saved for a rainy day - institute of conservation · a view of the glasgow conference 10 ... that...

Saved for a rainy day

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Around the worldwith eighty artefacts

Looking for diversity

Re-treating a royalwedding dress

THE MAGAZINE OF THE INSTITUTE OF CONSERVATION • JULY 2013 • ISSUE 47

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ICONnewsJULY2013Cover:01234 5/7/13 11:03

inside JULY 2013Issue 47

2 NEWSDiversity in the workforce;creating work opportunities;Journal news

9INTERVENTIONA view of the GlasgowConference

10PEOPLE

13LOANS FROM CHINADo’s and don’ts of courierwork and changes to aviationregulations

18AROUND AND ABOUTA Lincoln party, QEST at thePalace, work on a Brougham,Strawberry Hill award

22REVIEWSGlasgow Group reports,wirework, print identification,Asian paper, authenticity, wallmurals,

32 IN PRACTICEConserving a Royal weddingdress and In Training onreorganising umbrella storage

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Institute of Conservation1.5, Lafone House, The Leathermarket, Weston StreetLondon SE1 3ER

T +44(0)20 3142 6799

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

Chief ExecutiveAlison Richmond [email protected]

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Cover photo:Umbrellas and parasols at theMuseum of London in their newhanging storage system. An Iconintern describes the reorganisationof the storage on page 35. © Museum of London

Disclaimer:Whilst every effort is made to ensureaccuracy, the editors and Icon Boardof Trustees can accept noresponsibility for the contentexpressed in Icon News; it is solelythat of individual contributors

Deadlines: For September 2013 issue

Editorial: 1 August

Adverts: 15 August

From the Editor In her think-piece this time around, our CEOAlison Richmond has focussed on the startlinglack of diversity amongst our ranks. Readingthe opening pages of this issue has made mewonder if he didn’t go far enough when thatelder statesman of our profession, DavidLeigh, said at the Glasgow conference that

‘the excellence of our profession is a long-standing secret’.Perhaps it is the very existence of the profession that is thelongstanding secret. (It would certainly be interesting to knowhow we all ended up in it, surely more by accident than design.)

Perhaps deep down quite a lot of us like the idea of ourselvesas a cabal, to whom alone the secrets of artefacts arerendered, or as Allyson Rae so eloquently summarised it inthe last issue of Icon News: ‘the introspective pull of acomplex conservation treatment‘. Maybe this elitism is a smallcompensation for the lack of remuneration in the profession –the workforce research on this point, too, is pretty startling.

Do enjoy the diversity of stories in this issue and to those ofyou working in fields whose stories don’t appear oftenenough in Icon News, get writing! It’s good for your cpd andgood for us all to learn about aspects of conservation beyondour own discipline. And that’s even before we get goingsharing with the rest of the world.

Lynette Gill

ICON NEWS • JULY 2013 • 1

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professional updateFro m the Chief ExecutiveDIVERSITY Alison Richmond ACR FIIC writes about a topic whichpresents Icon with a continuing challenge

Why diversity?One of the stated aims of Icon’sNational Conservation Education& Skills Strategy 2012–16 hasbeen to diversify the workforce.This is a very important goal for anumber of reasons. As aprofession, conservators work forthe public benefit. Our workforceneeds to reflect the society thatwe work to benefit. In otherwords, we should not beexcluding people from theopportunity to join ourprofession.

Much of our work is publicly funded and these resourcesshould be spread more evenly across the population. Whenwe open up our sector to new people bringing new skills andnew knowledge, it benefits not only our sector but culturalheritage and the public. Increasing diversity is also a goal formany of our partners and funders in the cultural heritagesector. We want to be part of this.

How are we doing?According to our strategic plan, greater diversity could beachieved by opening up new entry routes to the profession,most notably through our Training Bursary Scheme and ourwork-based Conservation Technician Qualification. TheProfessional Accreditation of Conservator-Restorers (PACR),which measures professional proficiency at a single point,allows for multiple routes to the point of assessment, ensuringthat those who come through apprenticeship training or work-based learning have the opportunity to enter the profession.

The success of all of these initiatives in terms of numbers isundoubted. Since 2005, there have been over one hundredpaid internships, thus opening up the sector to people whocould not afford to support themselves while they train. Iconhas also been able to offer around 40% of these to peoplewithout a conservation background, in other words, newstarters in conservation. This meant that people who hadrelevant skills and knowledge but without conservationdegrees could transfer those skills to conservation. All ofthese initiatives should have made our sector more diverse.However, our diversity statistics show that this did not happen.We do not yet fully understand why this is the case. What isclear is that this is a very complex and difficult challenge.

Our recent labour market intelligence research has shown thatin January 2013 the conservation workforce was far fromdiverse; it was drawn from a relatively narrow segment ofsociety. 65% of professional conservators were women, 35%men (49% of the total UK workforce in all occupations was

female). 97% were white, while 98% of volunteers in the sectorare white. 100% of managerial and support staff workingdirectly with conservators were white. In comparison,conservation was less ethnically diverse than the museumssector (7% Black Minority Ethnic (BME) in 2008), the widercultural heritage workforce (7% BME in 2008) and far less diversethan the UK workforce as a whole (13% of people of workingage were of black or minority ethnicities). Disabled peoplewere also under-represented in conservation. 2% of the wholeconservation workforce had a declared disability. By comparison,7% of the UK working population in 2010–11 had a disability.*

What are the barriers? While these figures do need further analysis, we cannot sitback and let this situation continue. We need to make aconcerted effort to increase diversity in our sector. The firststep has already been taken. We now have benchmark figuresagainst which to measure progress. Next, we need to identifythe barriers to entry. The Museums Association has recentlypublished its report on its ten-year Diversify programme**.The scheme ran from 1998 to 2011. ‘Its original aim was tomake museum careers more accessible to people from BAMEbackgrounds through targeted positive-action training and itwas later expanded to other under-represented groups.’ In thereport, the MA have identified four interconnected barriers:

• Leadership and institutional responsibility

• Entry routes and recruitment practices

• Current economic crisis

• Changes to higher education funding

It is likely that the barriers identified by the MA are the samefor our workforce even though our footprint extends beyondmuseum employment.

What can we do?To address these challenges Icon recommends ‘thatorganisations employing and organisations trainingconservators should positively seek to diversify the workforce(and the future workforce) in order to extend conservation’sappeal beyond the narrow social stratum of the currentworkforce and so to avoid limiting the potential range of newentrants’.

Icon’s strategic plan contains a number of strands that havethe potential to enhance diversification of the workforce. Wewill work with our NCESS stakeholders to do this.

The MA states that it will campaign for: organisational andcultural change; leadership and institutional responsibility; realchange to entry routes to the workforce. The MA’s WorkingWonders Action Plan for the Museum Workforce containsfurther recommendations to open up the sector and diversifythe workforce.***

The MA is right: It is time for an holistic approach to be takenin order to achieve critical mass across the sector. We willwork with the MA to change cultures so that, to take oneexample, disability is acknowledged and discussed. There isalso a growing body of knowledge of good practice that wecan all share. For example, The National Trust have recently

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focussed their Skills for the Future programme on recruitingtrainees from hard-to-reach groups.

There are two current workforce development initiatives thatare highlighted in the articles that follow. Jo Cranston, SeniorEmployer Relationship Manager for the Department of Workand Pensions (DWP), talks about the partnership betweenJobCentre Plus (JCP) and Icon. Susan Bradshaw, Icon’sProfessional Development Manager, has been working closelywith JCP to offer long-term unemployed people opportunitiesto learn about conservation as a career and to apply forinternships.

As part of this partnership working, I have started to attendthe regular DWP Ministerial Round Table for TradeAssociations. While Icon is not a trade association per se, thisis a good way of keeping abreast of opportunities for ourmembers. Also, through a larger group such as this one, wehave a better chance of influencing government policy.

The other initiative introduced here is the Creative

Employment Programme being rolled out by Creative andCultural Skills with money from Arts Council England. Thisprogramme is explained in more detail in the article by CEOCatherine Large. It offers funding to employers to create workopportunities for young people (16–24 year olds) in the formof traineeships, apprenticeships and internships.

This is a new stream of funding and I encourage employers tocontact CCS to find out more about these opportunities andwhether they are relevant to your situation. It would be usefulfor Icon to know if you do look into these opportunities and ifyou do draw down funding, so that we can promote what Iconhas to offer, such as the Activity Monitor and the CTQ, andinform other members about success stories.

* Conservation Labour Market Intelligence Report 2013 by KennethAitchison, Icon. See Icon website

** Diversify: Reflections and Recommendations by Lucy Shaw, March2013, Museums Association. See MA website

** Working Wonders Action Plan for the Museum Workforce by theMuseums Association April 2013. See MA website

Susan Bradshaw, Icon’s Professional Development Manager,commissioned the followingarticles to help Icon membersfind out more and recognise theopportunities they could offer.

Introducing her work with DWP,Susan writes: I started to workwith the Department of Workand Pensions eighteen monthsago – endorsed by Icon’sProfessional Standards andDevelopment Committee (PSD). Ihave been building up thisrelationship in order to addressour diversity aims and objectivesand to support long termunemployed seeking work

experience and possible entry into the profession via theHLF/Icon Internship programme.

An example of this is the HLF/Icon Fine Metals internshipcurrently being recruited at Birmingham Museums. Itsconservation department worked with me to identify aplacement opportunity that would enable people with silver-smithing skills transfer those skills to conservation. A tasterday was set up at Birmingham Museums conservationdepartment and eleven people attended via DWP, three ofwhom were invited to do work experience over a period oftime. All three are now potential applicants for the HLFinternship programme.

Other employers such as PZ conservation (book conservation),National Museums Wales (engineering conservation),Middleport Pottery (a Prince’s Regeneration Trust project) andThe National Archives are looking to work with DWP toengage a wider audience for the conservation profession.

Jobcentre Plus working with Icon Jo Cranston, Senior Employer Relationship Manager forthe Department of Work and Pensions, explains howJobcentre Plus can offer advice and support to bodies likeIcon.

In March 2013, an unprecedented cross sector TradeAssociation roundtable – Working together to shape theworkforce of the future – was held, hosted by EmploymentMinister Mark Hoban. Icon’s CEO Alison Richmond attended,along with over twenty Trade Association Senior Managers.

The roundtable provided an opportunity to recognisecommon challenges faced by Trade Associations, as well as aspringboard for a two-way flow of information between tradeassociations and Jobcentre Plus.

Job information and labour market trends provided by Iconare invaluable. These help me influence how Jobcentre Pluscan better prepare jobseekers from our wide talent pool forthe conservation industry, and signpost Icon members toJobcentre services. My relationship with Icon enables me topublicise future government changes or initiatives that mayimpact on you or the industry.

The Youth ContractIn April 2012, this government introduced the Youth Contract– a range of measures to support young people in their bid toget a foot on the career ladder, and make their own way in life.

Jobcentre plus is working in partnership with Icon to promotethe sector as the career choice for young people and jobchangers.

The Youth Contract is a £1 billion package of support to helpyoung unemployed people get a job. It will provide nearlyhalf-a-million new opportunities for 18–24 year olds, includingapprenticeships and work experience placements. Employers

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may also be eligible to receive a wage incentive of up to£2,275 for taking on a young person.

For some young people a lack of understanding of theworking world is a significant barrier to finding and sustainingemployment. Jobcentre Plus wants to work with you to offerthese 18–24 year old jobseekers the opportunity to overcomethis barrier through work experience placements. For thosewho lack experience, the chance to undertake real work andadjust to the routines and habits of working life cansignificantly improve their employment prospects.

Helping a young person get their foot on the job laddermakes great business sense. Where employers have taken onyoung people they have found them open to new ideas anddifferent ways of working. They bring a fresh perspective andoffer the business a unique chance to train tomorrow’s talentand build future potential.

Hosting work experienceWork experience will enable young, unemployed people tovolunteer for placements lasting between two to eight weeks.These volunteers will be matched with suitable hostemployers and complete a light touch selection process.Jobcentre Plus will continue to pay participants’ benefits andalso cover the costs of travel and childcare. Young peoplewho have spent up to eight weeks in a work experienceopportunity can have their placement extended by up to fourweeks where an employer makes an offer to take them on toan apprenticeship.

If you want to become a work experience host, Jobcentre Pluscan help set this up for you. More details and information onwhom to contact can be found on the right.

Case Study: WD Close One of the businesses supporting the Youth Contract isWD Close, an engineering company from Tyneside whogave work experience placements to six local youngsters.The work experience was followed by an apprenticeshipand now all six have permanent jobs in the company’sWallsend factory.

Dean Scott, Works Director said ‘As an employer it’simportant to us to give opportunities to young peoplewhere we can. It’s great to be able to help the localcommunity and it makes good business sense as well’.

One of the young people involved, Jonathan Bradburywent from strength to strength and was awardedApprentice of the Year. He said ‘Having this opportunityhas changed my life. I’d say to anyone – give it a go, youhave nothing to lose and everything to gain’.

Case Study: Meg’s Sweets Wage incentives work for business but don’t just take ourword for it. Thanks to the wage incentive scheme a family-run business in Hull, Meg’s Sweet Shop, has taken on anew employee - Leigh Simms - to work in the shop.Things got busy after the co-owner, Bev, had a baby.Leigh used to regularly visit the shop and the owners wereaware she was looking for a job. At the same time thelocal Jobcentre got in touch to tell them about the wageincentive.

Co-owner Dean Mortimer said ‘the timing of that callcouldn’t have been better, suddenly everything cametogether. The wage incentive has been a great help, it’smeant we can take on the extra staff we need and keepthe business going’.

Take advantage of a wage incentiveIf you employ an 18 to 24 year old who has been claimingbenefits for at least six months then you can get financial helpthat more than covers the cost of a year’s national insurancecontributions. If you take someone on full-time (for thirtyhours or more a week) you’ll be able to claim the top rate of£2,275. Recruit someone part time – between sixteen andtwenty nine hours a week – and you’ll get £1,137.50. (The jobmust last at least twenty six weeks.)

Take advantage of this cash incentive and you’ll be giving aneager young person the chance to get off benefits and intowork. At the same time you’ll be helping your community bycreating opportunities and developing the skills of youngpeople in your area.

Other wage incentive avenuesThe wage incentive is also available if you take on a youngperson from the Work Programme. Recruiting a youngdisabled person from the Work Choice programme alsoattracts a wage incentive.

• Go online for more information on the Youth Contract orcall 0845 601 2001:Text phone 0845 602 2002.

