A disaster in a museum or historic house can range in scale from the theft or damage of an individual object to the wholesale destruction of a collection or property by fire or flood. As a Collections Care Assistant for English Heritage, part of my job is to do anything reasonably practicable to try and prevent such an event from occurring and to help mitigate its effects should the worst happen.
Most people know that the metric system was introduced in France, associated with the whirlwind of new legislation and standards that followed the French Revolution. However, it is less obvious why this occurred, and why it occurred in France rather than in England or elsewhere.
So many people were interested in Chanelle's work that we asked for a follow-up. These were the results of her experiments at removing the permanent ink from parchment.
Chanelle Briffa's previous work at the Notarial Archives in Malta on parchment bindings marked about 15 years ago with permanent marker led her to investigate methods of removing the ink and their effect on the parchment.
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 Solar Time Clock is attracting international media and sector attention and is a unique, super complex mechanical clock which can be set for longitude and latitude. No other mechanical clock has ever been made with such a complication. George talks about his path to becoming an independent clockmaker.
The ceramics conservation students were asked to survey a section of the Novium Museum's ceramic artifacts excavated from St Pancras Roman cemetery, near Chichester.
One of the main challenges in conservation is how to adapt the treatment of an item to the storage conditions in which the item will later be stored.
My first and most enduring project since joining the West Dean College Ceramics Conservation Department has been the tobacco leaf platter. It is through this object that I have learnt most of the skills that I will take away at the end of my graduate diploma year.
Much to my surprise, the second object that arrived on my bench in the Book Conservation Department was not a book at all, but a nineteenth-century French carriage clock travelling box.