original paint wasrequired, so that a more accuratecomposition could be reconstructed. Thiswas achieved by using fragments of thedesign that still remained, along with studiesof other van Kessel paintings and fromactual insect and plant specimens.

In the considerably larger painting, ItalianLandscape with Umbrella by Hendrik Voogd,areas of the sky had been greatly altereddue to a past over-zealous cleaning. A blackand white photo taken before this hadoccurred provided information on thedesign, shape and characteristics of themissing design, but decisions on colour hadto be made by the conservator, guided byethical parameters. Sozzani gave aninformative description of the techniquesused to great effect in retouching bothpaintings.

The second part of the presentationsfocused on the application of newtechnology or materials as a solution toretouching problems. Stig Evans of theRoyal Pavillion in Brighton and AndrewHanson, Senior Research Scientist at theNational Physical Laboratory in Middlesex,gave both an amusing and thought-provoking presentation on the use of aportable spectrometer for retouching, in thiscase the ava-mouse spectrophotometer.They demonstrated the many ways in whichthis device could be beneficial, such asproviding consistent colour matching, whichis especially useful for large-scale projectswhere more than one conservator is workingon the same painting. The device is smalland easily portable, closely resembling acomputer mouse which is connected in the

same way to a laptop. A pilot study hasbeen set up between the Royal Pavilion andthe City and Guilds College Conservationcourse where two panels taken from thesame organ in the Pavilion will be retouchedseparately in London and Brighton. Thespectrometer will be used to take colourmeasurements, which will then be discussedbetween conservators.

The final presentation was given by PatriciaSmithen of Tate Gallery and Peter Koneczny,a private conservator in London, on the useof Paraloid B72 gel as a retouching medium.Koneczny first developed these gels in theearly 1990s and has found them to beeffective for retouching a large range ofdifficult surfaces. As the handling propertiesof the gels are closer to that of the artist’soriginal paint media, he states that it iseasier to replicate the surrounding paintlayer when retouching. The gels areavailable in different consistencies andconcentrations which can be manipulated tocreate the desired effect.

In the afternoon workshops, delegates weregiven the opportunity to test the gels forthemselves, with Peter and otherconservators on hand for any questions thatwe may have had. I found that when usingthe appropriate gel, it was possible toreplicate impasto with smooth or crispedges that held its shape, whilst withanother gel a transparent glaze could beachieved in which the pigment was easilyand evenly dispersed.

Alongside the workshops, the trade fairincluded demonstrations from conservatorson texturing fills using silicon moulds, aswell as using the portablespectrophotometer.

Overall a very informative series ofconferences with excellent information onpractical techniques and materials for allaspects of retouching.

Emma FisherConservation and Collections OfficerGlynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea

IRON GALL INKS: APPROACHES TOCONSERVATION IN SCOTLANDUniversity of Dundee Library 31 March 2007

The following abstracts from this one-dayevent have been provided by the speakersin order to give an overview of thisinteresting, informative, and enjoyable day.Most of the presentations were given in themorning, in a session chaired by PhillipaSterlini, while the final paper and a livelydiscussion session chaired by VanessaCharles were in the afternoon. This was anexcellent opportunity for informationexchange and professional developmentand thanks are due to Erica Kotze, eventorganiser, the Book & Paper ConservationStudio, Dundee and the speakers.

The presentations in full, along withadditional information and a transcript ofthe discussion session will shortly beavailable on the Scotland Group page of theIcon website.

Iron Gall Ink RecipesEmma Fraser, Book & Paper ConservationStudio, Dundee The earliest use of iron gall ink is hard toestablish but there are early references to asolution of iron compound, known as‘shoemakers ink’, which was used by theRomans for blackening leather. The earliestwriting inks were carbon inks, sometimesreferred to as Chinese ink. However, irongall ink had some distinct advantages, whichled to the eventual displacement of carbonink. Ironically, the attempt to produce amore indelible ink than carbon ink resultedin the potential for iron gall ink’s long-termdiscolouration and destruction. In thetwentieth-century iron gall ink was graduallyreplaced by inks made from synthetic dyes.These were seen as less chemicallyaggressive than iron gall ink and moresuited to writing on paper. There are manydifferent recipes for iron gall ink includingofficial specifications used by theseventeenth-century Dutch United EastIndies Company and that used by theGerman government until 1974. Mostrecipes for iron gall ink include three basicingredients: tannins, ferrous sulphate andgum arabic. However, there were also alarge number of additives and the amountsused can vary enormously. To quote DavidDorning, ‘the extent of degradation, and thedegrees of permanence and varyingresponse to conservation treatments, mustall depend to a significant extent on thenature – and therefore the original recipe -of the ink’. (David Dorning, ‘Iron Gall inks:variations on a theme that can be bothironic and galling’.) To finish, slidesdocumenting the process of making irongall ink as carried out by my friend andartist, Lisa Gribbon, were shown.



Summary of Iron Gall Inks – Issues andConservation TreatmentsFrancoise Richard, Book & PaperConservation Studio, DundeeThis summary aims to give an overview, froma conservator’s perspective, of the problemscaused by iron gall ink and the variousconservation treatments available. It isnecessary to consider the chemical reactionsinvolved in the historic recipes used to makeiron gall ink in order to understand why thiskind of ink causes specific degradation tothe paper support. Sulphuric acid is formedas a by-product and there is very often anexcess of iron II ions. Acidity facilitateshydrolysis of cellulose while iron II ionsaccelerate oxidation of paper fibres. As aresult of these two degradation processes,ink corrosion, or ‘ink burn’, is commonlyobserved on iron gall inked supports.Various factors, such as the composition ofthe ink, the nature of the paper andenvironmental conditions influence reactionsinvolved. Prior to any conservationmeasures, a characterisation of thedegradation stage of simple items or largecollections helps to prioritise the aims of thefuture intervention and to choose the besttreatment from the different possibilities. Itis up to the conservator to choosemechanical reinforcement (i.e. lining,encapsulation, local repairs), chemicalstabilisation (i.e. washing, deacidification,use of antioxidants) or a combination ofseveral treatments.

Rothes Papers Conservation Project Erica Kotze, Book & Paper ConservationStudio, DundeeLooking at three case studies of recentprojects – the Rothes Papers Collection, theLinnaean Correspondence Project and aDavid Hume letter – this presentation aimsto illustrate the range of treatments, frommost to least interventive, which have beencarried out to iron gall ink documents at theBook & Paper Conservation Studio inDundee. For several years up until the startof the Rothes Papers project, it had beenthe studio policy that aqueous treatment ofinks was to be avoided in most cases.However, severe water and mould damageto most of the items meant that aqueoustreatment was necessary. Washing of thecollection was followed by calcium phytatetreatment and resizing or repair with Type Bgelatine. The Linnaean CorrespondenceProject was a fasciculing project carried outover a three-year period. Chemicaltreatment was beyond the scope of thisproject but innovative developments during

this project include the use of a conditionrating form as part of the documentationprocedure and the use of sieved cold TypeB gelatine for paper repairs. The final casestudy is the treatment of a letter written byDavid Hume, and has been chosen toillustrate the range of intervention, which asin this case is often minimal.