• If you have worked with Jobcentre Plus to give a youngperson a chance, and would like to take part in thecampaign, email [email protected]

• For information about wage incentives available throughJobcentre Plus visit: www.dwp.gov.uk/wageincentives, andfor information about wage incentives available through theWork Programme or Work Choice go to:www.gov.uk/jobcentre-plus-help-for-recruiters/other-employment-schemes

Introducing the article from our sector skills council,Creative and Cultural Skills, Susan Bradshaw writes: This isan opportunity for the conservation profession toembrace a younger workforce and consider job roles thatwill attract them to conservation looked at from a broaderperspective, in other words, not within the confines ofconservation treatments alone but taking account of thehuge employment structure around conservators – such asframers, mount makers, art handlers, conservationtechnicians – with a broader range of skills in things likecarpentry, graphics and the media.

The Creative Employment ProgrammeCatherine Large, Joint CEO, Creative & Cultural Skills, islooking to kick-start change in the creative and culturalindustries

The rise of unpaid work is putting the creative and culturaleconomy at risk. It’s no secret that the number and duration ofunpaid internships has grown dramatically over recent yearsand it’s easy to see why. Ninety-four percent of businesses inthe creative and cultural industries employ fewer than tenpeople and many of these businesses are telling us that theylack resources to offer a salary to inexperienced workers.



work and create genuine, lasting employment for our sector.

If you are interested in growing and developing yourworkforce whilst encouraging a new generation of talent toenter the sector, please go to www.creative-employment.co.uk to find out how you can get involved, orcontact Daniel Williams at [email protected].

To be eligible for funding from the Creative EmploymentProgramme employers must:

• Be based in England. Organisations in Wales, Scotland orNorthern Ireland can only apply for funding provided theirmain activity benefits England.

• Be working within Arts Council England’s footprint of Music,Dance, Theatre, Combined Arts, Visual Arts, Literature,Carnival, Circus, Contemporary Craft, Galleries, Museumsand Libraries. Commercial and subsidised employers andorganisations of any size – including SMEs and sole traders– are eligible.

• Create paid internships and apprenticeship opportunitiesthat are relevant to the arts and cultural workforce. Wherethese opportunities are based in Museums and Libraries,job roles and skill sets need to be transferable to artsorganisations, for example, front of house, education andoutreach, marketing or digital media.

If employers have any queries about the eligibility of theirorganisation or the type of job roles they would like createthey should contact [email protected] for advice beforemaking an application for funding.

Applications for up to £2000 per Apprenticeship can bemade if the position is:

• Filled by a young person aged 16–24 not qualified beyondLevel 3 (non-graduate)

• Linked to an accredited Apprenticeship frameworkdelivered by a training provider

• Paid at least the Apprenticeship National Minimum Wage

• Last a minimum of 12 months for at least 30 hours per week

• Advertised on the National Apprenticeship Service VacancyMatching Service

Applications for up to £2500 per Paid Internship can bemade if the position is:

• Filled by a young person aged 18–24 currently claiming anunemployment related benefit, eg. Jobseeker’s Allowance

• Paid at least the National Minimum Wage for the age of theyoung person

• Last a minimum of 6 months for at least 30 hours per week

• Recruited through the employer’s local Jobcentre Plus

More generally, employers are telling us that the educationsystem isn’t providing our young people with the skills theyneed to enter industry, making them less likely to be paidfairly for their work.

But of course unpaid work is unsustainable for anyone withoutadditional financial support. We face an economic situationwith chronic under-employment as well as unemployment,and if we don’t act now to open up the cultural industries wedeny ourselves the diversity and richness that has made ourcreative sector one of the best in the world. We need to takesteps to ensure that young people have a fair chance tosucceed, or else we risk losing a whole generation of talent.

The Creative Employment Programme represents anopportunity for change. It aims to create a shift in our sector’srecruitment practices so that we can gradually eradicateunpaid internships and nurture a more diverse workforce. This£15m programme, generously supported by Arts CouncilEngland, provides arts organisations, museums and librarieswith funding to create new apprenticeship and paid internshipopportunities for young unemployed people aged 16–24.Eligible employers can create any entry level role through anapprenticeship or paid internship that supports their businessneed and is relevant to the arts and cultural workforce.

We are aiming to create 6,500 work opportunities, which alsoincludes an England-wide Traineeship programme to support16–18 year olds who are not quite ready to enter the workplace.

Fifteen million pounds may sound like a grand sum, but the6,500 target we hope to meet by March 2015 is a modestfigure if you look at the near one million young peopleunemployed in our country today. In order to make this work,we must connect with mainstream Government channels tocreate an enhanced package of support. What we have – forthe first time – is the chance to align these channels, enablingus to tap into greater investment from Government.

We are asking employers to create paid internshipopportunities specifically for young people claiming JobSeeker’s Allowance and other unemployment related benefits,as well as formal apprenticeships for those young people whoare likely to benefit the most from learning on the job.Employers can apply to us for funding to cover part of thewage costs for each new apprenticeship and paid internshipopportunity they create, alongside which we can also helpemployers access additional financial support through theNational Apprenticeship Service or through Jobcentre Plus.

The creative sector can make a significant difference to youngpeople’s lives and we want to prove to Government that oursector has the potential to do more if given the chance.

We are at an important moment in time. We want to kick-starta shift in attitude towards recruitment in the culturalindustries, which will create long-term benefits for the sectorand for the young people who aspire to work within it.However, the success of the Creative Employment Programmedepends upon the ability of employers to seize the opportunityand adopt a new mind-set. Only by looking to the nextgeneration of talent can we hope to put an end to unpaid


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PTM is one application of Reflectance Transformation Imaging(RTI). The following publications provide more information:

Earl, G., Martinez, K. and Malzbender, T. (2010) Archaeologicalapplications of polynomial texture mapping: analysis,conservation and representation. Journal of ArchaeologicalScience, 37 (11pp). Available as PDF from:http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/21222/

Eastop, D. 2012. Presenting the rough and the smooth withinnovative technology. In: A. Fairhurst (ed.) Taking the roughwith the smooth: issues and solutions for decorated surfaces.Postprints of the Icon Textile Group Forum, (16 April 2012). CD.Available in Chantry Library.

Goskar, T. A. & Earl, G. P. (2010) Polynomial texture mappingfor archaeologists. British Archaeology, 111: 28-31. Availableas a PDF from:www.southampton.ac.uk/archaeology/docs/polynomial_texture_mapping.pdf

Padfield, J., Saunders, D. and Malzbender, T. 2005. Polynomialtexture mapping: a new tool for examining the surface ofpaintings. In: I. Verger (ed.) The Hague Preprints [of the 14thTriennial Meeting of the international Committee forConservation of ICOM], 1: 504–510. Available in Chantry Library.

Dinah Eastop, PhD, ACRCuratorial Research Fellow Collection Care, The National Archives

ANNA PLOWDEN TRUST NEWSWillard Conservation Ltd has become the Founder CorporateSupporter of the Anna Plowden Trust. Paul Willard said ‘asone of the world's leading producers of conservation toolsand equipment, Willard Conservation is delighted to supportthe Anna Plowden Trust in its mission to help students to trainas conservators and to help professional conservators toenhance their skills and knowledge though CPD’. The Chair ofthe Trust, Sue Palmer, expressed the Trustees’ delight atWillard’s generosity, saying ‘currently we are only able toaward grants to about a third of those who apply to us. Thissupport from Willard Conservation Ltd. is enormously helpfuland makes a valuable contribution to our current fundraisingcampaign’.

LOST ARTS WEBSITEIn July last year we drew readers’ attention to the Lost Artswebsite (www.lost-arts.org). A reader writes to tell us that ithas undergone redevelopment in order to shift its focus fromrecording funding cuts to featuring more stories of localcampaigns and personal experiences of the effects of thecuts. To submit content contact: [email protected]

NEWS FROM THE GROUPS

Care of CollectionsThe Care of Collections Group committee recently sent a websurvey out to all members asking for opinions and ideas onfuture events and we received nearly a hundred responses!We’d like to say a big thank you to all those who took the

JOURNAL NEWSIn her capacity as Chair of theJournal of the Institute ofConservation (JIC) Task and FinishGroup Lara Artemis writes:

The JIC Task and Finish group aremaking their way through twelvework streams (taken from the termsof reference) used to guide usthrough the process of research forthe task. The group are pleased toannounce the following additions toour group: Dr. Matija Strlic, who hasalready provided a valuablecontribution on the expectations andneeds of academics, and Kostas

Ntanos, Chair of the Science Group, who will be assistingFrancis Downing, working on the process of consulting themembership through a survey.

Please do keep an eye out for this survey around Septemberas it is very important that we know your views when we arecompiling various business options for the journal beyond 2015.

In her capacity as Advisory Editor for the Journal of the Instituteof Conservation Vol. 35, No 2 2012, Lara Artemis writes:

The parchment and vellum special issue of the Journal is nowout! Please do have a good read, as the contributors havereally worked hard to present their research, and our editor forthe issue, Christina Rozeik, should be thanked too for herinvaluable editorial work. You will see that the articles are ofexceptional quality and cover a good balance of theory andpractice. Please do feel free to make suggestions to the Editor,Janet Berry, on how we could possibly make it even better.

NEW LIGHT ON OLD THINGS Recent online applications of polynomial texture mapping(PTM) may be of interest to Icon News readers. This imagecapture and processing technique enables the display andinteractive examination of digital representations of artefacts.Surface features can be viewed under varying lightingconditions, which are controlled by the viewer. This providesan engaging mode of investigation, particularly whencombined with a zoom facility. It’s proved useful for inspectingthe monochrome, textured surfaces of embossed papers,lace, straw-work and wax seal impressions, as shown by theexamples posted on the blog of The National Archives.Please have a go and post your feedback.http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/capturing-andexploring-texture/ http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/texture-mapping-part-two/ http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/texture-mapping-part-three/ http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/texture-mapping-part-four/ http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/new-light-on-old-seals/

Lara Artemis



time to fill in the survey and share their suggestions.

While 75% of the respondents said they would be most likelyto attend an event in London, a significant number wouldattend events held in other areas including the Midlands,Yorkshire, East Anglia, and Scotland, with most peoplepreferring an event in the summer or autumn months. Over80% of the respondents indicated a preference for a seminaror workshop combined with a study visit.

Out of a possible three events suggested, there was a largepreference for a one-day seminar and visit on the topic ofopen access and handling of collections, so we will beplanning this event to be held in conjunction with our AGM inSeptember. More details to follow in Iconnect!

Textile Group Full details of the following events, including costs andcontact information, can be found on the Textile Group webpages, along with information about other related textileevents in which members may be interested.

There may be an opportunity to visit Toye, Kenning and Spenceron 9 September, for a two-hour tour. The tour has had a lot ofinterest and is fully booked but if you are particularly interestedit is worth seeing if any places have become available. Toye,Kenning and Spencer produce ceremonial ribbons, mountedmedals, caps, embroidery, metal threads and masonic regalia.The company holds a Royal Warrant for making gold andsilver laces, insignia and embroidery.

Then on Friday 20 September there is a joint Icon Textile Groupand Historic Interiors Group study day to view the late 17thcentury Queen’s antechamber wall hangings at Ham house.There will be a short tour of the house and May Berkouwer fromMay Berkouwer Conservation will give a presentation aboutthe recent conservation work to the wall hangings. Discussionswill follow with May and her assistant Gerda Koppatz.

On Friday 11 October a visit to the Leather ConservationCentre, Northampton University Campus, has been arrangedwhich will include a tour of the centre and a short handlingand identification session.

There is a call for papers for the 9th North American TextileConservation conference entitled Conserving Modernity: theArticulation of Innovation. This will be held in San Franciscofrom 12–15 November 2013. The deadline for the submissionof papers is 14 September.

The committee are thinking ahead to events in 2014. There is aproposed visit in May next year to Mount Stuart and Bute fabricsbut more details will be available when this visit is finalised.

Call For PapersApril 2014 Textile Group Forum Joined Up Thinking: Textilesand the Historic Interior. 200–300 word abstracts are invited on the above theme,including but not limited to care of textiles of all types, displayand interpretation. We welcome abstracts from conservatorsof all disciplines involved in historic interiors whether inhistoric houses, museums or other locations. Also fromcurators and scientists involved in the same.

Please email abstracts to [email protected] byThursday 12 September

LIBRARY NEWS

Photocopies We supply photocopies of journalarticles, chapters from books, andconference papers, which are heldin the Chantry Library collection.Icon members may claim ten freearticles each year, provided eitheras scanned pages, or in hard copy.Email Ros Buck, Librarian [email protected], withyour requests, quoting yourmembership number, or completeand send the copyright formavailable on the Chantry Library

webpages www.chantrylibrary.org.uk (Library Services).

Recently received publications Historical Perspectives on Preventive Conservation (GettyConservation Institute’s Readings in Conservation) edited bySarah Staniforth, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles,2013, 426pp. ISBN: 978-1-60606-142-8

Climate for Collections: Standards and Uncertainties(Postprints of the Munich Climate Conference 7-9 November2012) edited by Jonathan Ashley-Smith, Andreas Burmesterand Melanie Eibl, Archetype Publications Ltd., London, 2013,452pp. ISBN: 978-1-909492-00-4Further details and contents pages:http://www.archetype.co.uk/publication-details.php?id=185

Recently received journalsJournal of Paper Conservation (IADA), Vol.14, No.2, 2012

JAIC (Journal of the American Institute for Conservation),Vol.52, 2, May 2013JAIC Archive Online (1977-2005): http://cool.conservation-us.org/jaic/

Print Quarterly, Vol.30, No.2, June 2013

WAAC Newsletter, Vol.35, No.2, May 2013Online access to Waac back issues (up to January 2010):http://cool.conservation-us.org/waac/wn/

Find out moreThere are several ways of keeping up to date via the ChantryLibrary:

• Check out the library blog ‘Library News’http://chantrylibrary.wordpress.com/ for further details ofnew resources and a full listing of all journal articlesreceived over the past few month.

• Or you can have the news come to you by subscribing tothe RSS feed and track new books and journals at theLibrary in real time. More details on how to do this are alsoat http://chantrylibrary.wordpress.com/feed/

• Details about new library resources can also be found in thequarterly Chantry Library Resources Updates, on thewebsite here:www.icon.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1827&Itemid=175

Ros Buck


8

What are your impressionsof Icon since becoming aTrustee? When I first joined the Board, Iwas surprised at the range ofsubcommittees above andbeyond the Groups andcentral services: PACR,standards, publications, etc.There were plenty of acronyms(PSD, CTQ, CRAB) and it tooka while to work out how theyall sat within Icon. At the time,I felt there was an underlyingsense that the Board was a bitout of touch with themembership. My attitude

remains – don’t moan but get stuck in and it’s been afascinating and rewarding experience.

I‘ve enjoyed learning how all the activities dovetail togetherand see Icon as a complex and effective organisation whichgenuinely does have the long term interests of a skilledprofession at heart.

What particular interests in the organisation have youbought to the Board?Because I have run my own business and still work at thebench, I hope I’ve brought some straightforward office skillsand pragmatic viewpoints to the Board.

