The first half of 2021 may not have been all that we hoped for, but that hasn’t stopped conservators sharing their work and for that, we can be thankful! We’ve been keeping up to date with our bookmarked blogs and sharing our favourite conservation projects on our LinkedIN page. From there we can see exactly which ones have piqued our follower’s interest and here, we share the most popular! Which one is your favourite?
Art Conservation and cultural sensitivity in treatment
Where: University of Delaware
Why: This ‘not one ‘sticks’ all’ themed conservation project is an interesting way to approach projects from certain cultures to adhere to the cultural beliefs of the object in question. Should all treatment solutions be quantified in this way?
Semply the Best: A Collection in Need of Some Love
Where: The University of Edinburgh
Why: While surveying and cleaning 24,000 books from the Semple Collection (a large rare books collection from the School of Divinity) three conservators share their journey and their most interesting finds.
The incredible conservation of the James Brice Drinking Horn
Where: National Museum of Scotland
Why: The patience of artefact conservator Lydia Messerschmidt must be congratulated on this truly impressive conservation project that saw two halves of a drinking horn painstakingly put back together and infilled. Of the project, Lydia described “Each step on the journey felt like reaching a new level in a video game”.
Conservation of a Nuremberg Iron Casket – What to do after ‘an incident’
Where: West Dean College of Art and Conservation
Why: When thorough analysis becomes an enjoyable extension to the project at hand, we’ve found this an extremely enjoyable project to read.
Conserving Beethoven’s Autograph
Where: The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Why: A household name the world over, the chance the conserve a handwritten letter from Beethoven himself is truly a pinch-me moment for any conservator. Take a look at how the manuscript conservators enjoyed the opportunity to work on two autograph letters from Beethoven to his pupil.
The Lotus Sutra Project - Finding Storage Solutions
Where: The British Library
Why: The Lotus Sutra Manuscripts Digitisation Project at The British Library, is a multi-year project aiming to conserve and digitise almost 800 copies of the Lotus Sutra scrolls in Chinese, with a view to make images and information freely accessible on the International Dunhuang Project (IDP) website.
Too brittle to handle?
Where: University of Delaware
Why: After more than 200 years, the painted embroidered silk picture depicting a dark-haired woman reclining under a bower is almost too brittle to handle. Yet this was only one of the challenges Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) NEH Fellow Annabelle Camp encountered. Read more here.
Washing a Watercolour
Where: Camberwell College of Arts
Why: We really enjoyed the detail documented in this conservation of a nineteenth-century watercolour depicting Elphinstone College in Mumbai, by the British architect James Trubshawe