Case Study: Conservation Treatment andMounting of a Panoramic Plan by DavidAltmann, 1640Johana Langerová, the National Archives ofScotland, Edinburgh, previously of theNational Archives of the Czech RepublicZuzana Zajaciková, the National Archives ofthe Czech RepublicThis case study illustrates a project toconserve and mount a large panoramic planfrom a collection of the Royal Canonry ofPremonstratensians at Strahov in Prague.The plan, ordered by the Abbot of Strahovmonastery in 1640, depicts a landscape viewon the river Vltava and its closesurroundings and is painted on a 2700mmlong by 290mm wide strip of handmadepaper. Improper storage and handlingcaused mechanical damage to the papercarrier and the pigment layer also exhibitedabrasion, powdering and loss of materialand damage caused by a corrosive greenpigment. Previous repairs had not improvedthe condition, rather the contrary.Conservation treatment was preceded byanalysis and tests. Treatments included localconsolidation of pigment using Klucel G inethanol; use of a Preservation Pencil® forseparation of strips of the plan; repairs; non-aqueous deacidification and flattening andthe eventual decision to mount the plan ona Karibari style board (3000 x 610 mm) andhouse in a protective four-flap folder.

Investigation Into the Use of Fixativeswith Iron Gall InkElizabeth Main, Royal Commission onAncient and Historical Monuments,Scotland, EdinburghThis presentation describes the results of aninvestigation into the effectiveness ofseveral fixatives used to protect a moisturesensitive iron gall ink during aqueousconservation treatment. The research wascarried out during the author’s MA inConservation of Fine Art course atNorthumbria University in 2005. Theresearch was prompted by the production ofa treatment proposal for a work of art onpaper with a brown ink inscription. Theproposal suggested washing, alkalising and,if required, bleaching. To protect theinscription during treatment, a series of testswere proposed to investigate theeffectiveness of fixatives on a series of testsamples. These included Klucel G (in alcoholand water in four different concentrations),Paraloid B72 in acetone (also in four

different concentrations) and the wax-likehydrocarbon cyclododecane (appliedmolten and mixed with petroleum ethers).The talk was comprised of a description ofthe item that prompted the investigation, adefinition of fixatives and the results of thetests carried out. Following this, there was asummary of the actual conservation workthat was directly informed by the researchand a description of some furtherexperiences of the use of fixatives inprofessional practice following graduation.

CONSERVATION SCIENCE May 2007 Milan Italy

The papers from Conservation Science 2002are some of those I refer to most often, sowhen this conference was announced I knewI wanted to attend. (Plus two days in Milan –there are worse things to do with yourtime...) The conference was grouped intothree main themes with a plenary sessionentitled from science laboratory toconservation practice: the role ofconservation scientists. The session includeda number of talks defining conservationscience. In fact opinions varied whether itshould be called conservation science,heritage science or was actually an areawithin archaeometry. I’m not sure how muchthis discussion helped; actually I’m nowmore confused as to what archaeometry is!Perhaps given the title of the session, it mayhave been more useful to discuss the futureof conservation science rather than thesemantics of the name.

Developments in Conservation ProcessesDuring the plenary session a comment wasmade on the lack of developments in

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conservation techniques being published.These two sessions seemed designed toaddress this issue. A number of papers werepresented which focussed on understandingtreatments but there was little ondeveloping new methods. For me the standout presentation of these sessions was IanGibb’s ‘Shake, Rattle, and Roll – VibrationEffects at the Hampton Court MusicFestival’. This talk demonstrated how tostudy the anecdotal damage to windowsand masonry due to a music festival withinan historic palace. It provided data on theactual vibration due to music and fireworksas well as changes measured in windowglass. It also gave sensible approaches totackling the problems without preventinghospitality events occurring.

Non Invasive Investigation TechniquesSplit over the two days these sessionsfocussed on what is often seen as the holygrail of analytical approaches. The firstsession included interesting talks onmethods of studying Daguerreotypes andthe use of fluorescence spectroscopy. Whilethe second session focussed on varioustechniques that can be applied to analysepaintings. The third session covered a widerrange of materials, including some newerinstrumentation combinations: XRF withXRD (for in situ pigment analysis) andRaman with SEM (to identify brickdegradation products).

Polymers, Wood and Paper ConservationIn the final two sessions there were a varietyof presentations on possible future paperconservation techniques and woodconsolidation materials. Although I think itwould be fair to say that all those presentedstill require some further developmentbefore they would be available toconservators. There were also a number ofpresentations on biodeterioration. Ofparticular personal interest was thepresentation on the attack on syntheticpolymers by microorganisms. This openedup an area of research previouslyunbeknown to me. The other highlight wasa method of analyzing the fungal andbacterial communities in dust depositswithin libraries and archives. This mayprovide a simple method and greaterinformation on the risks posed than isavailable through the current methods.

In the closing remarks one of the aims of theconference was given as facilitatingdiscussion. Unfortunately a commoncomment by participants was the limitednumber of questions possible due to theovercrowded programme. This meant thatany discussion was limited to smaller groupsin the breaks. The conference would havedefinitely benefited from either extending toa third day or reducing the number ofpapers, in order to allow more time fordiscussion. However the breaks did provideplenty of networking opportunities and

ample time to visit the vast array of postersthat were displayed. The conference alsooffered a variety of social events includingthe conference dinner in the fantasticCastello Sforzesco, a truly beautiful location.

The work presented during this conferenceis something I’m likely to revisit over thecoming years; be it different methods ofanalysis or a greater awareness of materials.For those not able to attend, the post printsshould be a further useful source of papersto refer to.

Naomi LuxfordAHRC Collaborative PhD student with theTextile Conservation Centre and EnglishHeritage

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TRADITIONAL PAINT FORUM - SETTINGTHE SCENETeddington 23–24 March 2007

Day 1Finding the right venue for any conferencecan be challenging but the NormansfieldTheatre proved to be the ideal location. Forthose of you who have never seenNormansfield Theatre, I highly recommenda visit: it as an absolute delight, retaining allits original Victorian splendour. What makesit even more remarkable is that it was builtby Dr. Langdon Down to encourage hispatients, children and adults suffering fromDown’s Syndrome (at the time referred to asMongolism), to learn music and drama aspart of their education. In 1858 Dr. Downwas appointed Physician Superintendent forthe Royal Earlswood Asylum for Idiots butten years later opened a private home,Langdon Park, for children and adults withlearning difficulties; a remarkableaccomplishment in a time when they wouldotherwise have been condemned to spendtheir life in an asylum. His study led to agreater understanding of the condition andmore sympathetic approach to its treatment

The history, design and importance ofNormansfield Theatre was explained byPeter Longham (a Trustee of the LangdonDown Centre Trust). As one of the fewextant theatres of that date, most havingburned down, it typifies a layout which hada limited stage, thus requiring theatre setsof painted flats and drop cloths to createthe illusion of space and setting. Gas lampsat the front of the stage illuminated theactors while candles attached to the back ofthe flats provided light for the back areas ofthe stage. The original Victorian flats anddrop cloths, which were in poor conditionwith tears, missing sections and paint losses,have been conserved by textile conservatorsat the Textile Conservation Centre inWinchester. During the conference,delegates had the opportunity to wanderonto the stage to view the flats and dropsand the array of ropes, pulleys and floorchannels which enabled the sets to bechanged.

To understand the development of thetheatre, Dr. James Fowler traced its originsfrom the Greek amphitheatre cut into thehillside with its circular stage through toopen theatres with surrounding woodenpalisades (to keep the audience within andexclude those who could not pay) to theemergence of the Elizabethan theatre.Historically, sets were very limited and theatmosphere and setting were created by theactor’s words. Dr Fowler also discussed theuse of elaborate floats which filled medievaltown squares with costumed actors oftenbalancing precariously from the intricateframework.