I’ve championed membership services as a priority withinIcon, better communications in all directions and supportingthe groups. I’ve been involved with the Task & Finish groupto create options for preserving the future of the IconChantry Library which has a diminishing financial legacy.

By asking questions about costs in the accounts (never beafraid to ask a basic question), I was asked to join theFinance & General Purposes Committee. I now Chair theCommittee. Although familiar with basic accountingprocedures, charitable accounts require a particularunderstanding. Many conservators, I am sure, however, havea natural capacity for detail and are well placed forscrutinising figures with guidance and support. Thankfullyour accountant has always been patient and explained thefigures and it has been a privilege to work with theCommittee and continue to ask difficult questions!

Icon is being very well looked after by an excellent ChiefExecutive and Business Manager (Simon Green) andaccountant (John Speed). One of the most positive aspectsof the office restructuring was to have a Business Managerto support the Chief Executive. Administering the accountsand chasing best interest rates, for example, is hugely timeconsuming. The accounts are in expert order, sticking tocareful annual budgets and quarterly management reviews.Icon is consistently covering its costs and building upunrestricted reserves.

We cannot be complacent however. There are no portfoliosof property investments! Interest rates have been painfullylow for years. All organisations, especially charitable ones,have to work with unknown income levels. Icon is lucky tohave a balance of regular membership income and externalfunding from supporters of our charitable aims. The successin applying for major external funding such as the HLFIntern scheme reflects our reputation for delivering seriousand effective educational programmes.

The membership can be confident that funds are beingused prudently and Icon is in a secure place to build upreserves and capital legacies longer term.

Where would you like to see Icon do more? I am aware that Icon priorities mean different things todifferent people. For some people advocacy and publiceducation are the priority. Others want courses andmeetings. As a self-employed conservator at the bench, Istill see Icon as primarily a home for practitioners. I wouldlove to see a web-based internal membership directory andsome sort of ‘Icon Handbook’ that shows up the structure ofIcon and all the varied activities and groups on offer.

The Website needs upgrading and could be better outwardand inward facing. We can all benefit from the cross-fertilization of skills and knowledge and Icon is the bestplace to bring this all together.

I think the Board needs a broader professional skills basebeyond conservation and I’m pleased to see Icongovernance in general is under review.

Finally what are the best things about Icon?I think membership is good value when one considers thepublications and Iconnect and it holds itself well againstother similar organisations. The Conservation Register is ahuge benefit to the public and accredited conservators. Ifself employed and accredited (30% of us are self-employed), I would recommend signing up and it will payfor itself every year.

I have found Alison Richmond an inspiring andconscientious Chief Executive who has rationalised theinternal structures of Icon and is out there listening to allviewpoints. There is an extremely loyal and hardworkingstaff working for the membership and Icon.

I’ve learnt a lot about running a complex organisation andcharitable governance. The Icon Board has been a steppingstone to some interesting further involvements in the widerworld of heritage conservation and I feel very privileged tobe elected again to the Icon Board.

I recommend any doers and thinkers in the conservationworld putting themselves forward at the next round ofelections. I am always happy to answer further queries.

strategically speaking

Icon Trustee Penny Jenkins ACR writes about your Icon from her perspective

Penny Jenkins



In April I attended the Icon PF13 Conference – PositiveFutures in an Uncertain World – held at the University ofGlasgow. My reason for attending differed from most. I’mnot a conservator; I am an Education Officer, working forHistoric Royal Places (HRP) in the Access and LearningDepartment. My role is to develop and deliver a learningprogramme based on HRP’s extensive conservation work. Iwent to the conference to immerse myself in a conservator’sworld, learn the language, get ideas for a learning programme,and hopefully make a few contacts along the way.

‘Strengthen your brethren’‘Take every opportunity to tell people what you do’ saidFiona Hyslop, MSP and Cabinet Secretary for Culture andExternal Affairs in the Scottish government. This was thesentiment of the opening address to imagining the futurepreservation of cultural heritage.

As I pondered the two day conference on my train journeyback to London, I was reminded of the New Testamentscripture when Jesus spoke to his apostle Peter, ‘when thouart converted, strengthen thy brethren’ (Luke 22:32). What Iobserved was a gathering of nearly four hundred converts,clearly passionate about their work and in some cases ratherprotective of it. There were many concerns about the futureof conservation and the future of conservators exploringfurther afield.

In order to survive in an ‘uncertain world’ conservators needto do more than preach to the converted – they need to‘strengthen’ their brethren. Converted conservators need tospread the good word with their fellow men of all ages andbackgrounds. By showing, doing and sharing theirknowledge to community groups, school groups, familiesand adults they will create a social impact that willdemonstrate and increase the value of their work.

Shout about it!The specialist expertise, historic knowledge and theinvestment and coordination needed to deliver conservationwork is impressive in its range, size and reach. Yet theopportunities afforded to talk about and engage with thiswork are relatively small.

I’m not a ConservatorZinta Jaunitis gives an outsider’s view of Icon’s recent conference: PositiveFutures in an Uncertain World

intervention

‘The excellence of our profession often remains alongstanding secret’ said David Leigh, a conservator andIcon’s representative on the National Trust Council’s artpanel. Traditionally when conservation work is underway it isdone behind closed doors or a shielded scaffold. Sometimesthere is a small sign explaining what is happening, or theremight be an explainer telling you about the work. You mayeven see people dressed in black, like shadowy figuresmoving about with purpose – much like those preparing atheatre stage for the next act, trying to blend into thebackground. Conservators rarely make a virtue of the workthey are doing. By viewing their conservation work as anopportunity to showcase to others they are shouting about it!

What do you get when you cross a conservator with a —?PHD student from the Institute of Archaeology, UCL,Christina Rozeik explored in her presentation a conservator’spublic image, and questioned how conservators arecommunicating to the public. ‘We are not one public’ shesaid. Conservators need to disseminate informationaccording to the audience. ‘The audience’ is a broad termthat includes the likes of: families, local communities, schoolgroups (primary and secondary, and adults), specialist andnon-specialists. ‘You need to articulate the relevance andimportance of your work… and maximise the opportunity toshare your expertise’, said Hyslop.

As an education officer embarking on this dissemination, I’vedeveloped some real life crisscross:What do you get when you cross conservation with a groupof seven year olds? A session where children follow a recipeto make a mortar biscuit – good enough to hold up theTower of London!What do you get when you cross a craftsman with the localcommunity? Increased empathy for our heritage, by seeingthe ‘great detail, love and expertise involved’ (quote from agilding workshop participant)What do you get when you cross conservation with learningand engagement? A diverse programme delivered to avariety of audiences, and an increased awareness of whatconservators do.

The conference concluded with a plea formore outward facing conservators, and aworkforce more fit for purpose. In addition totheir already broad skill set, conservators arerequired to have business, planning,management and advocacy skills. Engagingwith ‘the public’ is one of the best ways tomake a case for heritage preservation. ProfKenneth Calman, Chancellor of the Universityof Glasgow, urged the crowd to talk topoliticians, captains of industry and the publicabout the importance of heritagepreservation. ‘Tell people what you do’… andI add, show people what you do… ‘Otherwisepeople won’t know what you do’.

Exploring pigments in A-level Historyof Art study day

11 year olds mixing mortar strongenough to hold the Tower of London

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This summer QEST awarded twentythree scholarships totalling £162,600 andamongst the lucky recipients was Iconmember and former Icon intern LucieGraham, a natural history conservator.

Lucie was a conservator for theHunterian Museum and the WellcomeMuseum of Anatomy and Pathology’scollections, both of which come underthe jurisdiction of the Royal College ofSurgeons. Before this she undertook herInternship in Natural HistoryConservation and Collections Care atthe Natural History Museum, Londonand The Lancashire ConservationStudios, Preston.

Her QEST scholarship will facilitate afurther year’s training under JamesDickinson, natural history conservatorand taxidermist, prior to his retirementin 2014. This unique opportunity willenable Lucie to acquire skills that are indanger of becoming completely lost asfew people are training in this sector.

Congratulations to Professor MalcolmGrant, President and Provost ofUniversity College London, who hasbeen knighted in the Queen’s BirthdayHonours for 2013 for services to highereducation.

Professor Grant has been a good friendto conservation, publicly supporting it ina number of ways, for example, byproviding written and oral evidence tothe House of Lords Science andTechnology Select Committee Inquiryon Science and Heritage in 2005 and byleading the celebrations of the 10thanniversary of the UCL Centre forSustainable Heritage in 2011.

He is currently enabling thedevelopment of the UCL CulturalHeritage Network which brings togetherresearchers from across the universityengaged in cultural heritage researchfrom the arts and humanities to science,engineering and technology.

The Plowden Medal was won this yearby horological conservator JonathanBetts MBE in recognition of his tirelessand pioneering work in furthering theunderstanding, conservation and ethicaltreatment of historic clocks and watches.

Jonathan is Senior Curator of Horologyat the Royal Museums Greenwich with aparticular interest in the history of themarine chronometer and the life andwork of the early pioneers ofchronometry. He has been a long termadviser to many collections includingthe National Trust and the WallaceCollection. The Plowden Medalrecognises his determination anddynamism in teaching, lecturing andguiding his professional colleagues,clockmakers, students and curators forthe past thirty five years.

The gold medal, inaugurated in 1999, isawarded by the Royal Warrant HoldersAssociation in memory of the late Hon.Anna Plowden CBE, the leadingconservator who was Vice-President ofthe Association at the time of her deathin 1997. The Medal is presented annuallyto the individual who has made themost significant recent contribution tothe advancement of the conservationprofession. It can also be awarded torecognise a lifetime of commitment andachievement.

peopleAwards



The Zibby Garnett TravellingFellowship announced its 2013 awardslast month and three Icon membershave benefited from its generosity: ElizaDoherty, Maria Grabowska and CorrieTubman.

Eliza, who is a student at City & Guildsof London Art School, will be using heraward to study temple wall paintingconservation with the Tibet HeritageFund, Sikkim, India.

Maria, at Glasgow University’s Centre forTextile Conservation and Technical ArtHistory, will be pursuing her textileconservation studies with The ArtCollection of the Wawel Royal Castle,Cracow in Poland.

Corrie, at Northumbria University, is goingto study church cave fresco conservationwith Sinergie Sco Coop, Bari, Italy.

Happy travels to them all!

The Zibby Garnett Travelling Fellowshipis an educational charity set up to fundoverseas study trips for art conservationstudents who are training in the UnitedKingdom and wish to widen theirpractical skills. Since its foundation in2000, it has enabled over ninety twostudents to visit more than thirty sixcountries. For more information seewww.ZibbyGarnett.org

Rob Lewis has recently taken up aConservation Manager position in Doha,Qatar, working for the Qatar MuseumAuthority. Most recently, Rob had beenacting as the Conservation & MuseumsLiaison for Tru Vue, where he met withmuseum professionals from the UK to asfar afield as New Zealand to serve as atechnical resource. Before this, he hadworked on major capital projects forGlasgow Museums, first specialising inarchaeological collections inKelvingrove, and then objects morebroadly for the Riverside Museumproject.

His new role in Doha offers the chanceto combine his experience inconservation and major projects with hisexperience of museums in aninternational context, and he looksforward to the unique challenges andopportunities of working in the region.

After eight years working for TheNational Trust as ConsultantConservator in London and South EastRegion, Ylva Dahnsjö takes up the roleof Head of Collections ConservationServices for the National Trust Scotlandin September. She will be based atHead Office in Edinburgh and will leadthe excellent team of NTS conservatorsand interns distributed across Scotland.

Ylva is no stranger to the Scottishconservation scene, having worked forfourteen years as Head of the Book &Paper Conservation Studio at theUniversity of Dundee, and many happyyears as Committee Member and Chairof SSCR.

Moves

The Zibby Garnett Travelling Fellowship

ZGTF


12

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BACKGROUNDOver the past four years Colchester and Ipswich MuseumService has had partnerships with two Chinese Museums,Xuzhou and Nanjing, to put on exhibitions in ColchesterCastle. I was lucky enough to be one of the conservators whowould assess the objects, prepare a condition report, assistand oversee the transportation of the collections.

From Xuzhou Museum in 2009 we borrowed a collection ofsmall terracotta tomb statues and from Nanjing Museum in2012 we borrowed a selection of objects including silk robes,ceramics, metal and jade objects including a jade suit.

Condition reporting on large diverse collections such asthese, a long way from home, can prove daunting, especiallyas time constraints mean that you may only have one or twodays at the most to complete the process. Cultural differencesand the language barrier also add to problems.

After my first visit to China I decided to learn Mandarin, and inOctober 2012 I completed an Open University course. Beingable to speak even basic Mandarin was a help and at leastshowed willing. Most of my Chinese colleagues spoke someEnglish, so between us we got along.

In the past I had often couriered three or four objects, usuallypaintings, but being responsible for condition reporting andcouriering collections of over one hundred objects was adifferent matter.

Takeaways from ChinaRobert Entwistle ACR, Senior Conservation Officer of the Colchester andIpswich Museum Service, shares his experiences of transporting andcouriering large collections, gives some helpful advice and flags up recentchanges in the law which have changed and further complicated thepacking schedule

XUZHOUHaving condition-reported collections in the past I knew that Ihad to have as much information as possible before I set out. Ialso knew that I would have little time, so I suggested we usea tick sheet for each object , detailing the usual damage suchas cracks, missing areas and repairs, along with a space for animage and a sketch.

Obtaining images from Xuzhou Museum of the tomb statueswas difficult due, I am sure, to misunderstandings and the factthat some images did not exist. Generic rather than specificimages were sent (which was not known until I arrived) andthere were no scales in the images. Also our designdepartment was anxious to know weights and sizes, and if anymounts would be travelling with the objects.

In Xuzhou the tick sheets worked well and acted as prompts.However the generic images were spotted: for instance, thesame soldier appeared six times. Since I took my own laptopand a camera, I was able to take more images and update thetick sheets with new images and information whilst I was onsite.

From past experience I was wary of using a local Chinese pc.Different systems and different programmes might not havebeen compatible. I had tried to run a cd on a Chinese pc inthe past only to find that it would not play.

My Chinese colleagues were very hospitable and there werequite a few meetings. I became worried that I would never get

Doing a condition report on the Jade suit. Crates being loaded on to pallets in Heathrow


14

Crates loaded unsecured onto a lorry in Shanghai Airport.

Chinese customs checking random crates and boxes.

to see the objects. However, once the negotiations andpleasantries were concluded my work in the museum labbegan. The objects came fast and furious. Keeping track ofthem all was a challenge.

The tick sheets were a definite help in speeding the conditionreporting and acting as prompts but I had to be assertive andtell them to slow down and even call objects back for a furtherlook. This frustrated my hosts but couriers have to be satisfiedthat they have fully documented the object. Not to do thisleaves the borrowing institution open to claims of damage.

