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30th June 2005

BAFRA STUDENT AND GRADUATE CONSERVATION AWARD 2005

by Katie Keat

Sponsored by Intelligent Layman Publishers Limited

Hopetoun House Preservation Trust
South Queensferry,
Nr Edinburgh,
West Lothian,
Scotland

This year the competition finals were held in the magnificent setting of Hopetoun House, South Queensferry. Edinburgh. It has been the home of the Earls of Hopetoun, later the Marquesses of Linlithgow, since it was built and the present Marquess still lives in part of the house. The oldest part of Hopetoun was built between 1699 and 1707 and was designed by Sir William Bruce. In 1721 renowned Scottish architect William Adam enlarged the house adding a magnificent façade and state apartments.

It is this façade that greets visitors as they drive into the grounds of the house. Framed at the end of the magnificent central driveway is the famous landmark of the Fourth Bridge, sadly hardly visible on the day we were there, because of the mist.

Hopetoun is now run by a charitable trust and it was due to their generosity that we were able to hold the finals in the Education Room adjoining to the house and behind the old stables.This provided a suitably large setting for the restoration pieces entered into the competition.

This year, not only were there seven student finalists in the BAFRA/Intelligent Layman Publishers Annual Conservation Award, but there were also two graduate entrants who had entered the BAFRA/Mylands Graduate Competition.

The competition finalists were:

Graduate Award.

• Tim Jones. Mahogany chest of drawers c 1860, Scotland.
• Rob Leach. Glazed walnut bookcase

Student Award.

• Rebecca Chilvers. BCUC. Burr elm kneehole desk c 1725
• Isabelle Djossou. MANCAT. Regency/Georgian mirror frame and a pair of Victorian gilt frames.
• Peter Jackson. Oxford and Cherwell. 18th century mahogany chair.
• Nicola Little. BCUC. Pair of late Victorian, Louis XV/XVI style upholstered chairs.
• Terry Kain. Glasgow. Buxton table c 1900.
• Earnest Raill. BCUC. 19thC Dutch marquetry desk.
• Kirstin Waibel. MANCAT. Victorian Chaise longue. 1870-1890.

With this number of finalists the judges had a very full day in which the judging and interviews started promptly at 11am.

We were very pleased to welcome two parties of tutors form Glasgow College and Lauder College.

Each student was called into the Education Room where they were interviewed by the panel and asked to discuss their piece in detail and the methods of restoration they had used. They had to produce a written report which documented the work carried out and also historical research relevant to their restoration piece. These had been sent to the judges in advance for them to review.

Our judges' panel this year was led by Ylva Player-Dahnsjö, from Dundee University where she is head of book & paper conservation. She was assisted by:

• Nancy Chinnery. BAFRA, Dumfriesshire
• Tony Lumb. BADA Member. Harrogate
• Jeremy Gow. BAFRA. Angus
• Peter Makin. BAFRA. Cumbria
• Richard Higgins. BAFRA. Shropshire
• Tim Phelps. BAFRA.Yorkshire
• Andrew Stevens. BAFRA. Perthshire

While the judges were interviewing the competitors, their tutors and supporters were able to tour the house. Sadly the weather was not great and a look around the grounds was, for much of the day, not an appealing prospect. After lunch, and through the kind help of Ylva, we were shown round some of the conservation studios at Hopetoun which are run independently of the house and in a separate building adjacent to the education room.

Firstly we visited the 'Scottish Conservation Studios Ltd' and met with Helen Creasy, paper conservator; Will Murray, conservator of artifacts; and, Tuula Pardoe, textile conservator. We were shown some of the many projects they were working on including drawings and paintings which required cleaning and patching of small holes, an 18th century coat found in an attic and some beautiful artificial 3D flower specimens whose frames had been damaged by fire. Techniques used and requirements by customers were discussed.

We then visited picture conservator Henry Mathews of Egan Mathews & Rose. Henry showed us some of the paintings he was currently cleaning and restoring. The tours were fascinating and it was great to meet people working in other disciplines of our profession who were so obviously passionate about their work. We are very grateful to them all for giving us a considerable amount of their time.

With the tours over, there was time for tea and biscuits before everyone reassembled in the education room for the judges' decision. Ylva Player-Dahnsjö started proceedings outlining the difficult process involved in finding a winner. Richard Higgins then announced the winners in reverse order with our sponsor Gordon Birtles of Intelligent Layman Publishers awarding the prizes.

