Collections Care Stimulus Fund: Successful Projects

Project Title

Safeguarding the Sir Charles Harper (1876-1950), St Helena albums

Specialism

Book, paper, photographs

Funding

£1,250

ACR Involved

Rowena Doughty ACR

Overview

The grant will be used to implement preventive conservation measuresin relation to 8 albums containing a variety of manuscripts, photographs and printed ephemera relating to Sir Charles Harper (1876-1950) during his time as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Project Title

Conserving the Tillet

Specialism

Textiles

Funding

£1,250

ACR Involved

Morwena Stephens ACR

Overview

The grant will be used to conserve, re-glaze and re-frame an 18th century tillet for safe display. A tillet was a loose outer cloth wrapped around a bale of woollen cloth for export in the 16th-18th centuries. The complex design on a tillet showed the name of the manufacturer, in this case ‘Fox’, the company that operated Coldharbour Mill textile factory for about 200 years. This tillet dates from the early years of the Fox Company’s operations, exporting cloth to many countries of the world.

Project Title

Osteological Conservator Review

Specialism

Natural History

Funding

£1,190

ACR Involved

Lucie Mascord ACR

Overview

The grant will be used to carry out an Osteological Conservation Review. To assess the deterioration of objects in the collection, a collection which includes, examples of animal remains that exhibit cutmarks by Homo sapiens, and an extensive collection of faunal remains, such as evidence of hyaenas and other species. To outline appropriate environmental conditioning to support long-term preservation and collections management. 

Project Title

Pictish stone conservation and display

Specialism

Stone

Funding

£1,250

ACR Involved

Graciela Ainsworth ACR

Overview

The grant will be used to fund the conservation and display of a Pictish stone. It was found locally on the beach at Kinloss and allocated to the museum as Treasure Trove. The project is important because the stone, an Early Medieval or Pictish fragment of a carved stone cross, is of an unusual design with close comparators with a Class II Pictish stone already part of our display of local carved stones.

Project Title

Fragile Fragments

Specialism

Manuscripts

Funding

£1,250

ACR Involved

Deborah Phillips ACR

Overview

The project will greatly improve the condution and log-term preservation of a rare collection of c. 100 parchment manuscript fragments, principally from the medieval period.

Project Title

Digitising the Clan Donald Genealogical Chart, 1814

Specialism

Digitisation

Funding

£1,073

ACR Involved

Ticca Ogilvie ACR

Overview

The grant will be used to fund the production of a reproduction quality whole image of our Clan Donald Genealogical Chart. The chart is exceptionally large (990 mm x 1320 mm) which makes conservator-supervised handling a priority. Its size is also the reason why substantial post-processing in the form of stitching and blending of section photographs will be necessary. Advice sought from a specialist museum digitising photographer recommends that the object is removed from its frame and protective glazing to ensure that reflections and shadows do not affect image quality.

Project Title

Condition Checking and Conserving a Case of Birds 

Specialism

Taxidermy

Funding

£1,073

ACR Involved

Simon Moore ACR

Overview

This case of 12 taxidermy birds has been identified as having suffered insect pest damage and as such, proper investigation of it is an action within our Care and Conservation Plan. Careful monitoring of the specimens leads us to believe that the pests are no longer active, but we do not know when the infestation took place, nor at this stage the full extent of the damage. This grant will be used to pay for a conservator to open the case, remove the specimens and treat them as regards the pests, before cleaning and stabilising areas of damage, photographing the specimens and finally replacing the birds in their setting.

Project Title

Conservation of the Kelshall Treasure

Specialism

Bronze

Funding

£1,250

ACR Involved

Alison Foster ACR

Overview

In 2014 a metal detectorist discovered a bronze jug and dish in a field near Royston, Hertfordshire. The North Herts. museum archaeologist organised an excavation which uncovered a remarkable collection of high-status Romano-British funerary items. The collection included two bronze jugs which is the focus of this project. The grant would be used for conservation of one of the bronze jugs and one bronze corner finding because they are showing signs of bronze disease, so need urgent attention.

Project Title

Preventive and Remedial Conservation of 18^th C Wallpaper Samples

Specialism

Art on Paper / Preventive

Funding

£1,250

ACR Involved

Phillippa Mapes ACR

Overview

This grant funding will be utilised to pay for the preventive and remedial conservation and curatorial research of 28 18th century wallpaper samples from The Novium Museum. The samples come from three different sources: 1) The former premises of The Dolphin and The Anchor Inns, Chichester, which combined in 1910 to form The Dolphin & Anchor hotel. The samples were taken during archaeological monitoring in 1998, prior to the buildings refurbishment and alteration to retail usage. 2) The upstairs bedroom of No. 19 Westgate, Chichester. 3) An upstairs room of No 77 North Street, Chichester, currently occupied by Boots Opticians.