NANJINGFor the next exhibition with Nanjing the tick sheet system wasused again. However this time we re-vamped the layout andadded an area for details on packing, an estimate of weight,and generally made the form more flexible to suit thedifferent materials and objects.

Because of the different methods of working in NanjingMuseum I made a scoping visit to assist in choosing theobjects and I made preliminary condition reports and took asmany digital images as I could. When the objects werepacked for transport, my colleague made the final conditionreports, added to my preliminary observations and took moreimages.

TRAVEL OBSERVATIONSI was surprised that the Chinese conservators took no part inoverseeing the couriering when the objects were coming fromand being returned to China. They were mostly concernedwith security and would only intervene if they were unhappyon some specific point. All the packing, reporting and traveloversight was the preserve totally of the British couriers.

The Chinese couriers put seals on all the cases where andwhen the objects were displayed. In transport all the crateshad seals placed on them which were replaced every time acrate was opened by the carriers or by customs. When thecrates were placed in overnight storage before conditionreporting in Nanjing, I was asked to place my initials on thedoor seal. This was to ensure that no tampering with theobjects could take place.

For both exhibitions the airports used were Heathrow andShanghai Pudong. As usual at both airports I was allowed tooversee the palettisation of the objects and their arrangement

on the pallet. This was obviously easier at Heathrow thanShanghai, however by my fourth trip I was able to say ‘slowdown’ and ‘please be careful’ in Chinese.

Both times at Pudong Airport I had to intervene with thecargo handlers. The objects were transported to and from theaircraft on trucks that did not have pneumatic tyres and weredriven much too fast. The vibration and shock to the objectswas a great cause for concern. I was surprised that it fell to meto do this and not the carriers or the Chinese museum staff.Shock and vibration data loggers in some crates would haveshown evidence of this less than gentle treatment.

Our carrier in Britain was Momart and in China Huaxi. Bothcarriers were extremely professional, but again they do thingsdifferently.

Xuzhou Museum packed its own objects but Nanjing Museumgave this over to Huaxi. Huaxi made the crates, cut the foamand packed the objects. Huaxi supplied a packing diagram ofeach crate. This was essential as the packing was a complexprocess. Boxes containing objects and the foam packingwould only fit in one way. Without a diagram of each crate, re-packing would have been a nightmare. The crates were madeof plywood which, whilst cheaper, is problematic. Some crateshad been made too small, whilst others had warped and weredifficult to close.

I noticed, too, that the British trucks were all air sprung whilstthe Chinese trucks were not. Also the different ways thecarriers secured the objects in the trucks caused me someconcern. The airport handlers drove the crates from the cargosheds to the loading area whilst they were unsecured in theback of a lorry. I queried this and was told it was only a shorttrip. The short trip was four or five miles: China is a bigcountry.

Momart secured the crates to the side of the trucks thuslessening the vibration to the crates as there was less contact



One of the author’s tick sheet condition reports. Page 1 below leftand page 2 above, illustrating key points.

with the lorry floor. Huaxi strapped the crates securely to thefloor of the lorry, which I thought would increase vibrationdamage. I mentioned this but I did not know the Mandarin for‘increased vibration damage’. This is how Huaxi transport theirobjects. Interfering with the working practice methods ofprofessional carriers would not have gone down well.

Keeping a good working relationship with the carriers isimportant, so once I had voiced my concerns and they hadbeen considered and then respectfully rejected, I had done asmuch as I could. It was a judgement call, and I chose to trustthe carriers. However the different methods of securing thecrates resulted in no damage to the objects.

RETURNING THE OBJECTSCondition reporting when the objects were returned was thereverse of the outward trip. My Chinese hosts took their timeto examine every object in great detail. The comprehensivecondition reports written by me and my colleague, along withthe many images, were invaluable in resolving queries andpossible disagreements. On a number of occasions I was ableto use the images and condition reports to show that theobject had returned in exactly the same condition as it hadleft.

There was only one unresolved difference of opinion about anobject’s condition. On these occasions I never argue, as acourier I am alone in a foreign country. I take a lot of images,sign the report as possibly disputed, and suggest the matterbe discussed by those with a higher pay grade than ours. I

Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service Object Assessment Nanjing 2012

Examined by EHH 111/06/12 Phhoto ref: 39Accession No (theirs)

GIS referencee 26

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16

agree to disagree and always end the discussion with a smileand a handshake. Quite often this is usually the end of thematter, as indeed it was in this case.

Once the condition reporting was over and all objects signedoff, I could relax, enjoy my hosts’ hospitality, take some leave,and practise my schoolboy Mandarin.

My trips to China were a wonderful experience. I find thecountry immensely interesting and the people at first wary,inquisitive and then very friendly and incredibly polite. Beingable to communicate, no matter how badly was greatlyappreciated.

Thanks to my colleagues at CIMS, especially Emma Hogarthand Steve Yates.

Thanks also to Julie Prance from MOMART

Pallets being loaded on to the plane

Author writing condition report of an incense burner.

Seals on store: Nanjing museumSeals on crates. New seals placed on crates by Chinese couriersevery time they were opened.



CHANGES IN AVIATION SECURITYREGULATIONSOn the return journey to Nanjing we were informed byMomart of a change in the Department for Transport (DFT)Aviation Security Regulations that will affect all objectstransported on passenger aircraft.

For a number of years, all objects which do not originatefrom a ‘Known Consignor’ (ie a consignor whose premisesand staff training meet the necessary security standards setout in DFT regulations) have had to be screened by othermethods. Most often, this has meant works being hand-searched on site by approved licensed carriers (known asRegulated Agents).

In January 2013 these regulations were tightened. Allobjects being transported on passenger aircraft, and whichcannot undergo alternative screening, have to be packedand hand-searched on the secure premises of a licensedcarrier.

For Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service this meantthat all the objects had to be packed and transported toMomart’s approved warehouse in London only to beunpacked, thoroughly handsearched and packed again.

Obviously this increases the risk of damage to the objectsand adds to costs. Institutions may wish to send arepresentative to see the object unpacked, searched andpacked yet again. Insurers may also increase theirpremiums.

In our case the search was carried out in the warehouse inless than ideal circumstances. There were no special cleanareas for opening the crates and unpacking the boxes. TheChinese courier could not understand the reason forunpacking the crates after they had been so carefully andsecurely packed.

The same process will have to take place on the returnjourney should the country concerned be bound by the newregulations – note that each country will have its ownsecurity screening processes, they are not necessarily thesame as the methods used in the UK.

Momart and other carriers have apologised and wish tostate that they have to comply with the law or riskprosecution and the loss of their licence. However in thefuture special clean secure areas should be provided bycarriers for the searches to take place.

Alternatives to the handsearch option are for museums tobecome known Consignors or for objects to undergo otherscreening methods – the suitability of these options willneed to be determined by each museum based on itscollection and number of airfreight consignments each year.

Crates etc can be X rayed and avoid being searched,should such a facility be available. Obviously the X rayfacility will need to be large enough to accommodate theobjects and its packing. Some carriers may be able toorganise this for customers but it will obviously incur acharge.

It is understood that the National Gallery has determinedthat the X raying of objects is unlikely to affect the object orthe potential for future TL examination. They see X rayingwhere possible as preferable to being obliged to open acrate.

Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service lends manyobjects to institutions abroad and this year we have had tofactor in extra days for the courier to be present when theobject is unpacked and the packaging searched by thecarrier. There are also scheduling implications in that loanswill need to be collected sooner than was envisaged for thechecks to take place.

This is causing headaches for the loaning and borrowinginstitutions and the carriers.

Remember: these regulation only apply to aviation. Boat,road and rail travel are unaffected.

More details about the regulation changes can be foundon:www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-known-consignorsand some general information on DFT Aviation Securityhere:www.gov.uk/government/policies/managing-the-risk-to-transport-networks-from-terrorism-and-other-crimes/supporting-pages/aviation-security

The crates being hand searched by MOMART


around and about

18

QEST at Buckingham PalaceThe Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust was invited todecorate Buckingham Palace’s Summer House to celebratethe Coronation Festival from 11 to 14 July. Icon memberPenny Bendall was selected as the ideal curator. Penny is aceramics conservator, a Royal Warrant holder and a QESTTrustee. Around forty five QEST scholars, picked from thenearly three hundred on QEST’s database, have contributedto the project and submitted products for exhibition. Seven ofthem have painted a trompe l’oeil and murals within theoctagonal building set amongst the trees of the garden and awicker corgi has been constructed to bring a note of informality.

One conservation scholar is represented, Mary French, who iscurrently doing an MA at West Dean studying book andpaper conservation. She has prepared an exhibit of sixdifferent examples of book binding, to demonstrate the art ofbook conservation.

Deir al-Surian footnoteIn a postscript to the last issue’s article about the new Libraryand Conservation Centre at the Deir al-Surian Monastery, wecan report that the opening was a great success.

Elizabeth Sobczynski, author of our article, writes: It was abeautiful day and there was a true sense of accomplishment.After nearly ten years of hard work and the support of thoseinvolved, finally it all came together and there it was in front ofour eyes.

Everything went smoothly and the guests were met by FatherBigoul, Bishop Mattaos, Abbot of Deir al-Surian and thefathers. In the presence of numerous church dignitaries andmany other distinguished guests, including Her Majesty'sAmbassador James Watt and Mrs Watt, speeches were madecelebrating the achievements of the Levantine Foundation.Finally, there was a tour of the library in the presence of a TVcrew and journalists from the local press, a tour of the churchand then a festive lunch in a large hall with over two hundredguests.

Elizabeth Sobczynski contributing to the opening speeches

A view of Deir al-Surian

Mary French, left, being presented with her QEST award by JeniferEmery, President of the Royal Warrant Holders Association, in June.Below, one of her bindings.

A Mudéjar binding modelled after those created in 14th – 16thcentury Spain. Made of leather, oak, paper, vellum, brass and silk


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There were articles about the opening published in theEgyptian press as well as on websites specialising in Syriacstudies.

My next big project is going to be digitising the collection inpartnership with the Wellcome Trust and cataloguing theCoptic and Arabic collection.

Thank you, Icon, for your interest in our work and continuingsupport.

University of Lincoln Conservation Reunion PartyLast month on Saturday 15 June, staff and students from theUniversity of Lincoln’s Conservation Department weredelighted to welcome back previous students from the coursefor a reunion event. Around one hundred people arrived foran afternoon buffet and drinks party at Chad Varah House inLincoln, including many former staff and students who nowhold jobs in a range of regional and national museums andhistoric properties.

The undergraduate and postgraduate Conservation courseshave been based at Chad Varah House since 1998. Nextmonth the course will be relocating to new, purpose builtfacilities on the Brayford Campus in Lincoln. The party gave usa chance to say goodbye to the old building, and celebratethe move. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to catch up withold friends, and to meet new people.

The party coincided with our 3rd year undergraduate finalexhibition, entitled the Cabinet of Curiosities(http://thecabinetofcuriosities.eu), and their conservationproject work was on display to the visitors.

We also enjoyed an amazing conservation themed cake madeby former student Leah Warriner-Wood (now WoodhurstConservation). After a speech from Sue Thomas (principallecturer), the cake was cut by the programme leaders,Henning Schulze, for the BA (Hons) Conservation andRestoration, Rachel Faulding for the Graduate Diploma in

Conservation Studies and Lynda Skipper for the MAConservation of Historic Objects.

A great time was had by all!

A carriage at Florence Court,Northern IrelandThis summer will see the final phase of conservation to theDouble Brougham carriage, used by the Cole family atNational Trust property Florence Court to transport the familyto Church, and convey business about thriving Enniskillen inthe 1840s.

Initial phases of conservation were part funded by the EsmeMitchell Foundation whereby Dianne Britton, Carriage

From left - Lynda Skipper, Rachel Faulding and Henning Schulzecutting the cake.

Guests enjoying the gardens.Dianne working on the carriage

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conservator, undertook removing greasy deposits from manycomponents, cleaning the paintwork, and consolidating loosepaint. Work to the window blinds and leather componentswas also included in this phase.

Dianne hopes to complete the conservation to the carriage bycarrying out work to the wheels and brake components, andby retouching the body frame and wheels. All paintedsurfaces will then receive a final varnish.

Fingers crossed the Fermanagh weather holds as Diannecarries out her work, in the coach house, where she canengage with the visitor.

Strawberry Hill AwardIn June Horace Walpole’s Gothic villa in Twickenham won aprestigious conservation award from Europa Nostra. The 18thcentury house, which Walpole himself described as ‘aplaything.. the prettiest bauble you ever saw’, reopened tothe public in 2010 after four years work.

As well as making the exterior weatherproof and installingnew services, the restoration work also saw moderninterventions removed or adapted. Following an extensiveresearch programme, the interiors have been conserved andrenewed according to their original 18th century designs.Paint analysis revealed original colours and these have beencopied faithfully and Walpole’s extraordinary collection ofstained and painted glass has been rescued. The villa’s criticalplace in architectural history, as the cradle of the gothicrevival, has been re-secured.

Europa Nostra is a pan-European network lobbying to protectEurope’s cultural heritage and this year celebrated its 50thanniversary. The deadline to nominate projects for the 2014awards is 9 September 2013, with the awards ceremony takingplace in Vienna next May.

A full view of the carriage as Dianne works on it

The Gallery: Walpole’s main entertaining room

The Gallery’s papier mâché ceiling has been repaired, cleaned andre-gilded and its walls hung with a specially woven damask based onthe discovery of original fragmentsHorace Walpole’s eccentric Gothic house

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approach to this monument, have preventedcostly ineffective treatment measures andcan be used to test the efficacy of futuretreatments.

Pieta Greaves, former Senior Conservator atAOC Archaeology, talked about howconservation fits into a post-excavationprogramme for the exciting discovery of twoRoman altars in Inveresk in 2010. The altarsare a hugely significant archaeological find;their ornate carvings are a unique glimpseinto Scottish Roman life. They portray facesof the four seasons and the god Sol, agriffon, a lyre, wreaths and jugs andinscriptions. The conservation work involvedcleaning and consolidating the stone as well

as assisting in the interpretation of the altars,the site and facilitating specialist studies.The project has incorporated social media toimmediately share images and informationabout the altars with other researchersaround the world.

Fiona Allardyce and Karen Dundas ofScottish Wall Paintings Conservatorsoutlined the conservation of the painteddecoration in the Dining Room ofHolmwood House, in Cathcart near Glasgow.The house was designed and built by thearchitect Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson in 1858and is the finest surviving example of a‘Greek’ Thomson decor. Recentinvestigations have revealed a great deal

PF13 ICON CONFERENCE

REPORTS FROM THE GROUP SESSIONS University of Glasgow 11 –12 April 2013

In an uncertain world where resources,management structures and priorities arechanging, the speakers in the Stone andWall Painting Group session on Day 2reflected on making the best use of fundingby minimising unnecessary and potentiallymisdirected treatments by better informingthemselves through investigative surveys,analysis and interconnecting data, beforedetermining treatment or presentationstrategies. They spoke of maximising thestakeholders with the aim of poolingexpertise, heightening awareness andbroadening the relevance of the projects.Much of the optimism of the talks centredaround technological advances in methodsto obtain, share and interpret data. Theycovered an impressive array of verysignificant wall paintings and stonemonuments, mostly large scale, several localto Glasgow, with problems ranging fromunearthing archaeological material tohistorical vandalism and redecoration, and torecent decay due to moisture.