Our winner was Nicola Little of BCUC with two Louis XV/XVI style chairs. These were gilded chairs with upholstered seats and backs. First prize was £500. There had been a substantial amount of work on them including the making and carving of one arm. Nicola already has an upholstery job organised and hopes to continue her carving.

Peter Jackson from Oxford and Cherwell came second with an 18th c chair with a drop in seat. Peter has had a good year. He recently won a Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers Award for a replica of a miniature chest of drawers. Peter received £300.

In third place was Rebecca Chilvers of BCUC with a burr elm kneehole desk circa 1725. She is currently looking for employment and wants to continue working on a wide range of pieces.

As usual the judges had a very difficult time in deciding the winner. Richard then went on to announce the winner of the graduate award. This had been an incredibly difficult decision to make as the standard was very high indeed.

Tim Jones took the first prize of £500 of Mylands products. Tim runs his own business in Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire and was apprenticed to Mike Barrington for 5 years in Dorset.

Rob Leach, who works for BAFRA member Christian Hunt was awarded second prize. This was the book "Conservation of Furniture" by Nick Umney and Shane Rivers which had been kindly donated by BAFRA Life Member John Kitchin.

There was just time for a brief informal chat before everyone had to pack up their pieces and head off home.

All in all the day was a great success. Very many thanks to Pamela McMahon Development & Commercial Manager, The Hopetoun House Preservation Trust whose help in setting up the day was invaluable.

Letters following the BAFRA Student Conservation Award 2005

From: Ylva Player-Dahnsjö BA, MA, AKC, HND, ACR

Chief Conservator, Book & Paper Conservation Studio, University of Dundee

Let me first of all say what a pleasure and privilege it has been to chair the Judges Panel and to see the variety and quality of work of the finalists. What has particularly struck me is the enthusiasm and feel for their objects that the good entrants have displayed, and as someone who comes from another conservation-restoration discipline, it has been a joy to hear the treatment processes explained in such detail. We have seen a huge range of wildly differing projects and materials – from original handmade springs, to gilding, upholstery, and of course wood in all colours, textures and forms.

Faced with such diversity, you may wonder how we could judge fairly and I thought I would briefly run through the judging criteria which are the same for each applicant. Before I go any further, I should say that the overriding question has been "can this applicant actually conserve/restore furniture to BAFRA standards?" Closely related to this question is whether the judges got a feeling that the applicant had understood the object they were working with; what processes or incidents had resulted in its damage and degradation; and how to reverse or lessen that damage without compromising the integrity of the object. You will understand that the quality of the object as a piece of furniture was not relevant to the judges' decision, but rather the student's approach to the project, the balance between conservation and restoration and also the rapport with the client and their expressed instructions or expectations. We assured ourselves that these had not interfered with the principles of minimum intrusion and retention of original materials.

The judges looked at both historical and scientific research, and whether the candidate had accurately documented the state of the object and its subsequent treatment, and whether the latter had a clearly stated rationale. We also looked for innovation and elegant solutions to complex problems. Applicants were assessed on whether they had properly recorded how long the work had taken them (length of time taken was not judged), and on overall presentation skills and performance in the interview.

Competitions such as these are key to stimulating excellence early in the career of a conservator-restorer. It has not been an easy thing to judge this years entries and there has been much animated discussion behind the door to the judges' room. However, I am pleased to say that our agreement about the winners was very amicable.

Ylva

From: Richard Higgins – Coordinator of the Judges Panel

Winners, the Exceptional Restorer and How They Might Become One

Judging the student award was a team effort and a joy in itself to see seven very different restorer/conservators from BAFRA together with the highly respected dealer, Anthony Lumb, from Harrogate and the jury's chairman Ylva Player-Dahnsjö (a paper and book conservator from the University of Dundee's Library) all start from hugely varying standpoints and end up with a unanimous decision. Having assimilated the pertinent part of our brief by which we must ignore the quality of the item being presented we focussed on what each entrant had achieved by way of a successful restoration. The judging criteria have been well publicised and these were adhered to strictly, but of course some entrants had strengths in one area whilst another might excel elsewhere. Ultimately we had to decide which object displayed the work of the most rounded practitioner.

In fact two competitions took place, one for the Graduate Section of BAFRA and one for the Student Section. Both competitions demonstrated areas of excellence. However as expected, each Graduate entrant showed a great deal of personal development as a conservator/restorer beyond the levels achieved by the students. The graduate students therefore were able to see the fruits of their own progress and set an example to which the student section should strive.