Timothy Easton continued the history themediscussing the close association of theatresand pubs in the 16th and 17th centuries –one that encouraged enjoyment and drink.Pubs were constructed with a first floorviewing gallery overlooking the courtyardwhich served as the actors’ stage. Huntinglodges also served as theatre sites, as didtemporary tournament stands. Thedevelopment of highly decorative schemesis best exemplified by the Globe Theatre.Whilst there was no attempt to create stagesettings other than as an architecturalstructure through which the actors couldenter and exit, this area and the fronts of thetiered seating would have been richlydecorated. However, little evidence survivedto inform the decorative scheme for theGlobe itself. Therefore, Easton’s extensiveresearch into contemporary examples fromtheatres in London and East Angliaprovided the evidence for appropriatedesigns. Two schemes for the Globe wereconsidered, one having marbled balustradesand columns, panelled painted fronts andelaborate plaster coving; the otherincorporating black and red painted stripeson the rear walls of the tiers, black and whitelozenge and diamond shaped designs tothe fronts and striped columns. Easton’sresearch suggested the latter scheme wasmost authentic.

Tony Banfield’s presentation revealed thehistory of scene painting. In later Greek andRoman theatres, painted panels denotingTragedy, Comedy and Pastoral wereinserted in the structure. By the mid 16thcentury, books on stage designs began toappear. Figures were painted onto thescenery to give a sense of perspective andby 1618 the first proscenium arch appearsseparating the audience from the stage.During the Restoration period, the forestage appears and there is furtherdevelopment of the use of flats and backcloths to create the illusion of space. In the18th century, Garrick introduces two point

perspective and the craft of the scenepainter begins as fine art painters areunable to produce work on such a largescale. By the 1870s a more realisticapproach to set designs appears as realobjects are incorporated into the set.

Hilary Vernon Smith, Head Scenic Artist atthe Royal National Theatre, provided afascinating insight into the work of thescene painter both in terms of the history ofthis craft and also the physical side ofcreating sets. One has no idea of the sheerscale of the operation unless you have had achance to see the variety of methods whichenables the painters to work their way upand down the huge back drops on eithermovable or static platforms. Her descriptionof the preparation of the hot size, its smelland the burns sustained by the painterduring its application created immenseadmiration amongst the delegates. After the1970s scene painters began to use acrylicsand PVA emulsions and employedtechniques such as spray painting. In themodern theatre a variety of painttechniques, canvases (including gauze for itstransparent effect) and other supports canbe used to create fantastic sets but itbecame readily apparent that that it is theskill and imagination of the scene painterwhich is the crucial ingredient.

For pure visual pleasure, the restoration ofthe Apollo Victoria, London, presented byJohn Earl, John Muir and Kathy Littlejohn isunbeatable. This amazing Art Deco cinétheatre opened in 1930 and is overwhelmingin terms of colour, architectural detail andextraordinary alabaster light fixtures. Prior tothe recent restoration, many of thesefeatures had been removed, painted over orhidden behind later alterations to thetheatre in order to accommodate the longrunning performance of Starlight Express.Through paint analysis and archival research,the original paint scheme and decorativefixtures and fittings have been recreated toreturn the theatre to its original appearance.

Inside London’s Apollo Theatre

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the dress circles and the proscenium arch aswell as all the paint surfaces providedinformation for the recreation of thedecorative interior.

David Harrison of Hayles and Howepresented an amusing insight into thematerials used to create the decorativeplasterwork in theatres as well as thedisasters which occur when the structure ofthe building fails. He described the use oflime plasters and fibrous plasters to createceilings, covings and decorative sculpturesand the systems which held them in place.His images of the hidden spaces above theceiling and the intricate framework requiredto support the ceiling as well as thesubsequent haphazard repairs were an eye-opener. More appalling were the disasterswhich occur when water infiltrates thebuilding causing entire ceilings to collapseand the daring exploits required by thespecialists to assess the damage.

The Royal Festival Hall in London is a wellknown feature for most Londoners but manywould be surprised to realise that hiddenunder the uniform white decorative schemeis a more subtle use of colour. Patrick Batyof Papers and Paint undertook extensivepaint analysis which revealed localised useof colour in different areas of the Hall tocreate a more complex colour scheme.Having identified the colours as beingbased on the 1931 British Standard colourrange 381C, he provided further informationon contemporary thoughts on paint colours

in building, citing in particular theHertfordshire Schools Project whichspecified the colours to be used on theinteriors of schools. His research into colourand the development of the British Standardrange of paint colours of 1995 and theArchrome paint range provided theaudience with a greater understanding ofmid 20th century paint colours and helpedto place the Royal Festival Hall within thatcontext.

The first day ended with a delightful talk onVermont Painted Theatre Curtains byChristine Hadsel. She has been involved in alarge project to document and conserveabout 175 historic painted theatre curtainsdating between 1885 and 1940. Thesecurtains were the primary artistic feature ofevery town hall, grange hall, opera houseand community centre in small towns andvillages throughout Vermont. They served asthe backdrop to a variety of activities andwere painted with colourful, romanticimages of British and European landscapesand even the occasional majestic landscapeof America. Conservators undertookremedial treatments to clean, stabilise andrepair damages to the cotton muslin fabricand retouch paint losses. Once conservedthe curtains were re-introduced to theiroriginal setting as they were to be used andenjoyed.

Christine SitwellNational Trust, Committee Member HistoricInteriors Group

Day 2 An impressive party gathered on Saturdaymorning outside Elms Lester Paint Frame.Most of us confessed that although we allknew this part of London, just off CentrePoint, we had never spotted this hiddengem. The small building has an odd almosttriangular elongated plan. The previousday’s lectures had provided a steep learningcurve in the art of scenery design andmanufacture which most of us had neverreally considered. The creation of largecanvas backdrops – or cloths – combinedthe skills of an artist with a scale morecommonly tackled by house-painters. Wewere shown around by Fiona Mackinnonwho explained the mechanism of the actualpaint frame – basically an enormousstretcher which could move up in the lightwell and down into the cellar, allowing thepainters to remain in a fixed position atground level. The cloth being preparedduring our visit was for yet anotherproduction of Mama Mia (apparently thereare over twenty versions of this musicalbeing performed all over the world). Thenovel space provided a wonderfulcontinuous link with nineteenth-centurypractice – we could smell the paint. Theedges of the floor and the walls were thick

It is worth buying a ticket to Wicked just tosee the interior.

On a more restrained note, the recentredecoration of the Theatre Royal in Bury StEdmunds provides a unique opportunity toview one of the few late Georgian theatresin England. Anna Forrest and ChristineSitwell of the National Trust described theextensive archival and analyticalinvestigations involved in the recreation ofthe theatre and its decorative scheme.Designed in 1819 by the architect, WilliamWilkins, and decorated by the scene painter,George Thorne, the theatre has had anunhappy history of misuse and neglect,serving at one time as a barrel store for itsowners – the Greene King Brewery. In the1960s the Brewery kept its promise to thelocal council and restored it, employing theservices of John Fowler. Using the scraps ofevidence which remained he devised adecorative scheme for the interior. Recentlythe Trust has undertaken a major restorationproject to return the theatre to its originalappearance which has included majoralterations to re-instate the fore stage(cleverly designed to be lowered when notin use), the pit area, the lower and upperboxed dress circles and the decorativescheme. The theatre now reflects the socialdivision for the audience seating whichincludes a separate entrance for the pit areaand individual boxes for the more affluenttheatre-goer. Extensive archival research,paint analysis and infra-red reflectographyon the scraps of evidence from the fronts of

The interior of the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds in the 1960s.