A colleague of Diana de Bellaigue, JaneClark, also an Artefact Conservator at theNational Museums of Scotland, kindlystepped in at the last minute to deliver hertalk about the production of a digitalinterpretation of a heavily overpainted, nowmonotone, 17th century limestone carvingdepicting the Race of Atalanta andHippomenes. A laser scan of the carving wascolour rendered to replicate as accurately aspossible the original painted and gildedappearance by graphic design students.They matched painted swatches made bythe conservator using the same pigmentsand binder as the original paint, determinedthrough elemental and cross sectionalanalysis of samples from the carving. Themany historic layers of paint remain intactwhile presenting how the carving was paintedin the 17th century as well as revealing howthe polychromy changed over time.

Skelmorlie Aisle is the remaining part of theold church in Largs in Ayrshire, now in thecare of Historic Scotland. ChristaGerdwilker, described a collaborativeinvestigation between conservation scientistsand stone conservators into the causes ofdecay of Skelmorlie Aisle’s elaborateRenaissance canopied tomb and burial vault.A band of sandstone is scaling considerablyand it is not clear why. It is suspected thatmoisture may be causing the swelling orshrinking of clays or crystallisation of salts.There have been on-going investigationsinto moisture movement through the micro-porous stone using infrared thermographyand microwave meters. Gerdwilker wiselyemphasised that these investigations, whichwill determine the future conservation

The Sol altar from Inveresk

Cleaning the Mithras Altar from Inveresk



Joan

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The audience thoroughly enjoyed participating in Dr Anita Quye’s (Science Group)presentation on the principles of adhesion in the Joint Adhesives session

about the artist’s technique. The paintedinterior was covered over during the 20thcentury by many layers of paint and paper.When the National Trust for Scotland tookownership of the property in the 1990s it wasnot known how much of the originaldecoration survived, but in the recentconservation programme a large section ofthe painting has been painstakinglyuncovered. The latest discoveries haveprompted new issues about how to presentthe partially uncovered decoration.

Sophie Stewart talked about a thoroughexamination and analysis by Paine andStewart and Emily Howe of the 15th-centuryreredos in the Lady Chapel of GloucesterCathedral. Once ornately gilded andpainted, the reredos contained carved saintsand martyrs but was heavily damaged bymutilation inflicted during the Reformation.Nevertheless, fragments of the originaldecoration survive. The full extent andtechnology of the scheme was establishedthrough careful photography, mapping andtechnical examination. The work wasrevealed to be of the highest technicalquality including imitation textiles producedwith paint and gilded tin relief decoration.This new understanding will influence thetreatment, which will include the fixing ofpaint flakes and cleaning and consolidationof the stonework.

Lizzie Wooley expertly outlined the benefitsof regular, repeatable condition inspections.A condition audit allows for planning andprioritisation of treatment. Paintings orstonework in a visually alarming yet stablecondition can be distinguished from thoserequiring urgent treatment. Regular surveysintegrated with environmental monitoringmay identify both the causes and the rate ofdeterioration.

She described her recent quinquennial auditof the wall paintings at Westminster Palaceand the update of the established auditingmethod. In the new template, conditioncategories are standardised across thecollection with visual glossaries. Particularareas of deterioration that are of concern aremonitored photographically and linked tothe documentation. The previous method ofcondition recording, manually annotating A4acetates that were later digitised, hadnotable inaccuracies. Now recording can bemade directly on enlargeable photographson a tablet PC. The template can be re-usedto overlap and review successive recordingsand the results can be disseminated easily toanyone needing access to information aboutthe painting.

The diversity of subject matter grabbed theattention of the audience and created ariveting session and discussion. The successof the session was due to enthusiasticspeakers and session organisers: CarolineBabington, Collection Care Manager at thePalace of Westminster, and Lynne

Humphries of Humphries and Jones, andalso Katy Lithgow, Head Conservator at theNational Trust, who did a superb job inChairing the day.

Sarah PinchinINSITU Conservation Services

The Book and Paper Group Sessions,shared with the Photographic MaterialsGroup, opened with a thought-provokingkeynote paper from Joanna Kosek, whichprompted us to reconsider ourpreconceptions about Western and Easternideals of paper housings, and attitudestowards stewardship more broadly. Thisemphasis on learning from both thetraditional and the cutting-edge wascontinued in the following four papers, all ofwhich were presented by emergingprofessionals. Carol Peacock’s account ofher mentor-based training at the BritishMuseum challenged assumptions aboutWestern conservation courses’ emphasis oninnovation. This was pleasingly balanced byAnna Hoffmann’s presentation of thestreamlined decision-making process shedeveloped for treating a collection of large-format items within a limited timescale. LucyCrombie and Fiona McLees both offereddetailed accounts of imaginative treatmentsfor two unusual volumes, namely a velvet-bound carta de hidalguía and an illuminatedQu’ran rebound in a Western style.

Following this, four diverse papers providedsnapshots of the range of demands andpredicaments faced by conservators in thebook and paper field today. AlbertoCampagnolo and Alejandro Giacomettigave us an insight into their ongoingresearch into the quantitative measurementof parchment damage using multi-spectral

imaging, the results of which they hope tomake available later this year. Returning tothe issue of appropriate storage, highlightedat the beginning of the afternoon, SusanCatcher gave a no-holds-barred insight intothe issues posed by storing an ever-increasing quantity of rolled items into afinite amount of storage space. Herevaluation of a wide variety of potentialsolutions met with considerable enthusiasmfrom the floor, and she was complimentedfor her frankness regarding an issue whichconfronts so many collections!

Two further papers in this session, one byNicole Gilroy and Julie Sommerfeldt fromthe Bodleian Library and the other by SoniaSchwoll, independent book conservator,offered very different perspectives ondetermining appropriate treatments, byexamining the circumstances of a volume’soriginal usage. Gilroy and Sommerfeldtdetailed the complex choices involved instabilising a Shakespeare First Folio in itsoriginal binding while preserving theevidence of its seventeenth-century usage,and Schwoll, using the example of anineteenth-century journal, illustrated thathomemade conservation solutions byoriginal authors/compilers should beconsidered on their merits rather thandismissed out of hand.

The conference’s second day opened withtwo contrasting yet complementary paperson the theme of photography. AndrewMegaw delivered a detailed history of theinclusion of photographic materials innineteenth-century printed books, focusingupon the interplay between cultural trendsand technological innovations and howthese fed developments in the fields of bothphotography and book structure. This was


24

followed by Jenny Harvey and Sarah Allen’saccount of the research and decision-makingthat has gone into their recent treatment ofsix daguerreotypes of Charles Darwin’sfamily. The necessity for analysis of everyaspect of not only the daguerreotypesthemselves, but their chemically unstablecasing materials also made this an excellentprecursor to the multi-disciplinary break-outsession which was to follow in the afternoon.Rachel Nordstrom rounded off the sessionby bringing photographic collections firmlyinto the twenty-first century with herdescription of the ways in which St AndrewsSpecial Collections are made available to thepublic through an impressive array of socialmedia platforms.

The final Book and Paper Group slotcomprised a session on adhesives run jointlywith the Science, Ethnography, Textiles andPhotographic Materials groups (‘Icon groupsstick together’). Anita Quye opened with ahighly interactive and entertainingpresentation on the science of conservationadhesion, during which delegates were allinvited to demonstrate the three main typesof chemical bond using balloons, feathers,jam, oatcakes and other assorted props! Thiswas followed by three short posterpresentations detailing the researchundertaken into suitable adhesive usage inprojects involving a parchment stationerybinding, silk bed curtains and a sealskin mat.Ian Moor also contributed a brief history ofadhesives in the mounting and presentationof photographs. This session was followedby an opportunity to mingle with thespeakers and view the posters in detail.

The sharing of ideas, viewpoints andexpertise which ensued epitomisedadmirably the conference theme of facingthe complex challenges on the horizonthrough interdisciplinary collaboration.

Amy Baldwin, The Bartholomew ArchiveConservator, National Library of Scotland

The Textiles Group Break-out Session onDay 2, chaired by Deborah Phipps, featuredthree speakers within a pleasingly crowdedconference room. The first speaker wasPippa Cruickshank, Conservator of OrganicArtifacts at the British Museum, with a posterpresentation titled ‘The Versatility of KlucelG’. As the title suggests the presentationand poster show-cased the varied andcomplex conservation treatments that havebeen carried out at the British Museum usingthe adhesive Klucel G. Pippa’s posterexplained the use of the adhesive to supportholes and tears in a 19th century water proofcape made of sea mammal gut, and incontrast, its use in patch supports on anancient Egyptian painted linen shroud. Twovery different objects in materials,composition and deterioration, but bothsuccessfully conserved using Klucel G.

Pippa had prepared handouts that illustrated

various stages of conservation and use of theadhesive, it also allowed her to mention anddiscuss other objects conserved using KlucelG, highlighting further the adhesive’sversatility. The audience was also able tobecome more engaged with thepresentation and subject, as questions werebeing asked and discussions took placeduring the presentation.

The second presentation on ‘TheApplication of Large Adhesive Films’ wasgiven by Rosamund Weatherall, SeniorTextile Conservator at the National Trust.This talk showcased the long-termconservation project for the King James II ofEngland’s, King James VII of Scotland’s, StateBed from Knole, Kent. Rosamund focusedparticularly on the controlled application oflarge adhesive silk crepeline films and themethod used to achieve this.

She showed how the National TrustConservation Studio completed the complexapplication of an adhesive film onto thereverse of a 3metre hand-woven velvet bedcurtain using a custom-made roller system.Utilising materials available within mostconservation studios, the roller systemconsisted of a raised roller rest, which waslocated at each side of the textile andmanually manoeuvred during the adhesivefilm application. The prepared adhesive filmwas placed on a roller, which allowed theadhesive film to be applied in stages and toremain elevated during application. Asecond roller was used to roll up the carrierfilm once it was separated from the adhesivefilm.

Using this method the adhesive film wasslowly and accurately rolled onto the reverseof the textile. The roller system appearscomplex, requiring the use of twoconservators and accurate measurementsand marked lines to ensure that the adhesiveand textile were kept square. The precisionrequired of a large, complicatedconservation treatment like this was welldemonstrated, as well as how the rollermethod could be emulated by anyconservator.

Bringing the audience back to the theme ofthe conference, positive futures andemerging professionals, Zenzie Tinker

introduced the ‘Emerging ProfessionalsProject’. Zenzie’s presentation showcased theestablishment of an emerging conservatorproject at the Palace of Westminster, wherethe parliamentary collection includesmodern textile artworks that require care andconservation. Condition surveys were carriedout, which included assistance fromemerging conservators on a voluntary basis.From the surveys, patterns of conservationrequirements emerged, such as the need forlinings and secure hanging mechanisms onthe textile artworks.

With such a large collection requiring similar,repetitive treatment, a proposal was putforward to the Palace of Westminster toinvolve conservation students in theconservation of their collection. The projectis intended to supplement what they arealready undertaking and learning duringtraining within an institution. A pilot of theproject will be carried out this summer withfive textiles being conserved by students.The positions will be paid, and students fromthe Centre for Textile Conservation at theUniversity of Glasgow and from LincolnUniversity were approached and encouragedto apply.

Four students will be selected and they willundertake an application for the position, aninterview and security clearance.Experienced conservators will be with thestudents one day per week, more if required,but the students will be primarily workingwith each other.

This exciting project is a fantasticopportunity for the students involved.Gaining experience in a working studiobefore completion of training has becomeextremely important for emergingconservators; unpaid experience is notalways an option for some students andappears unfair. This project gives allstudents, regardless of background orcircumstance, the ability to gain thatvaluable experience. More projects like thiswould be beneficial for both emergingconservators and also the textileconservation sector in the future.

Danielle Connolly, Icon/HLF Intern People’s History Museum

Rosamund Weatherall and Claire Golbourn applying adhesive silk crepeline using thecustom-made roller system



COURSES

WIREWORK AND COMPOSITIONORNAMENTBuckinghamshire New University February 2013

This two day decorative course in theproduction of wirework and compositionornamentation was a hugely successfulevent. Dr Campbell Norman-Smith, aconservator and lecturer at the University,and a committee member of the IconGilding and Decorative Surfaces Group,conducted the course.

The course was both enjoyable andinformative; a small group of like-mindedpeople with varying skills and dexteritybegan the course developing the techniquesfor soft soldering on sheet metal and wire.Something that was completely new to all ofus, we carried out some practical exercisesand were also introduced to the use of spotwelding. After a short tea break we begandesigning and constructing a simple candlesconce using sheet metal and wire.

The day went extremely quickly but at theend of the first day all ten participants hadconstructed a sconce that had beenbandaged ready for ornamentation thefollowing day.

Day two was again extremely enjoyable andsmoothly run due to Campbell’s enthusiasmand well-run timetable. Throughout the daywe used composition to adorn the wiresconce that we had constructed the daybefore. Campbell went into great depthabout the ingredients of the compositionand best uses and practices, again veryinformative.

By the end of the day the group hadbonded really well and we had a collectiveafternoon tea break, before making the finaltouches of the sconces. No item wascompletely finished but they were all in a

position to be worked on and finished off athome or in the workshop. I think I can speakfor every one who attended and conclude bysaying thank you to Campbell and his teamfor a professionally run and very enjoyabletwo-day course.

Martin Edwards MAFormer Curator of the Royal Marines Fine Artand Heritage Collection

IDENTIFYING PRINTS: What is the processand how is it done?Icon Book and Paper Group CTR courseApril 2013 University of Reading

It is a rare thing these days to have ‘time out’from the busy work routine and to devote acouple of days solely to being a studentonce again. When the opportunity ofattending the Identifying Prints two-daycourse at the University of Reading arose, Iwas unsure whether it would be akin to arefresher course. Having had a goodintroduction to prints, typography andpractical printmaking as a student on my firstdegree at Camberwell, over twenty yearsago, I had no idea that it would develop newareas of study and interest.

The bright, sunny April arrival day wasmatched by the warm welcome from MartinAndrews, course director and tutor, andfrom Diane Bilbey, of the Department ofTypography & Graphic Communication’sCollections/Archive. Although the buildingthat houses the Department is rather

rudimentary - lecture and printing workshopsfan out from a long corridor - even this spaceis brightly illuminated with a display ofsalvaged lettering and signage from oldshop fronts, railway stations, famousadvertising - giving a hint of the ‘treasures’that awaited delegates in the rooms andworkshops beyond.

