ISSN 096702273 Published by V&A Conservation Conservation Journal Spring 2011 Number 59 £2.50 @ point of sale Head of Conservation Conservation Department V&A Conservation Journal No.59 PA & Dept Secretary Contents Sandra Smith Cherry Palmer Staff Chart Spring 2011 Editorial Board 1 Editorial Sandra Smith, Head of Conservation Sandra Smith Sculpture, Metals, Furniture, Textiles Paper, Books & Science Information Head of Department 2 Keep your hair on - The development of conservation friendly wigs Ceramics & Glass (SMCG) & Fashion (FTF) Paintings (PBP) Management & Administration Nigel Bamforth Keira Miller and Sam Gatley, Textile Display Specialists Senior Furniture Conservator 4 ‘X’ marks the spot: The conservation and correction of a Carlo Victoria Oakley Marion Kite Alan Derbyshire Fiona Campbell Bugatti chair Elizabeth-Anne Haldane Sculpture Furniture Paper Boris Pretzel Louise Egan Catherine Coueignoux, Furniture Conservator Charlotte Hubbard Shayne Rivers Michael Wheeler Brenda Keneghan Michelle Jensen Senior Textile Conservator Sofia Marques Nigel Bamforth Victoria Button Valerie Blyth 6 Removing and re-attaching paper labels Victor Borges Dana Melchar Susan Catcher Lucia Burgio Lucia Burgio Juanita Navarro, Senior Ceramics and Glass Conservator Sarah Healey-Dilkes Zoë Allen Lisa Nash (RIBA) Bhavesh Shah Senior Object Analysis Scientist Johanna Puisto Catherine Coueignoux Sophie Connors (c) 8 Will it stand? Morris and Co. wallpaper stand book Carola Schueller Richard Mulholland (c) Sherrie Eatman Anne Greig, Book and Paper Conservator Metals Kerstin Wadewitz (c) Senior Stained Glass Conservator Diana Heath Heather Porter (c) Preservation Joanna Whalley Alexander Jolliffe Conservators 10 Melting pot: Conserving wax objects in textile conservation SophyWills (assistant conservator) Clair Battisson Clair Battisson Sarah Glenn, Textile Conservator Donna Stevens Simon Fleury Preservation Conservator Textiles Chris Gingell 12 The effects of fingerprints on silver Ceramics & Glass Albertina Cogram Louise Egan Donna Stevens, Senior Metals Conservator Fi Jordan Frances Hartog Books Production Editor Hanneke Ramakers Susana Fajardo-Hunter Jane Rutherston 14 The conservation of John Constable’s six foot sketches at the V&A Elizabeth-Anne Haldane Anne Bancroft Stained Glass Lara Flecker Anne Greig (c) Designed by V&A Design Clare Richardson, Senior Paintings Conservator Nicola Costaras, Head Paintings Conservator Sherrie Eatman Cynthea Dowling Sarah Bashir (c) Joanne Hackett Sayaka Fukuda (c) Photographs are credited individually 17 The show must go on: Touring textile and costume objects with Roisin Morris Tracey Graves (c) Lynda Hillyer (c) All enquiries to:- hazardous substances Keira Miller (c) Paintings Conservation Department Susana Hunter, Textile Conservator Sam Gatley Nicola Costaras Victoria and Albert Museum Roisin Morris, Senior Textile Conservator Sarah Glenn Clare Richardson (c) London SW7 2RL, UK Sung Im Rachael Lee (c) Telephone +44 (0)20 7942 2131 19 Dust to dust. Access to access Bhavesh Shah, Assistant Scientist Katy Smith Fax: +44 (0)20 7942 2092 (assistant conservator) e-mail [email protected] Susana Hunter, Textiles Conservator Stuart Adams, Adams Dust Monitoring Service The V&A Conservation Journal is an 21 An update on lasers in sculpture conservation informal publication and references in Visiting Researchers RCA/V&A Conservation Other Students Lisa Wagner, Sculpture Conservator articles are discouraged. Readers may Titika Malkogeorgou Hans Holbein the Younger: Enabling Museum Professionals contact authors for further information 23 An approach to conserving study collections An Investigation Into His Choice with New Collections Management via the e-mail address above Alan Derbyshire, Head of Paper, Books and Paintings Conservation and Use of Materials & Techniques Tools Internships Victoria Button, MPhil Emma Richardson, University The V&A Conservation Journal is now of Southampton/V&A 25 I’m always touched (by your presence dear) Harming Works of Art: The available online at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/ Paintings Collaborative PhD Clair Battisson, Preservation Conservator Challenges of Contemporary res_cons/conservation/journal Gabriella Macaro Ana Wortley Conceptions of the Artwork Analytical Chemistry 26 The contemporary art of documentation Iris Kapelouzou, PhD Carolyn McSharry, Imperial Books Helen Nodding and Louise Egan, Condition Reporting Administrators College/V&A Collaborative PhD Clémentine Desmond Mechanical Engineering 28 The Popart project Paper Brenda Keneghan, Polymer Scientist Lucie Page Adel Elmahdy, Loughborough University/V&A Collaborative PhD 30 V&A launches new National Conservation Diploma and the Furniture Xinyi Lui, Loughborough Andrew Thackray (HLF) University/V&A