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with paint splatters. The traditionaldistemper used to paint backcloths and flatshas largely been replaced by modern PVApurpose made paints such as ‘Rosco’ andspray paints. This paint frame survivesthanks to the owners, who resisted offersfrom property developers and actuallyinvited English Heritage to consider thebuilding for listing. This instigated a reviewof ancillary theatre buildings. Sadly otherpaint frames in the West End weredestroyed before they could be listed. Thebuilding is maintained by income from filmshoots and exhibitions, but priority is givento keeping the paint frame in use andaccessible for professional scene painters.

The next hidden discovery was Wilton’sMusic Hall in the East End of London –another inspiring project which is keepinghistory alive. We were completely entrancedby Frances Mayhew’s enthusiasm and storytelling skills. Outside the building sherecreated a vivid picture of the nineteenth-century scene, a thriving pub on the cornerwhich serviced the locals and the sailorsfrom the nearby docks had been extendedin 1858 by the entrepreneur John Wilton tocreate a Music Hall (and brothel).The mainpurpose of the entertainments was to keepthe customers spending money on food anddrink. Wilton had bought up the adjacentbuildings and created a theatre in the areaformerly occupied by the gardens. The

works were completed within months usinga range of odd fittings Wilton could acquire:flagstones stolen from the nearby Georgiansquare and strange spiral columns, whichwere probably destined for a more exoticlocation but never made it onto the ship.The interior resembles a building site,indeed only 40% of the building isstructurally sound: but it remains a workingtheatre. Exposed lathes, bare bricks,wallpaper fragments and junk furniture allcontribute to creating a stimulating spacewhich invites further investigation. Thegerry-built nature of its construction has lefta legacy of structural problems but theactual design of the theatre hall is verygood, and today it offers an atmosphericand intimate space for a variety of events.Wilton’s heyday was in the late nineteenthcentury and the famous song ‘ChampagneCharlie’ had its premier performance here.When the music halls declined in popularityit was used as a Methodist church but thenfell into disuse and was only saved fromdemolition by the intervention of Sir JohnBetjeman. It has provided the location forseveral movies and television and dramas.The existing scheme which appears to be‘as found’ natural decay and the accretionsof time, is in fact a recently created ‘fake’ byscene painters who were asked to obliteratethe lurid paint effects applied by the lastfilm company. This ‘faked’ distress causedsome discussion over lunch.

We then crossed the Thames to lawlessSouthwark and the Globe Theatre foranother entertaining tour by a theatre staffmember who was delighted to meet suchan enlightened group. Timothy Easton’slecture on the Globe and his involvementinto the research behind its currentpresentation meant we arrived well armedto make a critical assessment of thedecorative scheme. It was evident that therehad been ‘a love affair’ with the timberbeam construction of the building whichperhaps should be hidden behind plaster –but the Globe is clearly attempting to movetowards a more exuberant, less sanitisedatmosphere. To accurately recreateShakespeare’s Globe would mean floutingall health and safety regulations, blockingup fire exits, encouraging urination at theside of the stage and allowing prostitutes toply their trade in the stairwells – so it wouldseem churlish to get pedantic over paintissues. We stopped to watch student actors,wrapped in overcoats, deliver their lines onthe open air stage – and remembered whattheatre is all about. It was a wonderful daywhich complemented the previous papers.Special thanks are due to Saskia Patersonfor her meticulous planning.

Helen HughesEnglish Heritage, Member Historic InteriorsGroup

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in practiceAN INTRODUCTION TO THECONSERVATION OF WINDOW CHnIX,CHAPTER HOUSE VESTIBULE, YORKMINSTER

by Helen Bower, Conservator, York Glaziers TrustFollowing the completion of an eight-year project on theSt William Window at York Minster, conservators at TheYork Glaziers Trust (YGT) are currently undertaking work onthe Chapter House Vestibule Window, CHnIX (Fig.1). Thisarticle aims to introduce the project and highlight some ofthe issues YGT are faced with.

Window CHnIX was removed and taken into safe storageat YGT in 2001. Repairs were long overdue, but recentlyYGT have been granted permission to begin the work bythe Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England (CFCE). Theproject is funded by the Dean & Chapter of York Minster.

Description of the WindowCHnIX forms part of a very important early scheme ofwindows, dating from c1290–1300. It is located on the westwall of the Chapter House Vestibule, first from the south. Itis a narrow window consisting of two lancets, of ninepanels each, measuring approximately 290 inches talloverall, with tracery lights above. Four of the panelscontain Royal figures within an architectural setting andcanopy (Fig. 2). The remaining panels have a geometriclead matrix, although now somewhat distorted, withinwhich are set decorative roundels or shields. The painteddetail shows a natural vine leaf design intertwined with abasket weave pattern.

Condition of Panels before ConservationThe Chapter House vestibule glass has never had any formof protective glazing, and its condition has suffered as aresult. This is perhaps the most deteriorated of all theexisting Minster glass.

The surviving medieval pot metal glass has become pittedand corroded on both surfaces (Fig. 3). Interestingly thetinted glass has suffered even more, with the corrosionspreading fully across both surfaces of the glass, so that itappears opaque and no longer retains its glass-like quality.

The poorly ventilated position within which the windowsits, and the damp conditions within which it was storedduring the 2nd World War will no doubt have acceleratedthe damage.

The tinted medieval glass has become paper thin anddelicate (some less than 0.50mm thick), with multiplebreaks (Fig. 4). In places, holes have appeared where thedamaged glass has disintegrated or fallen away (Fig. 5).

Apart from the corrosion deposits, a layer of dust has builtup on the glass surface. Much of the painted detail hasbeen lost due to the corrosion of the glass surface,although some ‘ghosting’ of the painted design remains.

Fig. 1 Minster plan showing the location of window CHnIX

Fig. 2 CHnIX panel 5a full size transmitted light

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The pot metal colours have not lost as much painted detailas the tinted glass as they have not suffered as muchcorrosion damage.

Previous RestorationThe panels, each divided by lug bars, were last re-leadedin the mid 1940s and are therefore structurally quite robust.5⁄16", 3⁄8" and ¼" leads have been used throughout. Someare mending leads holding together fragmented pieces.These leads appear quite thick and obtrusive and adistortion of the original lead matrix has resulted.

Some very fragmented pieces were edge-bonded withresin, which has discoloured over time, and sandwichedbetween two pieces of clear glass (Figs. 6 and 7).

Treatment of the Window to dateBefore any work can be carried out a full rubbing of eachpanel is taken. This picks up the entire lead pattern andprovides an accurate template for our extensivedocumentation diagrams.

A full photographic record is taken before, during andafter conservation. The documentation provides details ofany cracks or holes in the glass, the lead types and sizes,previous restoration insertions, the painted detail and anyother interesting marks or symbols.

The amount of original medieval glass in each panel variesconsiderably from between 80% to 50% in each panel.

Later additions consist of:

• Modern tinted antique glass, covered in a heavy blackpainted stipple.

• Victorian or earlier glass with a deliberately abradedsurface.

• Miscellaneous medieval fragments and misplacedmedieval glass from the same scheme.

Dismantling of the panels, i.e. removal of the glass fromthe lead structure, has already started on light a. It is apainstaking but simple mechanical process. The lead isslowly eased from the glass with small pliers and then cutaway.