Following a welcome coffee, biscuits and themeeting of other delegates, Martin took usinto the first session of the courseconcerning relief printing in monochrome.The illustrated talk was followed by a hands-on observation of material printed byletterpress, woodcutting, wood-engraving,process blocks, half-tones, and theduplication of blocks using stereotyping andelectrotyping. This session set the format forthe rest of the course with an engaging andhighly informative talk, followed by theobservation time in which delegates wereencouraged to observe the print materialclosely using magnifiers, linen counters, andto photograph interesting features.

Although the pace was quite brisk, it soonbecame apparent that there were so many

Candle Sconce production in progress

Warne colour wood engraving block. MrMcGregor chasing Peter Rabbit!

Gutenburg press practical demonstration, Martin Andrews speaking

Candle sconces (virtually) completed


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processes to learn about and understand butthis did not prevent Martin from welcomingdelegates’ questions throughout. Thesecond session addressed relief printing incolour, with such processes as spot colour,Baxter prints, colour separation, rainbowprinting and four-colour printing. There thenfollowed a practical workshop of printing afacsimile page of the Gutenburg Bible onthe Department’s replica press and theprinting of a wood engraving and typesetform on an Albion press. The practicalsessions enabled delegates to experienceinking the set type and striking the print andfeeling how the two presses differed inhandling and process. The day was roundedoff with an illustrated talk aboutmonochromatic intaglio printing processes:copper and steel engraving, etching,mezzotint and gravure.

Day two began with practicaldemonstrations of laying a ground andetching a copper plate and the printing of19th century copper and steel engravingsled by experienced printmaker and lecturerAlan Hardie. The presentations thencontinued through the planographic printingprocesses, the development of presses andlithographic stones, metal plates,commercially available finishes such as ‘BenDay tints’ and the introduction ofphotographic techniques into commercialprintmaking. Following lunch, the illustratedtalks presented the development of chromo-lithography and four-colour processes. Thiswas followed by a practical demonstration ofthe lithographic process. A tour around theother workshops of the Department includedthe mono-type typesetting process, off-setlithography and computer printing. Thecourse concluded with a brief introduction toother commercial printmaking processessuch as stencil, collotype and silk screen.

The course was totally absorbing andengaging. It revitalised what I had learntyears ago and introduced many new subjectsthat will lead to further study. Questionswere encouraged and there was plenty ofopportunity for discussion and photographyand note-taking of the various processes.Notable highlights were the opportunity toprint a page of the facsimile Gutenburg typeand the handling of the colour woodengraving blocks for the illustration of theBeatrix Potter ‘Peter Rabbit’ books, from thepublishers Frederick Warne - both providinga direct experience into printing history.

A fantastic bibliography was provided and allbooks listed were available to view over thetwo days. Two titles that were deemed highlyuseful to conservators were Benson, Richard,The Printed Picture (New York: Museum of

Modern Art, 2008) and Twyman, Michael,Printing, 1770–1970 (London: Eyre &Spottiswoode, 1970; reprinted London andReading, 1998, with revised bibliography).

Christopher Harvey, Head of ConservationCollege of Arms, London

UNDERSTANDING ASIAN PAPERS & THEIRAPPLICATIONS IN PAPER CONSERVATION British Library Conservation Centre 20–22 March 2013

This course at the BLCC’s Mary WelchCentre was led by Minah Song, who trainedat Camberwell College of Arts and is nowpaper conservator at the ConservationCenter for Art and Historic Artefacts(CCAHA) in Philadelphia, USA. The coursewas organised by Yunsun Choi,Conservation Manager of the Tate Gallery,and The British Library was allowed twodelegates in exchange for hosting thecourse. These delegates took full advantageof the concentration of knowledgedisseminated during the three days oftheoretical and practical workshops. Minahwas a fount of practical knowledge andshared her expertise, with a focus on quickand simple procedures to avoid or resolveproblems.

The first part of the course discussed thetraditional and contemporary methods ofpapermaking and the differences betweenChinese, Korean and Japanese papers, someof which are very visible and some moresubtle. The effects of different fibres, theirlength, impurities present and the variousmethods of papermaking all play a part inthe look, feel and behaviours of the papers.

With the help of short films, Minah illustratedthe different techniques and the great skillsthat the Asian artisans still employ in orderto make the best traditional mulberry papers(Brussonetia papyrifera). The qualities ofHanji were explored – a Korean mulberrypaper made by a method called webal toform a sheet with fibres distributed evenly inboth directions. Its multidirectional grainsuggests itself as ideal for use inconservation procedures such as lining byavoiding the pull of strong grain direction.

Participants were also shown how Chinesecraftsmen flow the pulp into the mould toform the paper sheet with less dipping andshaking involved by comparison to the veryactive Japanese process. Korean paperproduction is similar to the Japanese stylebut traditionally the papermakers scoop thefibres onto a mould that has neither topframe nor deckle as in the JapaneseNagashizuki, giving the sheet a differentaspect.

Delegates rounded off the first morning bydemonstrating their understanding of thepapers in a fun paper-identifying quiz, andthey learnt to identify the best conservationquality 100% handmade mulberry paper,which should be cooked solely with soda ashand dried onto a wooden board.

Nothing breaks the ice more easily thanteamwork, so the afternoon was relaxed butindustrious as the teams immediately beganmaking a karibari board from Tycore™.Japanese tissue paper and a mix of acrylicadhesive (Lascaux) was used as a waterrepellent, to replace the traditionalpersimmon juice, which is normally difficultto prepare, if only in terms of smells anddrying time. As soon as the boards wereready, delegates were invited to play withscraps of newspaper to experience lining‘without tears’, where an extra layer ofHollytex® was applied between the lineditem and the stretching board, to give extrasupport to fragile objects.

Before lunch on day two, members of thegroup practised the craft of Joomchi, apaper felting technique that effectivelydemonstrated the considerable strength ofhydrogen and mechanical bonding abilitiesof mulberry paper. After assembling thevarious coloured papers cut in bits to createa personal composition, each of thedelegates heavily wetted out their artefacts,folded them in no specific order, and startedsmashing the resulting ‘pulp’ onto the table.The more this was repeated, the more thefibres of the various coloured paperscompacted onto each other, to create a

Stipple chromo lithograph, ʻVinoliaʼ advert(detail)

Discussing the pros and cons of various dye methods

Making the Karibari board: layering thetissue



nearly single layer of material. The ‘pulp’ isthen unfolded carefully and dried, and thecoloured pieces of tissue require noadhesive because the hydrogen bondingforces are sufficient.

The concept of hydrogen and mechanicalbonding also helped to understand thevarious levels of shrinkage rates. Delegatesexperimented with flattening a humidifiedobject between mulberry paper, a veryeffective method, particularly for flatteningitems with short fibres, such as tracing paper.It can sometimes be more effective than byplacing it between the most common non-woven polyester support, such as Bondinawhich does not have the ability to expand orcontract with the object.

The toning of mulberry paper was the majortopic of the second afternoon with delegatesindustriously applying and comparing theircolouring from using watercolours, Yashacones and fibre reactive dyes.

Yasha produces is a warm yellow dye derivedfrom the Japanese alder cone. It has goodlight fastness due to the presence of tannin,which fixes the colour within the fibres of themulberry paper. The dye is diluted in waterto the shade desired and then brusheddirectly onto the paper. The sheet can alsobe rinsed in water to reduce colour if this istoo strong. Washing will remove some of theyellow tone, leaving the softer brown tonesof the Yasha.

Fibre reactive dyes proved lessstraightforward to apply, requiringconcentration and a smattering of maths andchemistry knowledge. The toning solutionneeds the addition of an alkaline activator tofix the dye powder to the fibres of the paper.After brushing the colour onto the tissue, thepaper has to be sandwiched betweenMelinex® and left overnight to react. Whenready, the package is opened and the tissuerinsed in cold water. Mulberry paper toned inthis way seems very stable with no bleedingand a deeper absorption into the fibres. Thefinal results were very satisfying as the edgesof paper repairs did not have the unsightly,

undyed whitish fibres that are sometimesvisible with other techniques.

The last part of the workshop involvedvarious applications of adhesives such asfunori, wheat starch paste, gelatine, methylcellulose and Lascaux to repair differentmulberry paper samples. There was alsoplenty of opportunity for discussion and timeto compare recipes, working methods andtools.

All in all, it was a truly worthwhile workshop,with tangible results and a deep satisfactionfor all. Finally, Minah touched us all byhaving hand-made a beautiful carry case foreach delegate to carry their new Karibariboard!

Isabelle Egan, British Library & LuanaFranceschet, The Wellcome Library

CONFERENCES

THE REAL THING?: The Value ofAuthenticity and Replication forInvestigation and ConservationGlasgow University 6-7 December 2012

This two day conference, organised by TheUniversity of Glasgow’s Research Network forTextile Conservation, Dress and TextileHistory and Technical Art History, was afascinating way to end 2012 with a widevariety of papers examining the concepts ofauthenticity and replication from practical,cultural and philosophical points of view.

The organisation of the conference was wellthought through, supporting thedevelopment of the themes andencouraging interested discussion betweenthe members of the very mixed audience inthe panels at the end of each session. Thefirst day questioned the authenticity of realobjects and the second day explored thereality in what had been considered replicas.

From the very first presentation by theUniversity of Durham’s Mary Brooks,‘Indisputable Authenticity’, it became clear,through her discussion of the marketing ofSwarovski crystals as ‘real fake diamonds’,that authentic and replica are relativeconcepts rather than the absolutes that theyare often considered. With the second paperby the University of Leicester’s Ceri Jones,‘Bringing the past to Life’, the role of peoplewas introduced and the importance of theirperceptions and interactions. In acomparison of young people visiting theMuseum of London and the Tower ofLondon, the role of costumed guides wasexamined. It was seen that the costumingalone was not the most important issue; theway the guides interacted with the pupilsand the historic resonance of the Tower ofLondon also affected their impact.

The presentation by Harriet O’Neil (theNational Gallery) and Giulia Chiostrini (theMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York)looked at how changes in perception ofwhat was real about objects affected their

conservation treatment. O’Neill talked abouta policy change at the National Gallery, fromconsidering Italian renaissance paintings inisolation to displays where the frame and thesetting it provides are an integral part of theinterpretation. In Chiostrini’s paper on anUshak carpet at the Metropolitan Museum ofArt she talked about the shift in treatment:past repair patches were removed in 2001but reinstated in 2011 when they were seenas part of the continuous history of thecarpet. The first day ended with an interviewwith Glasgow artist Ross Sinclair, examininghow he viewed the current, and ratherbravely the future, authentication of his work.

The second day started with a presentationby Jill Morena from the University of Texason the green velvet dress displayed as thecurtain dress from the film Gone With theWind. The original dress had been toofragile for display and a replica was made in1986 before funding was raised forconservation of the original in 2010. Acomparison of the original, the replica andthe screen images showed that authenticityis not straightforward. The original dress haschanged and no longer matches what isseen on screen while the replica still hascopies of original features. In the discussionthe term ‘secular relic’ was introduced andthis tied together several of the papers onreligious or secular objects where theirauthenticity lay in their existence as thephysical presence or means of connectionwith something greater.

The final two presentations were onauthenticity in the virtual world with SophieKromholtz (University of Glasgow)discussing the records and memories ofevents or displays that are past and AnnaBuelow and Dinah Eastop (The NationalArchives) on the use of images to makephysical cultural heritage available online.Both papers looked at the role of records inaccessing the original while the questions inthe discussion showed that the audiencewere already viewing the records as things intheir own right that required future care.Buelow considered authorised heritage andmade the point that authenticity depends onauthority and authorship. Other papers hadtalked about how the relationship betweenusers of heritage and artefacts creates theirown authenticity.

In summing up, one of the organisers, ErmaHermens, talked about authenticity in flux,multilayered authenticity and engineeringauthenticity, while her co-organiser FrancesLennard talked about many answers and theneed for transparent debate. As the finalevent in the two year Research Networkfunded by the Getty Foundation, theconference was a great and very interestingsuccess.

The collected papers will be published inearly 2014 by Archetype Publications.

Helen Murdina Hughes, TextileConservator, Glasgow Museums/GlasgowLife

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PAPER CONSERVATION: Decisions &Compromises

ICOM-CC Graphic Documents WorkingGroup – Interim MeetingVienna 17–19 April 2013

This two day conference based on the ethicsof decision-making, compromises and howchoices are made in paper conservation waswell attended by a wide range ofrepresentatives from European andinternational institutions. The conferenceprovided an impressive twenty fourpresentations covering a large selection oftopics and case studies from scientificexperimentations as a decision-making toolto practical recommendations.

The conference was hosted in theoutstanding Austrian National Library.Toursof the Library and the Albertina conservationdepartments opened the conference andthe organisers arranged a visit to theLibrary’s iconic State Hall after the close ofthe first day.

The keynote lecture by Dianne Lee Van derReyden, Visiting Scholar at the Library ofCongress, reminded us of the new trends inpreservation in the digital age and the newroles for conservators. In a financiallystrained climate, institutions still have thesame duty to care for their collections. Aconstant improvement in preventiveconservation with innovative storage anddisplay systems, as well as a stress onenvironmental monitoring and surveys isessential. Dianne emphasised theimportance of developing heritage sciencein the field of forensic imaging and dataanalysis in partnership with conservationinstitutions and the need for continuoustraining.

The first group of presentationsdemonstrated our need as conservators toknow about past treatments to makeconsidered decisions. Uta Landwehr andJunko Sonderegger from the AustrianNational Library presented a fascinating casestudy on gouache paintings on parchment inalbums and how prior conservation from the1970s affected their choices. A decisionmaking-tree was designed to helpunderstand the issues associated with eachtreatment option and the selection of asuitable one.

Although Doris St Jacques from Librariesand Archives Canada was not able to attendthe event, her PowerPoint presentation withvoice-over was very enlightening. The casestudy illustrated how ineffective pastdeacidification treatments on a 1763illuminated Haggadah manuscript had leadto a research project on the use ofantioxidants with non-aqueousdeacidification treatments. This talkevaluated the selected combinations andreinforced the importance of scientificexperimentation as a decision making toolfor future treatments.

The challenges of copper based pigmentsfor conservators were examined in the nextselection of presentations. Lynn Brostoffand Sylvia Albro from the Library ofCongress integrated analytical tools in thetreatment decision-making about a 1513hand-coloured Ptolemy Geographia Atlas.They beautifully demonstrated how x-rayfluorescence (XRF) could monitor traces ofelements in the paper before, during andafter treatment and could therefore be keyto guiding the conservators. Analyticalevidence allowed them to understand therole of potash alum agent in the degradationof verdigris which resulted in the decision toremove the potash alum from the maps.Further monitoring and examination duringthe aqueous treatment and stain removalhad proved invaluable in recording theefficacy of each treatment and a very reliabletool.

