MA Conservation Studies alumni Dale Sardeson talks us through the final year practical project he completed in Summer 2019; the conservation of a singing bird cage automaton from the Edward James Foundation Collection. 

Deciding which course of treatment to take on an object can be a near-impossible task, and even after I've finished working on a clock and it's ticking away happily on a test stand, I'll still be wondering if there was something I should have done slightly differently...

The marine chronometer signed by John Lilley & son from 1929 has shown evidences of a failure of one of its major components. The helical hairspring which is co-regulating the frequency of the balance (factor determining the rate of the mechanism) was broken by fracture near its lower attachment point. The aim of the project was to provide a replacement spring for the chronometer which would possess the required mechanical properties (toughness, elasticity, shape, composition …).

One of my recent projects is a 19th century French clock signed A.Brocot and Delletrez. I found a description of the mechanism in Chavigny's work on the Brocot family, which revealed that a patent was issued for this mechanism in around 1850 by Antoine Brocot.

The aim of this project was to restore to safe working order a Japanese lantern clock belonging to the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum. The Museum's early records had classified the clock as Chinese. However, after conducting initial research it became clear that the object conformed to many stylistic features of lantern clocks from the early - mid period of Japanese clock making.

The Silver Swan automaton conserved by Matthew Read, Conservation of Clocks Programme Leader at West Dean College, makes its debut at Robots the new blockbuster exhibition at the Science Museum.

In the summer term I was given a clock by Matthew Read, the tutor for the clock's programme, with the advice that "it just needed the striking to be sorted out." Having a good idea of Matthew's sense of humour, I realised that this was going to be no ordinary endeavour!

West Dean College student Tabea Rude has received a prize for the best conservation-restoration project from the Southern Section of the Antiquarian Horological Society (AHS) as part of the prize-giving ceremony for all West Dean programmes.