Prior to cleaning the glass, the stability of the paint is

Fig. 4 CHnIX panel 5a showing thickness of glass

Fig.3 CHnIX panel 5b full size reflected light

Fig. 5 CHnIX panel 8a reflected light showing corrosion damageand breaks

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checked using a binocular microscope. Each piece of glassis cleaned with cotton wool swabs moistened withdeionised water, rolled gently across the surface, onlyattempting to lift loose surface accretions and not firmcorrosion deposits. Where necessary, old glazing cement iscarefully removed from the edges of the glass with scalpels– the compound first being softened with deionised waterswabs. All pieces are then placed on a clean copy of thefull sized rubbing.

At this point we are faced with a clear picture of the glasswe have to work with. Decisions as to how we progress tothe next stage are made by the conservation team,(working closely with an advisory committee, appointed bythe Dean and Chapter of York) and are presented to theCFCE, to ensure that no ethical matters are overlookedand all needs are met.

The next stage of the process is to prepare a new cut-linedrawing for each panel. This is a lengthy process thatdetermines the pattern of the lead matrix of the finishedpanel. Placing the full sized rubbing under a blank sheet ofpaper, we redraw the lead matrix, leaving out any obtrusivelead repairs where possible, or recovering the design ifevidence allows, so that the legibility of the panel isimproved. Any changes have to be carefully consideredand no hypothetical restoration is attempted.

All panels of light a are now dismantled, cleaned and laidout so that the entire light can be viewed clearly andworked on as a whole. This approach allows for continuityin thought and process.

The treatment of the severely fragmented, paper thin andfragile pieces of glass poses a serious problem. Traditional

stained glass edge bonding techniques may not beadequate to repair these pieces:

Silicone SealantThis is ideal for single clean breaks and is flexible in nature.However, the Chapter House glass, at 1mm or less inthickness, will not hold successfully with this material.

Copper Foil MethodThis uses a sticky backed foil applied to the edges of eachindividual piece of glass to be mended. The foils are thensoldered together. This method cannot be recommendedfor the Chapter House glass, as the applied heat couldcause further risk of damage to the delicate fragments.

Epoxy ResinThis can be used for more complex breaks and twomethods are widely used:

1 Taping the broken pieces together tightly on the backsurface, turning the piece over and applying the resin tothe crack on the front face. This method works well, butonly if the back surface is smooth so that the resin willnot leak from underneath the burnished tape.

2 Taping the broken pieces together on the back face andapplying a film of dental wax to the back surface. Thiswork is heated so as to fit into all the undulations of theglass and avoid leakage of the resin.

Both the above are valid methods but the Chapter House

Fig. 6 CHnIX panel 5b painted head in double plates beforeremoval

Fig.7 CHnIX panel 5a fragments of painted head after removalfrom lead matrix

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glass is too thin and delicate for such mechanical and heatpressures to be applied. Also, much of the glass surfacehas been heavily corroded, so they have to be ruled out asoptions as the tape will not prove effective in holding theglass together in the initial stages of edge bonding.

To SummarizeThere are many questions to ask in order to determine theconservation direction for this project. Should we removethe broken glass from such a sound lead matrix or do wenot have a choice if we want to save the glass? If we dodismantle, how do we put the panel back together again?Could, or should, we improve upon the legibility of thedesign or should we re-lead the panels exactly as theywere without any alterations? Is it justifiable to remove anyprevious restorative pieces and where do we draw the lineas to the part they play in the history of the window?

One decision that has already been made is that in spite ofthe stable nature of the lead, our opinion is that, in orderto save these panels, there is no other option but tocompletely dismantle them. This will allow us to stabiliseand protect the glass, which is in a serious state ofdeterioration.

Another important question is how to put the brokenfragments back together once they have been removed?What practical methods and materials can we use? Do weaccept that some of the badly broken fragments havecome to the end of their life, or can we prolong that life alittle longer so that another generation will be able toappreciate what we can see today?

We are still at the very early stages in the development ofthe project and it is hoped that a future article will outlinethe decisions made and the methods chosen by the teamat The York Glaziers Trust.

Email: [email protected]: 01904 557 228

CONSERVING HARAKEKE AT THE ROYALALBERT MEMORIAL MUSEUM AND ARTGALLERY

by Daniel Cull, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow inConservation at the National Museum of theAmerican Indian/Smithsonian Institution

IntroductionIn 1793 Jacques Labillardière, a French naturalist, visitedNew Zealand. One of the plants he entered into thebinominal classification system was Phormium tenax,commonly known as New Zealand Flax. To the Maori, whomake extensive use of the plant, it is most widely known asHarakeke (fig 1). Harakeke, although relatively stable in

itself, when dyed black often becomes a majorconservation concern. Several objects within the‘designated’ world cultures collection at the Royal AlbertMemorial Museum and Art Gallery (RAMM), are made ofBlack Dyed Harakeke, including Kaitaka, Poi balls, and PiuPiu. (See glossary at end.) This project aimed to improvetheir stability and storage.

The deterioration of Black Dyed Harakeke has concernedconservators for a number of years (Scott 1988) leading tothe development of several conservation solutions. Inaddition to being concerned with the conservation optionsavailable, this project also looked at the manufacturingprocesses and care of these objects from a Maoriperspective, which will be reported elsewhere. Suffice tosay, none of the conservation options were ruled out, anddespite the ad-hoc nature of the consultations, they wereextremely valuable.

DeteriorationResearch undertaken on black dyes has focused upon IronGall Inks, used in writing throughout Europe. Limited workhas been undertaken to research the black dyes used byMaori artisans. Recent investigation at the British Museuminitially focused on identifying the dyes and the dyeingprocess. Daniels (1999 (a) p.75) reported on the method ofdyeing, citing unpublished reports that state that the ‘dye

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is an iron/tannin or, more correctly, an iron/plantpolyphenol complex, similar to iron gall ink’. Themethodology of dyeing is increasingly better understoodthanks to the work of Maori and Pakeha conservators andscientists in New Zealand. However, the chemical nature ofthe deterioration is not fully understood and matters arefurther complicated by slight variations through time andspace that inevitably occur in any tradition.

The situation is complicated by multiple agents of decay;the raw materials, the processing and use are all factors.Plant fibres contain cellulose which provides stability, hemi-cellulose and lignin which provides stiffness. Daniels (1999(a) p.74) notes that: ‘Compared with other commercialplant fibres, P. tenax has a relatively low cellulose and highhemi-cellulose content’. The conservation literatureexplains the principal reactions in terms of oxidation, andacid catalysed hydrolysis. Free ion irons from the dyeingprocess catalyse the oxidation reaction, whilst acetylgroups contained in the high hemi-cellulose fibres formacetic acid which breaks the ion-polyphenol bonds andcatalyses the hydrolysis of the fibre; reactions that occurfaster at high relative humidity.

Conservation Options Phyate solution and Magnesium bicarbonate

A well established method within paper conservation

involves the use of phyate (phytic acid) and magnesiumbicarbonate. Phyate acts as a complexing agent blockingthe oxidisation reaction, whilst the magnesium bicarbonateacts to deacidify the fibres, and provide an alkali reservoirin order to buffer acid catalysed hydrolysis reactions. Thismethod when transposed to object conservation has oftenbeen combined with the use of various consolidants.