Talks by Christa Hoffman and Kyujin Ahnwere both products of a research projectfounded by the forMuse program of theAustrian Ministry of Science and Research inassociation with the Austrian NationalLibrary, which aimed at providingconservators with tools and methods whenfaced with verdigris damage. Matija Strlicfrom the Centre for Sustainable Heritage,University College London, gave anengaging presentation on the demographyof collections and the use of modelling as adecision-making tool for collectionmanagement.

In a series of interesting talks the subject ofinfilling and large formats was presented onthe second day of the conference. In a casestudy from the Albertina, Vienna, onremovable loss integration, Maike Schmidtexamined the treatment aims anddiscussions with curators to create a newinfill for a large Delaunay oil cartoon onmachine-made paper. The choices leadingto the old infills being left in place and thenew infill attached along the two edges ofthe old repairs were discussed. The appealof this technique is its reversibility as well asthe minimal moisture required to attach thenew infill.

The dual presentation by Xing Kung Liaoand Fei Wen Tsai, from the Tainan NationalUniversity of the Arts, Taiwan, investigatedmethods of filling losses with cellulosepowder using an airbrush. The type ofcellulose powders, the viscosity and the rightconcentrations were discussed. A case studyon a Chinese hand-scroll shows that thetechnique can be an alternative method forloss integration.

Philip Meredith from the AsianConservation Department at the MFA,Boston, presented a captivating paper on anunusual Japanese wall painting from artistSoga Shohaku consisting of eight largesections. The painting has been considerablyinfilled and repainted, both by skilled handstaking infills from another painting and by

amateurish hands. Discussion with curatorialstaff was essential for decision-making andcompromises had to be reached in retainingnon-original painted infills for ease ofreading but removing the disfiguringinpainted areas. The presentation provided achance to look at the balance neededbetween retaining or removing old repairsand the associated compromises.

The last paper presented was a goodsummary of the aims and objectives of theconference. Tilly Laaser, from the StaatlicheAkademie der Bildenden Künste, Stuttgart,presented an evaluation on the migration ofhydroxyl propyl cellulose (klucel) duringremoval of facing and ensuring consolidationof a painted wallpaper with the facingadhesive. Fluorescent labelling was used fortesting the movement of the adhesiveduring consolidation treatment on mock-ups. This method proved very effective toshow migration depth of the adhesive in thesubstrate and to assess various treatmentoptions for removing the facing on thewallpaper and consolidating the paint layerin one action.

Overall this conference was a great success:it was very well organised and all thedelegates appeared extremely satisfied withthe quality of the papers and posterspresented. The next Working Groupconference will be held in Melbourne,Australia, 15–19 September 2014 on BuildingStrong Culture through Conservation.

Julia Poirier, Paper Conservation InternChester Beatty Library, Dublin

CONSERVING CONTEXT: relating objecttreatment to collections and settingsIcon Gilding & Decorative Surfaces GroupLondon May 2013

This one day conference, kindly hosted bythe Wallace Collection, proved to be aglittering 22 carat event which examined theimportant issue of contexts and decisionmaking from a variety of gold basedperspectives. The papers provided aninteresting insight into the world of thegroup members which involves the assuredremoval and application of a tremendousamount of gold leaf. But as the title of theconference suggests the actual treatment ofobjects is only one aspect of their work: datacollection, negotiation, orchestration andadvocacy make up a significant part of theirprofessional responsibilities.

Christoph Vogtherr, the Director of theWallace Collection, welcomed delegates andprovided an introduction to the museum,with its active aim to display the collection‘an inch away from the viewer’s eye’ and thechallenges this presented for security. Themuseum also aims to present the collectionas it appeared in 1897 when it was donatedto the nation.

Such historic legacies formed an importantaspect of the contexts considered in the



day’s papers. But the first one, Context andUnderstanding in Country HouseCollections, presented by ChristopherRidgeway, Curator of Castle Howard,outlined the broader context in which we alloperate. Dr Ridgeway eloquently explainedhow the shift to more inclusive social historyin the presentation of country houses hastaken many art historians out of their comfortzones. Country Houses are not just ‘treasurehouses of art’ but multi-faceted places withmultiple micro and macro stories to tell.‘High Art’ and ‘everyday life’ are not mutuallyexclusive at Castle Howard, but if the estateit to operate as an integrated whole itspaintings and its beef herd have to haveequality.

The problem of conveying the multiple livesof objects was explored in several papers.David Wheeler, Senior Conservator ofFurniture and Decorative Arts in the RoyalCollection, explained the options heconsidered when planning the conservationand representation of several early 19thcentury pieces of furniture and the lacquercabinets originally designed for use inCarlton House, the home of the PrinceRegent. When the House was demolished alot of the original furniture was placed instore and later restored in work that washighly interventive by today’s standards.Wheeler explained the conflict of aims: thewish to retain the restored finishes and thewish to investigate and display sections ofthe original finishes of the Carlton Houseperiod. These aims were reconciled byrevealing the original work on side faces ofcertain cabinets, while retaining the existingfinishes on the front face.

With matching pairs of furniture, celebratingtwo significant phases of their history is lessproblematic. Zoe Allen, Senior Frames andGilded Furniture Conservator at the Victoriaand Albert Museum, and Lea Wegwitz, aGilded Furniture and Frames Conservator atthe V&A, but now working at theRijksmuseum in Amsterdam, explained intheir paper how a pair of gilded andupholstered stools from the same suiteunderwent two different conservationtreatments in order to present one in itsoriginal and probably unique 1701upholstery, whilst the second stool wasretained in its 19th century state. The twostools were exhibited one above the otherallowing the visitors to appreciate the verysubtle but telling differences in their shapeand appearance.

With three pieces of a suite, the options fortreatment and representation are increased.Ann Katrin Koster and Laura Houliston of

English Heritage explained how theyapproached the refurnishing of the RobertAdam Library at Kenwood House. Threebenches designed by Adam in 1770 to fillthe window bays were sold in 1922 butEnglish Heritage has managed to acquiretwo of them. They were considered to be inan un-displayable condition. What was to bedone? It was finally decided to carefullyconserve the best preserved bench andkeep this in long term storage while theother was dismantled, stripped and fullyrestored for display. It was also used as amodel for the creation of two further replicabenches.

The Renaissance Revival frame of Burne-Jones’ King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid(1884) is a one-off and so it is difficult todisplay its multiple histories. AlastairJohnson, a frame conservator at Tate,explained the history of its frame, along withthe history of glazing policy as it developedin the UK during the late 19th and early 20thcenturies. Glazing involved the structuralalteration of frames and these changes havebecome an accepted part of the appearanceof painting-frame partnership. The Burne-Jones’ painting had not been glazedoriginally and an 1898 photograph recordingits original proportions was the keydocument for informing the reconstructionof the original frame. In reversing thealterations and re-glazing with a lightweightacrylic glass, Johnson wondered whether thedecision to optimise the ‘authentic’ ororiginal framing had created a hermeticcontext for this particular painting-frame. Heasked us to consider whether this particulartreatment was ‘a regressive step’, possibly atodds with the Tate’s general acceptance ofthe evolution of glazing.

The Staffordshire Hoard is another one-off.Deborah Cane, Conservation andEnvironment Officer at BirminghamMuseums Trust, explained in her paper thatthe hoard is so unique that it lacks context orrather ‘the hoard is its own context’. Thechallenges throughout the project were: howto reconcile its display with the requiredresearch to fully understand and preserve it;and how to display such an immensecollection with no context? Cane observedthat the lack of context could be a benefit. In fact the air of mystery surrounding thehoard – why and when it was buried –helped increase the public’s engagementwith the find.

The long term conservation project at theNational Trust’s Attingham Park offered ‘agolden opportunity’ to review the conditionof the Picture Gallery and Grand Staircase.‘To gild or not to gild’ – that was theresearch question. These two large spaceswere intended to be spectacular but twohundred years later may be described as ‘abit grubby’. There was no question ofrestoring the room to its original glitteringmagnificence but finding the middle way

forward was the stuff of classic ‘valuesconflict disputes’. Sarah Kay and CatrionaHughes of the National Trust explained theirmanagement of the negotiation process andhow they shared the problems and thedecision making process with the visitingpublic. Surprisingly, there was no greatsupport for an extensive re-gilding of thetwo interiors. Sensitive treatments weredevised specifying the degree of re-gildingand surface cleaning of the architecturalelements in specific areas so that theseharmonised with the gilded picture framesand furniture in the rooms. On completionthe interiors will hopefully have regainedtheir dignity and retain a harmonious spirit ofplace.

Jane Wilkinson, Senior Conservator at SirJohn Soane’s Museum, explained that thestaff at the museum are very grateful for theclear remit provided by the 1833 Act ofParliament, which stipulated that the houseand collection should be kept ‘as nearly aspossible in the state’ it would be at the timeof Soane’s death. The Act certainly simplifiesthe decision making process. However, afterhis death in 1837, his private apartmentswere dismantled and repeatedlyredecorated. The museum has recentlyembarked on recreating these rooms andWilkinson described the work being carriedout in Mrs Soane’s Morning Room which in1837 contained forty four framed works. Thefinished rooms will be opened to the publicin 2014.

Gerry Alabone and Campbell Norman-Smith, the Joint Chairs of the Gilding &Decorative Surfaces Group and theirCommittee are to be congratulated fororganising such a stimulating and thoughtfuldiscussion. Delegates may look forward indue course to receiving a copy of theconference’s post-prints which will bepublished by Archetype Publications.

Helen Hughes ACR FIICHistoric Interiors Research & ConservationNote: A more detailed discussion of thisconference can be found on the GDS pages of theIcon website

TALKS

UP THE WALL: the multi-disciplinaryapproach of Rescue Public MuralsIcon Paintings GroupFreemasons Hall, London 30 April 2013

April’s Icon paintings talk saw Will Shanktake to the floor with his discussion of issuessurrounding the care of outdoor publicmurals. Formerly Chief Conservator at SanFrancisco Museum of Modern Art, Will is theco-founder and co-chair of Rescue PublicMurals, an initiative dedicated to theadvocacy and preservation of outdoor muralsin the US (www.heritagepreservation.org/RPM/index.html).

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In addition to creating an image repositoryof extant murals, Rescue Public Muralsadvises muralists and building owners onbest practices for the production of newmurals, encourages research into paints andcoatings for outdoor environments andconsults on the preservation of ‘at risk’murals.

Will introduced us to the issues surroundingthe care of outdoor murals by examiningsome of the challenges confrontingconservators of non-traditional modern andcontemporary paintings. With reference tocase studies gathered during his time atSFMoMA, we were walked through suchtopics as the devastating incompatibility ofmixed media paint layers in RobertMotherwell’s Elegy to the Spanish Republic,No. 57 and the enduringly tacky surfaces ofClyfford Still’s paintings. Add to this type ofinherent vice an utter dependence onarchitectural constancy and one is left in aweof the conservators and community activistsfighting to preserve modern murals.

After the conservatism of the McCarthy era,the wall as support offered communities andindividuals a public space to proclaimcommunity pride and identity, politicalaffiliations and artistic expression. The 1960ssaw a revival in the production of outdoormurals in American cities which hascontinued to the present day. But while therecan be no doubt as to the culturalimportance of these works, the instability ofthe mostly acrylic paints when exposed tooutdoor conditions has resulted in theirpremature loss; the Rescue Public Muralsinventory of American outdoor murals hasbeen unable to identify any dating from the1960s.

Public murals can be defaced by vandalism,neglect or even physically removed (legallyor otherwise - think of the 2012 theft of aBanksy work from a wall in North London). Atworst, they are painted over or simplydemolished along with the building support.Constant exposure to the elements andpollution not only results in pronouncedfading or discoloration of paint passages(see Richard Wyatt’s Hollywood Jazz), butalso damages the very structure of the wall.

And this was the crux of Will’s discussion, forhow should a public work which haschanged beyond recognition be cared for?Can it still function as a work of art or is it nomore than a ghost of the original? Should wecherish the remaining paint flakes,privileging the material value regardless oforiginal intent? Or if we accept that the workis lost, can the original appearance bereinstated in order for the work to fulfil itsoriginal function? And would this be acontinuation of the original or a new workaltogether?

Of course these questions mean little whenconsidered out of context. But Willgrounded these complex dilemmas through

case studies which Rescue Public Murals hasbeen involved in. Looking to the renewablesurfaces of sculptures by Alexander Calder,he wondered whether the concept ofrenewability as part of the work mightprovide a solution. An example of‘resurfacing’ through wholesale repaintingcan be seen in the restoration of EvaCockcroft’s Homage to Seurat: La GrandeJatte in Harlem, discussed in full on theRescue Public Murals website. Inclusion ofthe artist in projects to reinstate lost orirreparably damaged murals is anothersolution, often equating to the artist leadinga team of their own assistants or members ofthe community and the ‘restored’ muralbeing dated twice.

For me, the precarious existence of outdoormurals underlines the more subtleimpermanence of cultural production in allits forms; those murals which are sufficientlyvalued will endure in some form. RescuePublic Murals is at the heart of thisendeavour and I would like to thank WillShank for sharing his passion with us all.

Harriet Pearson. Independent practitioner

SUPERSIZE S TATISTICS, SAILING SHIPSAND SPLENDOURIcon Book and Paper Group GeneralMeeting National Maritime Museum 3 April 2013

The Book and Paper Group plotted a courseto Greenwich for their 2013 General Meetingprogramme. The event was generouslyhosted by our colleagues in theConservation Department at the NationalMaritime Museum.

Our day began with a warm welcome fromCaroline Hampton, Head of Paper, Paintingand Frame Conservation. From the outsetwe were under no illusions as to the vastscale of the holdings of the world’s premiermaritime collection: with its six to eightmillion items, targeted assessment andprioritisation is essential for a collection that

could potentially generate hundreds of yearsof conservation time in its care. Carolinepromised a selection of the most evocativeitems for us to see – no empty promise aswe moved into the main paper studio, whereElisabeth Carr and Paul Cook hadassembled a wonderful range of objects.

Our visit coincided with the preparation ofthe museum’s Nelson Navy Nationpermanent exhibition and Elisabeth talkedus through some of the fascinating items forinclusion. The objects that stood out ofNelson’s personal papers were the roughsketch of his battle plan for Trafalgar on aleaf torn from his pocketbook and the firstletter he wrote with his left hand. Thisgenerated plenty of useful discussion on themuseum’s exhibition and exposure policy,cumulative light-logging and the use offacsimiles.

Next came the painstaking work Paul Cookhad undertaken on the late seventeenthcentury Journal of Samuel Barlow, amerchant sailor. This gloriously illustratedbook has had an equal adventure to that ofits author, having had at least two previousbindings, been split into individual sheetsand finally undergone unsuitableconservation treatments in the 1970s usingsilk that had obscured text and images. Paulis now in the process of reversing them.