The panel's brief to disregard the quality of the item being presented ensured we were able to focus on what each entrant had achieved by way of a successful restoration. The judging criteria have been well published and these were strictly adhered to, although this did not prevent the students' strengths from shining through. Ultimately we had to decide which object displayed the work of the most rounded practitioner.

The Graduate Competition saw a very closely fought contest between Tim Jones (TJ) and Robert Leach (RL). Here were two very diverse projects presenting very different problems which created an interesting challenge for the judges who had to appraise the chosen solutions for each object adhering to the guidelines.

RL's Walnut Glazed Bookcase was a hugely complicated job requiring a great deal of investigation into the origins of the piece. For example, its history at the hands of different restorers - changing its form whilst adding and subtracting from its original concept and finally its subsequent damage whilst in storage.

TJ's Scottish Mahogany Chest of Drawers was a much more easily understood piece of furniture although not without its dilemmas in terms of restoration versus conservation. Technically, both displayed good craftsmanship in terms of hand tool skills, an absolute pre-requisite, and both had capable finishing and colouring skills.

The panel came to the conclusion that despite a less complex project, TJ executed all of its problems successfully, demonstrating sound thought processes in all areas of the piece's integrity, incorporating the client's wishes, the technical problems and the final visual aspects of the piece. He was awarded first place. Perhaps this was a little demoralising for RL given that his complex project was more taxing; RL would have required a greater depth of knowledge and understanding, the employment of more complex techniques and of course, many more hours to reach completion. The panel's brief however, was to judge on the item presented to us on the day.

Despite evidence of much successful work, certain of the more difficult areas would have benefited from even better developed expertise in analysing and understanding the object, in choice of timbers and in colouring. The finishing of the piece was skilfully executed but, as with so much finishing that we were to see that day, was inappropriate to the piece, being historically incorrect and therefore compromising the integrity of the object as well as its final aesthetic appearance.

Congratulations to both Robert and Tim who will no doubt continue with successful and fruitful careers as conservator/restorers.

The Student Competition saw, as ever, a huge variety of work utilising different skills. To a greater or lesser extent, and often combining different disciplines, we saw upholstery, gilding, carving, marquetry, etc. together with the all important basic cabinet work and finishing. Again awarded unanimously, the first three places all displayed some really excellent work, although sadly, not one presented an object we would feel totally comfortable to live with.

Most successful and to whom we awarded first prize was Nicola Little with a pair of carved and gilded upholstered chairs. Her conservation of the existing gilding demonstrated a feel and visual awareness in cleaning which struck the perfect balance between the need to 'tidy up' the appearance by removing much alien surface cover with the prerequisite not to lose any original material, whilst leaving the object with an appropriate and aesthetically pleasing character of age.

Two new arms had to be carved and although she had carved nothing before, Nicola displayed flair and feel for the discipline which resulted in most acceptable replacements for the one chair. The upholstery was not easy and both chairs needed successfully to match each other in shape and pattern; the results were pleasing but required more practise to perfect.

Although the jury felt that these were the objects they would be most happy to live with out of all pieces presented to on the day, the new gilding to the arms significantly detracted from the finished effect. Not the gilding technique, but the choice of bôle colour to match the beautifully cleaned original surfaces. How sad that when pressed about this she admitted that the white bôle she had chosen to mix with the red had dried out because of an ill fitting lid and that college could not see its way to obtaining the right material for her to complete the job successfully. More worrying still was that her tutors did not suggest the standard practise of adding pigment to bôle to achieve an exact colour match. This must have been a serious disappointment for Nicola as her eye was certainly bothered by the poor colouring of the finished objects due only to a lack of materials and appropriate instruction.

Peter Jackson's Mahogany Chair was a quite brilliant display of craftsmanship. After an in depth study of the chair and its form, he made quite appropriate decisions and judgements regarding shape and construction. With an intelligent regard for the structural needs of the chair he was able to devise methods of repair and replacement which could not have been bettered.

The cresting rail produced many very difficult problems in terms of form and jointing and this was executed with panache allowing all lines to flow, giving back to the chair its wonderful form which had been lost by so much inappropriate restoration in the past. So why has Mr Jackson's chair not won 1st prize? The simple answer is finish. His written report and portfolio on the chair, based on his observations and research, quite rightly identified the original type of finish that this chair would have as being based on oils and wax. Why then, did he disregard all of this and apply a heavy coating of shellac applied as one would French Polish. The result was a harsh and shiny finish with no depth, character or patination, historically inappropriate and aesthetically unpleasant. What were his tutors thinking of allowing his exceptional work to be let down in this manner? He had identified what was correct but was left ill equipped to be able to achieve it. His finishing skills were excellent and most skilfully applied but oh so inappropriate to the object in hand. Not one of the Judges felt they could live with this superb piece of work with its totally incongruous and unattractive finish.