Methylmagnesiumcarbonate in methanol

The British Museum developed a method utilising 1.6%methyl magnesium carbonate in methanol in order toreduce the effects of fibre shrinkage identified with the useof aqueous solutions. However, Daniels (1999 (b) p.583)stated that ‘this phenomenon was not seen ondeacidification but was later seen to be a problem withconsolidants, when the adhesive qualities of theconsolidant stuck the fibres together’.

Hinau extract, and zinc alginate

In New Zealand the use of Hinau extract coupled with zincalginate is undergoing research and development. Themethod works by scavenging acidic species, such as thosethat contribute to the acid catalysed hydrolysis, anddespite being in the early stages it is said to be effective.(More et al 2003, Smith et al 2005). If this method provessuccessful in a real life situation it has the advantage ofusing materials used in traditional Maori weaving.

Conservation Choices Many factors play their part in making a conservationdecision. An organoleptic analysis was undertaken on thesamples from the British Museum experiments. Theseconcurred that of the methods testedmethylmagnesiumcarbonate was most effective but onlyslightly so. The decision to reject this method was basedon this slight improvement, and the major health andsafety concerns with the use of methanol, and the level oftechnical skills and equipment needed to undertake thepreparation. The same health and safety concerns played apart in the rejection of the use of Hinau; although thismethod does allow alternatives to methanol, it was felt thatthese were insufficiently tested and understood.

A cursory reading of the dyes conservation field will revealan expanding knowledge base, therefore the ethicalstandpoints of minimal intervention and retreatability werethe watch words for the decision-making process. Thedecision was taken to use the phyate method, wherenecessary. Physical support was used in place ofconsolidation, with calico backings couched to the Kaitakaand Japanese tissue Frankensteins adhered using starchpaste to support loose sections of Piu Piu (fig 2). This wascombined with an improved storage system utilising flattrays for each object, and surrounding the object with

more in practice

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calico painted with an alkali buffer to absorb excess acids.This approach was possible as the objects were notintended for display.

Testing Application The choice of application method is an importantconsideration. Pokinikini samples were used to test aselection of application methodologies, making pH levelcomparisons (fig. 3). The recommended pH Level forstability in cellulosic paper is 5.5, and this has been used asa guide for objects (British Standards Institute 1973).However, pH should not be the only factor in deciding totreat an object.

The pH results (fig. 4) are only half the story, as applicabilityis also a major factor. The brush was found to be too slow,on undulating surfaces. The dahlia sprayer caused the dyesto run when used with magnesium bicarbonate. Theultrasonic was considered a suitable compromise, and withadditional passes was found to raise the pH higher. Thechoice was made to use the dahlia sprayer for theapplication of phyate, on as gentle a setting as possible,and to use the ultrasonic for the application of magnesiumbicarbonate.

ConclusionsAs processes of deterioration and their conservationsolutions become increasingly understood, it is hoped thatalternative solutions, especially those using Hinau extract,will be sufficiently tested and trialled, for suitability in reallife conservation contexts.

Phyate and magnesium bicarbonate, despite the knownlimitations, have proven effective, and adaptable to theneeds of the conservator and the objects, coupled in thiscase with improved physical support and storage solutions.This treatment provides stability, without limiting futureretreatability. It is hoped this treatment will assist in thelong term survival of Maoritanga.

RecipesPhyate Solution: 0.25% v/v Phytic acid and 0.5% w/v sodium carbonatesolution in deionised water.Magnesium bicarbonate solution: 1.5% w/v solution of magnesiumbicarbonate in deionised water, made by bubbling carbon dioxidethrough a suspension of magnesium hydroxide carbonate in deionisedwater, using a soda stream.10% Starch Paste: 9g – arrow root starch, 1g – sodium alginate, 100 ml– deionised water.

Bibliography

British Standards Institute. 1973. BS4971: Part 1. Recommendations forRepair and Allied Processes for the Conservation of Documents. London.BSI.

Daniels V. 1999 (a) ‘Factors affecting the deterioration of the cellulosicfibres in black dyed New Zealand flax (Phormium Tenax)’ in Studies inConservation, Vol. 44, No. 2 pp.73–85*

Daniels V. 1999 (b) ‘Stabilisation treatments for black-dyed New Zealandflax’ in Preprints of the 12th Triennial Meeting Lyon Vol. II, ICOM CCpp.579-585*

More, N., Smith, G., Te Kanawa, R., Miller, I. 2003. Iron-SensitisedDegradation of Black-Dyed Maori Textiles. Dyes in History andArchaeology. Vol. 19. (2003)*

Scott G A 1988 A Maori Cloak in Conservation News 35 10*

Smith, G., Te Kanawa, R., Miller, I., and Fenton, G. 2005. Stabilisation ofCellulosic Textiles Decorated with Iron – Containing Dyes. Dyes in Historyand Archaeology. Vol. 20. (2005)*

* Available in the Chantry Library

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on work submitted for my MSc in Conservation forArchaeology and Museums. It has been used here by kind permission ofProf. Stephen Shennan (Director of the Institute of Archaeology,University College London).

I would like to thank the following for their assistance during this project:

Alison Hopper-Bishop, Neil Bollen, Cathy Daly, and Morwena Stephens(RAMM). John Merkel, Dean Sully and Renata Peters (UCL). Sherry Doyal(Hornimann Museum). Alyson Rae and Pippa Cruickshank (BritishMuseum). Tracey Wedge (Private Textile Conservator). Rangi Te Kanawa(Textile Conservator and Maori Weaver). Gerald J Smith (VictoriaUniversity of Wellington). Kahutoi Te Kanawa (Maori Weaver). BethanyMatai Edmunds (Maori Weaver). Deborah Phillips ACR (Devon RecordsOffice).

Glossary Harakeke (also known as korari) New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax) Hinau Metacarpus dentatusi (produces a black dye)Kaitaka Plain unadorned cloakkorari Also known as HarakekeMaori Meaning ‘normal’, ‘usual’ or ‘ordinary.’ Became the

collective term for the indigenous tribes. Maoritanga Maori culture, values and heritage. Pakeha A non-Maori New Zealander, having characteristic of

European descent. piu piu skirtPoi ‘Poi ball’ used in dances. Pokinikini Dried cylindrical strips of harakeke leaf, with dyed sections Taeare The longer Harakeke.

Contact the author for a larger glossary or more information at National Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian Institution, Cultural Resources Center, 4220 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD, 20746. [email protected]

Method pH

Untreated 3.5

Nebulizer failed

Brush (3 times) 5 – 5.3

Dahlia Sprayer (1 time) 5 – 5.3

Ultrasonic (5 times) 4.5 – 4.7

Fig 4. Table of pH results for differing applications


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listingsFull details of all the events listed here can be foundon the Icon website www.icon.org.uk

24 July, 6.30pmIcon Paintings GroupThe Painting Techniques of William EttyVenue: Icon Offices, LondonSpeaker: Louise Hackett, Manchester City Art GalleryCost: £5 (£10 non-members)Contact: Clare Finn on tel: 020 7937 1895 or email:[email protected] You must be registered to attend by 12 noon 19 July.

9–12 AugustSociety of BookbindersEducation & Training Conference Venue: The University of York, York.Contact: SoB Conference Organizer, 8 Wildwood Close,Woking, Surrey, GU22 8PL.

20–24 AugustICOM Triennial MeetingVenue: Vienna, Austria.