Our final ‘port of call’ for the morning wasthe Prints and Drawings studio, where Clarade la Pena McTigue showed us the newcustom-built studio equipment. The scale ofthe prints and drawings collection is notable,with some 65,000 items in a wide variety ofmedia stored in two repositories including abrand new archive space on the main site.Clara detailed the initiatives the departmenthad spearheaded to minimise handlingthrough close collaboration with curatorialstaff.

The highlights of the displayed objects werea magnificent miniature of an Elizabethanman on parchment by Hilliard and drawings

From object OBJ0201: a box containing 12 circular cards depicting Nelson’s naval exploits.

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by Thornhill dating from the construction ofthe museum buildings. Pavlos Kapetanakis,then described the work he had undertakenon the eight hundred Van de Velde drawingsheld at the museum during a two-yearproject funded by the Esmée FairbairnFoundation. This has concentrated on thecompilation of detailed condition recordsand the rehousing of the drawings in moresuitable mounts.

After lunch, a further twenty members joinedus for our afternoon lecture programme.Birthe Christensen, Head of Conservation,opened proceedings by reiterating themassive scale of the collections whichinclude one million ships’ plans, 90,000 seacharts and 900 portraits. Under the missionstatement ‘Preservation for Access’, theseobjects are cared for by twenty threeconservation staff, with individual projectssupported by a vigorous intern andvolunteer programme. Most projects haveinput from the paper conservation section.

Four presentations by conservation staffstarted with Pavlos Kapetanakis expandingon his earlier studio tour of work on the Vande Velde collection. The collaborative nature

of this project was highlighted, with inputfrom several national and internationalinstitutions through a steering advisory andresearch committee. The work on thecollection will form the basis of a seminar tobe held at the museum in September.

Clara de la Pena McTigue then provided avery thorough overview of the history,composition and development of thecaricature collections.

Paul Cook shared his thoughts on thepreservation programme at the museum.This focused on the movement of the coremanuscript and research collections from abasement storage area to the recently builtSammy Ofer Wing, and explained how thisprocess had allowed a re-evaluation of theorganisation and retrieval of the collectionsfor researchers as well as improvements inthe cataloguing and display of items. Theproject also highlighted the efficacy ofvolunteer teams, and the positive impactthey had on the project outcomes throughtheir close working relationship withconservation staff.

Our final speaker, Elisabeth Carr provided avery encouraging picture of the studentintern programme which four students fromCamberwell College of Arts have gonethrough to date.

Many members took advantage of theguided tours of the Cutty Sark that themuseum had generously arranged at areduced rate. Richard Doughty, the Directorof the Cutty Sark, and Jessica Lewis, thecurator, provided us with a comprehensivetour of every inch of this remarkable ship andprovided a wealth of information on herhistory and subsequent display. In a day ofsuperlatives, Cutty Sark held its own: capableof holding 10,000 tea chests, her elevenmiles of rigging and 36,000 square feet ofsails enabled her to cut a month off thejourney time between Britain and Australia,making her a legend in her lifetime.

Our guides described the recent programmeto conserve the ship, still composed of 90%of her original fabric. The innovative displayallows visitors to appreciate at close hand

the streamlined shape that enabled her tobe the fastest vessel in the world.

Tearing the group away to return to themuseum for our General Meeting seemed alittle harsh, but the excellent day we had allenjoyed made for a very good-humouredand celebratory meeting. We ended the daylooking to the future by welcoming our newcommittee members, a positive ending to anawe-inspiring and informative day at theNational Maritime Museum.

The Group committee would like to thankthe staff in the Conservation Department,Lizelle de Jager and the events team at theMuseum and all at the Cutty Sark for theirmany contributions, generosity andenthusiasm in making the General Meetingsuch an enjoyable event for our members.

Victoria Stevens ACR

From Barlow’s Journal (JOD/4 from leaf 48verso)

From Barlow’s Journal (JOD/4 from leaf 4,verso)

Members of the Book & Paper Group examining treasures at the National MaritimeMuseum

All aboard the Cutty Sark

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THE CONSERVATION OF PRINCESSCHARLOTTE’S WEDDING DRESSby Helen Slade and Libby Thompson, HRP TextileConservators

INTRODUCTIONAs a way of marking the Royal wedding in 2011, Historic RoyalPalaces showcased their collection of six royal weddingdresses, spanning 150 years, to the international media. Theoldest wedding dress in the collection, Princess Charlotte’s(1816), was conserved for the occasion, to allow for its oneweek display. More extensive conservation treatment in 2012enabled its display in an exhibition at Brighton Royal Pavilionand Museum for the visiting public to enjoy.

CONDITION AND ISSUESPrincess Charlotte’s empire line wedding dress consists of fiveseparate pieces, all of which have elements of silver withinthem, both cloth-of-silver and silk net embroideredextensively with silver lame. Although the silver is still

in practice

The dress on display at Brighton Royal Pavilion and Museum

remarkably untarnished, the silk net is brittle and deterioratedand has significant splitting due to stress from the weight ofthe embroidery.

The dress had undergone two previous adhesive treatmentsto support the splitting silk net with nylon net: in 1969, andthen in 1997 to reverse and re-treat the majority of the earlierwork. The latter treatment is generally holding well. Howeverthe silver embroidered net trim on the cloth-of-silver train hadnot been re-treated in 1997. When the dress came to betreated in 2011, the 1969 treatment on the train trim wasfound to be failing.

It was hoped that the treatment devised for the failing adhesiveon the train trim would inform the successful treatment ofother objects in the collection having similar problems. Thisarticle focusses on the re-treatment of the train trim.

INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE PREVIOUSADHESIVE TREATMENTThe entire border of the train had been adhered and stitchedto a nylon net support in 1969, but the adhesive bond wasnow failing allowing fragments of silk net to curl up andbecome loose. There was also the risk that the adhesive could,over time, become increasingly tacky, stiff or irreversible.

The 1997 treatment records revealed that, where the earliertreatment had already been reversed, mechanical methodshad been used and the support was replaced with a heatactivated film of Vinamul 3252 (vinyl acetate, ethylenecopolymer) on nylon net.

AIM To ascertain whether a reversal of the 1969 treatment usingsolvent would put less strain on the object than anymechanical action to remove the previous support, and bemore effective for full removal of the adhesive residue. Theaim of the testing was therefore to formulate an effective wayto reverse the 1969 treatment and remove any adhesiveresidues on the object if safe to do so.

METHOD Fibres from both the support net and silk net were examinedunder high magnification which confirmed that an adhesiveresidue was still present on both textiles. The adhesive had abrittle, cracked appearance and was flaking off the fibres inplaces. As taking multiple samples of original silk net was notpossible, further tests of the adhesive residue were carried outusing only the previous nylon support net.

It was found that soaking the net samples in water caused theadhesive residue to swell but not dissolve. Soaking the netsamples for twenty minutes in different solvents determinedthat 100% acetone was the most effective at removing theresidue. This indicated that the adhesive used in the 1969treatment had the characteristics of a PVAC adhesive.

However, soaking the object in acetone for twenty minutes aspart of its conservation treatment was not a viable option. ThisR

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was partially due to the limitations of the in-house facilitiesrestricting safe extraction of solvent used on this scale; butalso the potential effect the solvent would have on the silk net(acetone is known to potentially cause fibre desiccation).

Further tests were carried out using shorter time periods,without satisfactory results. Over a shorter period of time, theacetone appeared to cause the brittle and fragmentary

residue to be re-deposited as a strong and coherent film, dueto the solvent dissolution of the adhesive and its re-formingon the object; in effect re-activating the adhesive and,potentially, re-applying the adhesive rather than removing it.

Dripping solvent onto the samples was the technique triednext. The mechanical action of the dripping solvent onto thesample placed on a net above a petri-dish, rather thansubmerged, allowed the adhesive to be broken down andrinsed away. This proved an effective way to remove theadhesive residue, but only partially. It was felt that full removalof adhesive should be achieved if the fragile object was to beput through a solvent treatment.

As the adhesive was found to swell in water and dissolve inacetone, a technique that combined the two was considered.Testing showed that an effective technique was to drip wateron the sample for three minutes to swell the adhesive andthen drip acetone for five minutes to remove the adhesiveand rinse it away.

This technique was then tested on a small sample of silk netfrom the object. However, unlike that of the nylon supportnet, this method did not remove the coating from the silksample. To investigate this variable, a silk sample was soakedin acetone for twenty minutes, which also proved ineffective.

One ‘scallop’ of the trim before treatment laid on new conservationnet

Control net with adhesive residue The silk net of the object showing the starch coating

Net after 20 minutes soaking in water

Net after 5 minutes soaking in acetone

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It was therefore suspected that the coating on the silk net wasdifferent from the adhesive on the nylon net, and most likelyan original finish of the silk. An iodine test showed that astrong concentration of starch was present on the sample,suggesting that the silk net had been stiffened with a starch-based finish.

CONCLUSIONS This starch layer made it very difficult to evaluate if there was asignificant adhesive residue still present on the silk net and if theadhesive was being removed by the treatment. There was alsothe possibility that the starch layer could be damaged by thesolvent. With this amount of uncertainty as to the benefit of anadhesive removal treatment, it was concluded that no solventtreatment should be undertaken on this part of the object.

However, the testing had been valuable in determining thatthe adhesive used was most likely a PVAC adhesive and alsodemonstrating that if not carefully tested, any attemptedreversal of an adhesive treatment using a solvent may result inits re-activation and re-deposition causing more harm to theobject.

TREATMENT OF THE TRAIN TRIMAs a solvent treatment was found to be inappropriate, analternative mechanical method of removal needed to befound. Following the example of the 1997 reversal treatment,we decided that, with the adhesive already failing, mechanical

action might be sufficient to remove the previous support.After investigation, the stitching holding the trim in place onthe main body of the train was deemed to not be the originalstitching and so removal of the trim would be appropriate andaid treatment. The placement of the trim on the train was fullydocumented before its removal.

ENCASING THE TRIM The silk net of the trim was in such poor condition thatsubstantial conservation was needed. The 1997 adhesivetreatment on the other parts of the dress had not beenentirely successful, and additional stitching was required aswell as net overlays in some places. Therefore an adhesivetreatment was rejected in favour of encasing the trim in nylonnet secured with stitching.

The effect that this could have on the drape and appearanceof the trim was considered. However it was felt strongly thatthe trim would not withstand display without this treatment.

Appropriately dyed conservation grade nylon net was laidover the front face of the trim, with the grain of the silk andnylon net aligned, and then tacked in place. The piece wasthen turned over and the white cotton stitching from the 1969treatment removed. The adhesive net support then peeledaway easily leaving no tackiness to the touch. Creases in thetrim were weighted and humidified using contact humidification.

A second layer of nylon net was then laid on top with thegrain aligned and pinned in place. Each motif was stitched

One ‘scallop’ of the trim after treatment

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around with fine monofilament thread using running stitch;the tails of the threads were hidden within the embroidery.Small vertical lines were stitched in the areas between thefloral motifs to control the net and give support.

REATTACHMENT The trim was placed on the train with the guidance of ourdocumentation and stitched in place with a polyester thread.The stitching was applied where it would be unobtrusive andblend in with the embroidery.

EVALUATIONOverall the treatment of the train trim was successful inproviding stability to a fragile part of this historically significantwedding dress.

Testing showed that any solvent treatment undertaken wouldalmost certainly have re-activated and potentially re-deposited the adhesive, making its removal far moreproblematic and damaging. Therefore, although the solventtesting did not result in developing a method for adhesiveremoval, it did demonstrate the risk of adhesive re-activation,information which will inform future treatment strategies forthe collection.

Overall, the amount of uncertainty in the value of a solventtreatment on such a fragile object could not justify itsimplementation. The previous support could be easilyremoved mechanically due to the failure of the 1969 adhesivetreatment and no tackiness could subsequently be detectedon the object. Additionally, having the opportunity to examinetwo previous attempts to treat the object using adhesives andassessing their long-term viability led us back to choosing astitch-based treatment.

The dress on display – reverse view showing the trim on the train

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in trainingWE’VE GOT IT COVERED!Alex Walker, Collection Care Icon Intern 2012-2013,describes recent changes to the storage of umbrellasand parasols at the Museum of London

BACKGROUNDA new method for the rehousing of the Museum of London’sumbrella and parasol collection is being introduced to theMuseum’s costume and textiles store. The costume store wasrenovated in 2008-9. Some areas of the store did not receivethe desired refurbishment and this included the wooden planchests containing the umbrella and parasol collection.

CURRENT SYSTEM – DRAWBACKSThe current storage allows for the umbrellas to move or rollwhen the drawers are opened; they are covered with sheets ofacid-free tissue but this does not offer suitable protection as

Empty Tyvek™ bag with label and image attached.


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database updated regularly.

The umbrellas and parasols can be seen in their new storagesystem on the front cover of this issue of Icon News.

This has been a fantastic opportunity to work with a stunningcollection and utilise an interesting storage method.

Assessing the condition of umbrellas in current storage conditionsand applying fragile labels when necessary – Alex Walker (left) andChristine Supianek

Tyvek™ bag containing umbrella and tied at base and at the topdrawstring

the canopies of the umbrellas could catch on the shallow roofof the drawer. The chests will eventually be replaced with amore stable alternative, as the threat of off-gassing from thewood persists.

NEW SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTSThe innovative method for hanging the umbrellas fromhorizontal rails was originally developed by conservators atTyne and Wear Archives and Museums in 2004. The systemwas designed to use space efficiently, but also offer supportto the objects. Roughly twenty Tyvek™ cone shaped bagswere custom-made to fit the umbrellas. The bags have acotton tape draw-string at the top and a secured hanging tie.The shape of the bag offers support to the length of thecanopy whilst it is hung from the rail.

The method was then updated for the Museum of London byadding a second cotton tape tie at the bottom of the coneand a small loop to attach a label. Labels were updated fromthe previous paper tags to larger Tyvek™ labels with aphotograph of each umbrella attached. The Museum ofLondon has a collection of over two hundred umbrellas andparasols. This meant that production of the Tyvek cones inthree different sizes was outsourced.

PROJECT PROGRESSThe first stage of the project was to assess the condition andfragility of the collection. Each umbrella was photographedand evaluated. Fragile umbrellas with broken armature,handles with delicate hinges or a canopy which had friable ortorn areas were given a highly visible ‘fragile’ label and wereconsidered too delicate to hang. These umbrellas will remainin the plan chests and await further storage solutions.

The final stage was then to carefully place the remainingumbrellas into the appropriate sized bag and tie securely tothe rail. Documentation was paramount due to the movementof collections, so each label was made visible and the

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With thanks to: – Mark Baker at CCA Products, BeatriceBehlen, Hilary Davidson, Adrian Doyle, Libby Finney,Caroline Rendell, Sharon Robinson, Beryl Robinson,Christine Supianek, Rachael Thomas


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