Project Title

Historic taxidermy bat 

Specialism

Taxidermy

Funding

£328

ACR Involved

Simon Moore ACR

Overview

The grant will be used to conserve a late eighteenth century noctule bat, prepared by taxidermist Thomas Hall of 8 Twisters Alley, Bunhill Row, near Moorfields, London. The date on the case (1779) is contemporary with the earliest known written records about the company. Most (later) labels locate Thomas Hall to City Road, Finsbury, London.

Project Title

Conservation of four Second World War silk escape maps

Specialism

Silk maps

Funding

£877

ACR Involved

Michelle Harper ACR

Overview

The grant will be used to pay for the conservation (comprising documentation, photographing, wet cleaning, laying out flat and packing in melynex) of four good examples of silk escape maps dating from the Second World War.

Project Title

Collections on the move

Specialism

Inventory and transportation

Funding

£1,250

ACR Involved

Helena Jaeschke ACR

Overview

Our plan is to re-locate the collections (currently held off site) to spaces within the museum that were formerly offices. The Collections on the Move project will be led by the Creative Director, with specialist advice from Helena Jaeschke ACR and support from key volunteers and the Collections team.  This will include establishing new on-site stores, completing a full inventory of the off-site store, updating catalogues, packing, transporting and unpacking collections.  

Project Title

Trigge Library – remedial conservation

Specialism

Books

Funding

£1,250

ACR Involved

Bridget Warrington

Overview

In July 2020, Bridget Warrington MA ACR was appointed to carry out a conservation condition survey of the Trigge Library – a chained library established by Francis Trigge in 1598 situated above the south porch of St Wulfram’s Church. The survey, funded by ChurchCare, assessed all 330 pre-eighteenth-century books (of which 84 are chained) and prioritised the damaged books as high, medium and low. The survey also examined environmental conditions in the library, cleaning routines, handling training, display protocols and all other preservation aspects.

Of the 28 books assessed as having a high level of damage, 10 books had active furniture beetle infestations. These books have now undergone freezing deinfestation at Harwell Restoration. The bindings have been surfaced-cleaned and are now in isolation pending further checks and funding for remedial work. The grant will be used to fund the conservation of three of these deinfested books – C.17, H.02 and A.06. H.02 contains, as an endpaper, verses printed for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester’s funeral in 1588. Only one other copy exists of this extremely rare work.

Project Title

Restoring Roy: Conservation of an original Spitting Image puppet

Specialism

Textile puppet

Funding

£1,250

ACR Involved

Janie Lightfoot ACR

Overview

The grant will be used to fund the conservation of an original Spitting Image puppet in the Cartoon Museum’s permanent collection.  This object is made from latex foam and is showing signs of degradation. This came to the Cartoon Museum Curator’s attention when she noticed flakes of latex foam from the internal puppet which had fallen onto the object mount. The Cartoon Museum do not have an internal Conservator and therefore require external expertise to assess the extent of degradation and conservation needs, and to stabilize the object and mitigate further degradation.

Project Title

Conservation of Library borrowing register

Specialism

Book/paper

Funding

£1,035

ACR Involved

Emma Fraser ACR

Overview

The grant will fund the repair of a Library receipt book, which records the borrowings from the library of the University of St Andrews from 1786-92. The volume is boxed and unfit for production due to fragility of the sewing structure and binding. The aim of the treatment is to stabilise the volume to enable digitisation while retaining as much original material as possible. This volume is an integral part of a series of ledgers kept to record the borrowings of professors and others between 1773-1925. Together with the student receipt books (1768-1925), these include over 100,000 records of borrowings at St Andrews between 1750-1830.

Project Title

1871-1882 baptismal register for the RC church of St Mary Moorfields

Specialism

Book/paper

Funding

£1,250

ACR Involved

Ian Watson ACR

Overview

The grant will be used to conserve this important sacramental register relating to one of the oldest post-Reformation Catholic parishes in the UK. (St Mary Moorfields was at one time the only Roman Catholic church in the City of London). The register covers a period that saw rapid growth in London’s Catholic population, and contains details of hundreds of individuals from all walks of life but often the very poorest, many of them immigrants and refugees. It is invaluable to both academics and genealogists alike, but its condition prevents it being accessed for research.