27–30 AugustICOM-CC working group Glass and Ceramics interimmeetingVenue: Nova Gorica, Slovenia

5–7 SeptemberAIC and Northumbria University Printed on Paper: The Techniques, History andConservation of Printed MediaVenue: The Sage Centre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

6–7 SeptemberThe Parker Library NowVenue: Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.A two-day symposium to discuss conservation,preservation, digitisation and scholarship of the Parkermanuscripts.Cost: £90. Contact: Christopher de Hamel, tel: 01223 339994, email:[email protected] , or Gill Cannell, tel: 01223 338025,email: [email protected]

6–8 SeptemberIcon Archaeology Group and the Fitzwilliam Museum,University of CambridgeDecorated Surfaces on Ancient Egyptian Objects:Technology, Deterioration and Conservation Venue: CambridgeContact: Julie Dawson, tel: 01223 332930 or email:[email protected]

10 SeptemberIcon Textiles GroupStudio tour and visit to Burghley House, Lincolnshire.Cost: £28.

11–14 SeptemberBigStuff 2007 International ConferenceLarge Technology Objects: Beyond Conservation –Industrial Heritage ManagementVenue: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum, Germany.Contact: email [email protected]

12–14 September Art History Department at Glasgow University Art, Conservation, and Authenticities: Material,Concept, ContextContact: Erma Hermens, History of Art Department,Glasgow University. email:[email protected] tel: 0141 3303943/5677.

14–15 SeptemberIcon Book and Paper GroupIslamic Binding WorkshopVenue: Book Conservation Studio, Victoria & AlbertMuseum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL.Organiser: Jane Rutherston ACR (Tel: 020 7942 2085)Only one place left!Cost: £145 plus £30 for materials.Contact: Charlotte Cowin, tel: 020 7785 3805, email: [email protected] for booking

15 September The Anna Plowden TrustCPD Awards for 2007Grant application deadline.Contact: Penelope Plowden, 43 Lansdowne Gardens,London SW8 2EL or e-mail:[email protected]. Application formscan also be obtained by following a link from the Iconwebsite.

20 September Icon Metals GroupSubmergence and Sculpture Study DayVenue: National Coal Mining Museum and YorkshireSculpture ParkCost: £25Contact: Fran Clarke on email [email protected] ortel. 01924 848806

17–21 September11th IADA Congress50th Anniversary of the International Association ofBook and Paper Conservators (IADA)Venue: Vienna, Austria.



17–21 SeptemberInternational Symposium: Studies on HistoricalHeritage Venue: Research Centre for Preservation of CulturalHeritage, Yildiz Technical University, Antalya, Turkey.

24 SeptemberIcon Textiles GroupStudio visit and review of solvent cleaning for textileconservation Cost £8.

24–26 SeptemberUniversity of Oxford International ConferencePlaster Casts – making, collecting, and displayingfrom classical antiquity to the present.Venue: OxfordCost: £30-£60Register via the Icon website

24–28 SeptemberCCI Symposium 2007Preserving Aboriginal Heritage: Technical andTraditional Approaches Venue: Ottawa, Canada.

25 SeptemberIcon Book and Paper GroupDay Out in OxfordContact: Sophie Laubin, Conservation, The British Library,96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB. Tel: 020 7412 7847,email: [email protected] .

27 SeptemberIcon Textile Group and Book and Paper GroupEveryday Issues for Freelance ConservatorsVenue: Icon Offices, LondonA seminar day to look at aspects concerning the everydaypractice of freelance conservators. Topics that will becovered include insurance, health and safety, andstandards in report writing. Contact: Sarah Howard, e-mail:[email protected]

27–29 SeptemberForbes Symposium: Scientific Research in the Field ofAsian ArtVenue: The Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution,Washington D.C, USA.

27–29 SeptemberBest in Heritage 2007Venue: Dubrovnik, Croatia.

5 October, 6.30pmIcon Paintings GroupTate AXA Art Modern Paints ProjectVenue: Icon Offices, LondonSpeaker: Bronwyn Ormsby, Senior Conservation Scientist

Cost: £5 (£10 non-members)Contact: Clare Finn on tel: 020 7937 1895 or email:[email protected] You must be registered to attend by 12 noon 2 October.

15 October (repeated 16 Oct)Icon Textiles GroupLife After Synperonic N: new surfactants in textileconservationVenue: The Textile and Fibre Studio, The British Museum,London.

16 October, 6pmIcon Book and Paper GroupThe Do’s and Don’ts of Photographic ConservationVenue: The October Gallery, Londonia House, 24 OldGloucester Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3AL.Speaker: Susie ClarkCost: £6 (students £3, with card) – correct money at thedoor please.

16 October 2pm (and repeated – see below) British Library Centre for ConservationTours of the new centre specially reserved for IconmembersVenue: The British Library, LondonA maximum of 20 people can attend.Further tours on 30 October at 10am; 20 November at 10am and 27 November at 2pm. Contact Alison Faraday to book: [email protected] 412 7776

19–20 OctoberIcon Historic Interiors SectionThe Glories of Scottish Interiors from the 17thcentury to the 20th. Venue: Edinburgh and Leith.

19–20 OctoberArchitectural Heritage Society of Scotland (AHSS) andUniversities of Stirling and Dundee NationalConferenceUnderstanding the Scottish TownVenue: Lesser Albert Hall, StirlingContact: Dr Susan Buckham at AHSS National Office,tel: 0131 557 0019 or email: [email protected]

26 October 2007 & 22 February 2008Icon Stone & Wall Paintings GroupPolychromed WoodVenue: Weston Room, Hampton Court PalalceConference in two instalments on the care andconservation of polychrome and gilded wood includingarchitectural panelling, structural timbers and woodenstatuary both in–situ and in museums.Contact: Richard Lithgow,email: [email protected]


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6–10 November6th NATCCFacing ImpermanenceVenue: Washington DC, USA.

7 NovemberIcon Photographic Materials GroupPractical Photographic Preservation and AGMCALL FOR PAPERSDeadline: 31 AugustContact: Icon Photographic Materials Group, (Novembermeeting) 3rd Floor, Downstream Building, 1 LondonBridge, London, SE1 9BG, UK. Tel: +44(0)20 7785 3805 Fax: +44(0)20 7785 3806 or email: [email protected]

16 NovemberTwentieth Century Furniture Research GroupConference Furniture Design and Manufacture, 1970–2000Venue: The design Museum, LondonContact: Prof. Jake Kaner, tel: +44 1494 522 141, or email: [email protected]

DecemberIcon Archaeology Group Christmas Meeting 2007: Classic Conservation Cock-upsVenue: TBA London.Contact: Jim Spriggs on [email protected]

17–19 January 2008Third International Architectural Paint ResearchConference 2008Venue: the Historic Preservation Department in theSchool of Architecture at Columbia University, New York,USA.Contact: Mary Jablonski, email: [email protected]

25 January 2008, 6pmIcon Book and Paper GroupPigment, Extender or Adulterant: a discussion onartists’ white, watercolour pigments in the early 20th century.Venue: The October Gallery, Londonia House, 24 OldGloucester Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3AL.Speaker: Jane Colbourne, Senior Lecturer, NorthumbriaUniversity.The lecture will review the historic and current literatureon the manufacture, usage and issues surrounding theageing characteristics of these pigments. Of particularfocus are the potential detrimental effects to papersubstrates when zinc oxide and titanium dioxide arepresent.Cost: £6 (students £3, with card) – correct money at thedoor please.

21–22 February 2008The British Museum Holding it all together; ancient and modernapproaches to joining,repair and consolidation.Contact: Department of Conservation, Documentationand Science, The British Museum, Great Russell Street,London WC1B 3DG. Email: [email protected]: 020 7323 8276.