An unusual Burr Elm Knee Hole Desk was the vehicle for the well deserved third place given to Rebecca Chilvers. The object had had a very hard life in terms of inappropriate work at the hands of woodworm and ill advised "restorers". This large scale project was a tour de force of cabinet making and proved Rebecca's worth as a cabinet maker in all its facets. Very successful use of modern resins for consolidation and building up of ground work ravaged by worm was an interesting technique that I learnt that day.

The carcass work was good as was the veneering and cross banding. A huge amount of work went into returning this object to the original form it would have taken. Unfortunately it was again let down by its finish. Building up of shellac and a light waxing was an inappropriate way to finish this rare desk. It had no depth of colour or finish and no character of age at all. Her eye was good and we felt she knew what she was hoping for so why was she not guided in understanding early finishes and the building up of wax surfaces to provide a lustre that this fantastic piece of work deserves. In addition to this the choice of handles needed more guidance. Just finding patterns with hole postions to match is not acceptable. Stylistically; handle design developed along with furniture design. It follows then that a handle from a much later date will look quite incongruous on an early desk.

The judging is over and congratulations are certainly due to these three who should be able to embark on successful careers knowing that the long journey of learning has just begun, rooted in the tremendous work they have already achieved. They will all do well. But what is it that separates the great restorer from the able and competent restorer. It is their way of "seeing". It is the way they see the object before work commences and the way they visualise the end result. We can write reports and we can execute competent work but "seeing" comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it puts it into words. We must remember that it is seeing that establishes our place in our surrounding world and that we explain that world with words, but again remember, words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The same applies to our seeing of an object (say a piece of furniture) and that the relationship between what we see and what we know (have knowledge of) is never settled.

I do however have a major criticism of much what was presented to us. It is the apparent lack of direction from the students' courses in terms of facilitating a better understanding of historical finishing. They need to be very clear for example, as to which type of finish is appropriate to which piece of furniture (with regard to country of origin and date of manufacture), and need to been given the means to execute it. There is more to finishing timber than use of shellac and a rubber! This will be fed back to the relevant tutors and we must see an improvement in this area next year.

Never stop looking and never stop seeing. The art student has this driven home to him every day. We must be the same. Combine this with knowledge and skill, visualise the end result, ignore the "instruction book" and before you start work decide which of the many skills which can be employed from your arsenal of techniques will achieve the result you have in your minds eye.

"Well done" to every competitor.

Richard

TIM JONES

Dip West Dean/BADA Furniture Conservation

ANTIQUE FURNITURE RESTORER

The graduate student award was just not good enough!

Sadly after all the very hard work which went into organising the student and graduate awards there were only two entries in the graduate section including myself. Rob Leach's piece was fantastic. We enjoyed the fact that we gave the judges a hard decision with our "Beauty and the Beast" entries. I gained from comments from the full Bafra members who were judging, with regard to different ways of completing my project because some would have done it differently.

Surely with such a large sector of Bafra, more graduates could have made the effort to enter? You can't ignore the first prize of £500.00 of Mylands products as an incentive either. Was it because the event was held north of the border? (Yes, it rained but it's always raining in Scotland!) I'm sure some of the colleges appreciated not having to travel quite so far this year. If anyone can give an explanation of the poor turnout, I'm sure Bafra would like to hear it. Even if all of the graduates entered just once it would be so much better. There are many ways of completing projects and it is at these sorts of events that we can learn from others. Continual professional development does not have to be a chore!

I'm not suggesting that there is no extra work involved in entering the graduate award. I too have a very busy business. The time taken to complete the mandatory documentary evidence was considerable but I did it as part of a long overdue folio of work. The day away from the workshop is a day of lost earnings and all the preparation the day before was also unaccounted for but it's only once a year. As a 'knock on' effect my client was thrilled to have his piece entered in the competition and did not mind me keeping a hold of it for a bit longer.

The day was not just about the awards. It is always good to meet up with friends and other students that you don't know. The tour of the conservation workshops was a great opportunity and you missed out on a good event.

Tim