Collaborative PhD Conservator Development Programme Tamara Venema Sandra Smith, Head of Conservation Textiles Conservation Nanke Schellman 32 Obituary Merryl Huxtable Deepshikha Kalsi MadhuraWairkar PhD Student, Dresden University of Fine Arts Staff Chart Sculpture Rosemary Jeffreys Key Front cover image: Sketch for the Hay Wain (987-1900) half cleaned (Photography by Richard Davis). Senior Management Team Detail of The Sketch for the Leaping Horse (986-1900) during cleaning (Photography by Rachel Turnbull). (c) Contract Staff V&A V&A Conservation Journal No.59 Conservation Journal No.59 Editorial Keep your hair on: The development Sandra Smith of conservation friendly wigs A change in government brings with it a change preservation of their heritage. Fear of condemnation Keira Miller and Sam Gatley in emphasis for cultural organisations. The V&A, from the profession or the perpetuated belief that Textile Display Specialists along with all the other DCMS funded museums and only ‘trained’ conservators can treat the collections galleries, has received a 15% cut to its resource Grant- often prevents public involvement with interventive in-Aid over the next four years. The Grant settlement work. The work of Anglo-Saxon CSI, Sittingbourne, One of the challenges we regularly encounter Milliner’s Crinoline (Crin) is an open Nylon mesh includes the conditions that: Kent where finds are being conserved almost entirely when displaying head wear is how to achieve a traditionally used for making bows and other by conservation interns and volunteers, highlights good fit with proper support when headdresses decorative hat features. The material had been • the world-class collections and front-line services the enormous wealth of untapped, transferable are designed to be worn upon elaborate hair styles. experimented with as a mounting material and of the V&A are to be protected skills available within local communities.1 This The solution to this quandary would appear easy it was felt that Crin had the potential to offer a enough; give heads hair. This seemingly straight- • we continue to work in partnership with other ground-breaking project has shown that with solution to the problem of producing object-friendly forward answer was not as easy to apply as one museums in the UK careful training, good supervision and mutual trust, abstract hair. Having first established that, as a volunteers can sensitively and successfully examine might think largely due to exhibition designers and thermo-set plastic, Crin could be set into curls with • we pursue ways to increase our self-generated and treat even the most fragile collections. curators desire to display objects on non-realistic, the use of a hot air gun, the greatest challenge was income, including through private giving abstract mannequin forms. This current trend to find a method of cutting the material without Our experience of working with volunteers to clean is considered least distracting to the audience’s it fraying. Heat cutting did melt the strand ends Whilst finding these savings will be a challenge, glazed ceramics for the Ceramics Galleries Phase 2, appreciation of the costume itself. The Autumn together but produced an undesirable rough edge. the Museum anticipates that it will still be able to the Ceramics Study Galleries, which opened in June 2010 exhibition Diaghilev and the Golden Age The only workable solution was to cut and machine offer a world class events programme. Last year 2010, has shown us that sharing the experience of of the Ballet Russes, 1909-1929 featured an array stitch tubular lengths with the raw edges folded in. saw the V&A’s most ambitious public programme working on national collections helps the public of head wear where the issue of hair had to be Once heat set into the appropriate tightness of curl, to date delivered; the Conservation Department has to appreciate the more complex work undertaken addressed. The headdress (S.607:A-1980), belonging they could be attached and styled onto the head. conserved, analysed or assessed (Nodding and Egan) by conservators. The forthcoming year will offer to the character of the ‘Greek Girl’ from Narcisse, around 1700 objects for 22 gallery refurbishments, opportunities for volunteers to work with the was very large and when placed on a standard It was felt that Crin was a suitable choice of material 25 exhibitions (Shah et al., Morris and Hunter, plaster cast collections and assist with the transfer abstract Proportion Ltd head it fell over the ‘face’. for mounting several oversized female and male Greig, Coueignoux), 5 contemporary exhibitions/ of 104,000 textiles to The Clothworkers’ Centre for Historically, the solution to this problem would have hats and headdresses in the Diaghilev exhibition displays