21–24 April 2008AIC Book and Paper groupCreative CollaborationsVenue: Denver, Colorado, USA.CALL FOR PAPERSDeadline: 7 August 2007Contact: Alexis Hagadorn Program Chair, BPG-AIC,Columbia University Libraries. Email: [email protected] or tel: 212-854-3580

27–30 May 2008IPH CongressBirth of an Industry – from Forest to Paper during the19th CenturyVenue: Stockholm, Sweden.Contact: Jan-Erik Levlin, email [email protected]

2–4 July 20086th International ConferenceEvaluating Safety and SignificanceVenue: Assembly Rooms, Bath.

15–19 September 2008IIC: 22nd Congress Provisional title – The role of conservation in theprotection and presentation of the world’s culturalheritage.Venue: TBA London.Contact: IIC, 6 Buckingham Street, London, WC2N 6BA

22–26 September 2008ICOM-CC Triennial MeetingDiversity in heritage conservation: tradition,innovation and participationVenue: New Delhi, India.Further details to be announced



Building Conservation WorkshopsAnnual series of hands-on building conservationworkshops in association with local preservation partnersin order to further the sites’ preservation and provide aneducational experience for participants.

International Academic Projects LtdConservation TrainingContact: International Academic Projects, 6 FitzroySquare, London W1T 5HJ, tel: 0207 380 0800, email: [email protected]

Ironbridge InstituteHistoric Environment Conservation TrainingContact: Harriet Devlin, Ironbridge Gorge ConservationTrust, Coalbrookdale, Telford, Shropshire, TF8 7DG, Tel: 01952 435969 or email: [email protected]

West Dean CollegeConservation Short CoursesIncluding Building Conservation Masterclasses,Professional Conservators in Practice and CPD courses.Contact: West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex, PO18 0QZ,tel: 01243 818219.

York Minster Library and Archive CPD Workshops for Paper, Book and PhotographicConservatorsIndividual workshops on leaf-casting, lining and care ofglass plate negatives. Cost: £125 per workshop.Contact: Christine Harbisher, Secretary, York MinsterLibrary, Deans Park, York, YO1 7JQ, email: [email protected]

Full details for all entries in Listings can be found atwww.icon.org.uk under either “Events” or “Educationand Training”

TRAINING10–11 September19–20 NovemberNational Museums LiverpoolIntroduction to Laser Cleaning

13–14 SeptemberIcon Stained Glass GroupStained Glass Conservation Training DaysVenue: Jacobs Well, Trinity Lane, Micklegate, York.Cost: £300 for 4 sessions or £80 each.Contact: [email protected]

Workshops on Historic Bindings27–31 August: Introduction to Byzantine Binding3–7 September: Limp and Semi-Limp Vellum BindingsVenue: Monastery of St.John the Theologia, Patmos,Greece.Contact: Nikolas Sarris Supervisor of Book ConservationStudio, St. John Theologian Monastery, Patmos. Email: [email protected] deadline: 27 July

2–4 OctoberCultural Material X-Radiography – ImagingTechniques, Interpretation and DigitisationVenue: Norcroft Conference Centre, University ofBradford.Covers the basics of conventional radiography through tothe latest advances and applications of digitalradiography. Fees apply.Contact: Sonia O’Connor Research Fellow inConservation on Tel: +44 (0)1274 236498, Fax: +44 (0)1274 235190 or email: [email protected].

8–9 NovemberIADA Seminar: Conservation of Transparent PaperVenue: Berlin, GermanyLecturer: Hildegard HomburgerCost: 285EUR (240EUR for members of IADA)Contact: Hildegard Homburger Krefelder Str.17, 10555Berlin, Germany. Tel/Fax: +49-30-3912503 or email: [email protected]

UCL Centre for Sustainable HeritageCSH Short Courses come highly commended by heritageprofessionals from museums, historic houses andgalleries.

Florenceart.netDecorative Painting, ‘Trompe L’Oeil’ and GildingCourses.Contact: Alison Woolley Bukhgalter, Florenceart.net, ViaSan Bartolo a Cintoia 15r-97Firenze 50142. Tel: 055 733 2865

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interventionVanishing Trickby Stuart M. Welch, Managing Director, CONSERVATION BY DESIGN LIMITED

I have spent the past thirty years supplying materials andequipment to conservators. During this time the mainrecurring difficulty has been how to meet the minimumproduction volumes of paper mills and othermanufacturers when it comes to developing andproducing the relatively small quantities of materialsrequired by the conservation profession.

This is the same today as it was thirty years ago but withthe added problem that the sources of manufacture formany of the traditional products are disappearing. Thetrick now is how to make sure the necessary materials willbe available for future conservators.

Jacques Brejoux of the Moulin du Verger hand madepaper mill in France is a man who cares passionately aboutthe future of hand made paper. He is trying to raise moneyto build wooden pulp stampers to beat old linen rags intoa pulp similar in quality to that used in early Europeanpapers. He wants to make what is known in the papertrade as ‘half stuff’ pulp sheets. This would be used byfuture generations of papermakers. He predicts that thebiggest problem for European hand made papermakerswill be the availability of linen pulp and the skills to rotbeat the fibres in a way that will make pulp suitable forproducing the finest quality repair papers. We have toremember that when antique papers were made they werepart of a thriving industry that did not change until theintroduction of machine made paper. Reviving ahandmade paper mill with one or two workers is verydifferent from when the mill was working with dozens ofworkers producing large amounts of paper. It is a heroicact of endurance. The question and problem withJacques’ ‘half stuff’ is who will finance its production andstore it for when it is required?

In Japan the shortage of the crafts people making thespecial bamboo paper makers moulds has lead to acompetitive rush by the remaining hand paper makers tobuy up any moulds when another paper maker dies.

Are we beginning to see this occurring now amongstconservators?

I have been involved in trying to resource linenbookbinding cord four times now since Barbour’s inNorthern Ireland ceased production in the mid-nineteeneighties because it was uneconomic. Along withChristopher Clarkson, I set about trying to find analternative. The first replacement supplier went intoliquidation after the first making. The second went intoretirement. The third lost his source of supply and now wecan only hope that the fourth will keep going for a verylong time. Bigger institutions have been able to stockpilethe cord for the future. Those who do not have the funds,or newcomers to book conservation and fine binding,have to take a chance on its continuing availability.

Changes in one industry can impact on the availability ofsupplies to another. The relocation of the shoe industry toChina has lead to the closure of shoe board paper millsthat also produced board for bookbinders. The last UKremaining ‘Intermittent’ board mill closed in 2006.

Stockholding specialist machine made papers is gettingharder because, as institutions have moved to boxingrather than large scale rebinding of books, there is adecrease in the demand for papers like our Archival RagEndleaf. There is still a demand for a high quality cottonpaper like this but it is now very small by comparison,although the minimum production quantities have stayedthe same. In addition the type of paper mill capable ofproducing traditional high quality Fourdrinier or CylinderMould made papers is getting fewer and very soon it maybe a case of last man standing when it comes to thechoice we have.

Slow moving stock means that stockists have to tie upcash for long periods at unrealistic profit margins.Understanding how important a product is to ourcustomers is why we do it but we could not afford to stockthis kind of eccentric product without the faster movinglarge turnover products in our range. Therefore successfulproducts are very important to the customer/supplierpartnership.

(Read more about Stuart on pages 19 & 20)


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