As part of my role as a Conservation Assistant, the majority of my work involves a variety of different types of cleaning.
There are two main types of conservation that are used within historic houses such as Basildon Park. They are preventative and restorative. The bulk of what I do here at Basildon is classed as preventative conservation. This involves cleaning and caring for the vast array of objects and materials within the houses collection to ensure that their condition is maintained intact for as long as possible. For example, a few weeks ago it was decided that it would be a good idea, as the house was relatively quiet, to start a clean on the various ceramics in the house. In the case of cleaning ceramics it isn't just as simple as sticking them in a bowl of warm soapy water and cleaning them with a sponge. Rather, we need to lay out all our equipment in advance and painstakingly clean each piece by hand.
Firstly, we need to clear a large work space such as the large table that we have in our conservation room. Next, we put down a layer of bubble wrap, followed by a layer of wax paper to create a soft surface for the ceramics, in case they are dropped whilst cleaning (it happens!). We then have a bowl of filtered water, a bowl of water with mild detergent, a bag of cotton buds and a pile of long kebab skewers.
If a piece is made of more than one part, for example a soap dish with a lid and drainage bowl, we take care to ensure that we carry each piece individually to the work surface. This is to ensure that if there was an accident and the piece was dropped, then only one part of the whole piece would be damaged, as opposed to the whole piece.
We then examine the piece to see if there are any cracks, chips, loss of glazing etc, that should be taken in to consideration when cleaning, and for the condition report that is written after cleaning each piece. Using the kebab skewers and the cotton wool, we carefully twist the cotton wool around the skewer to create a long cotton wool bud. This helps us to get in to the difficult places, ensuring an even clean. We soak the cotton bud in to the detergent, straining it of any excess moisture, and start to clean the piece. This is the long and boring bit, as some of the larger pieces can take quite some time. After this has been done, we then repeat the process using the filtered water.
Finally, when the piece is clean and dry, we write out our condition reports. I personally find this bit really difficult as we are expected to sketch the piece we have cleaned, and I am a terrible artist! We make sure to list any chips, cracks, loss of glazing etc, on to our diagram to ensure that the next time the piece is cleaned, any deterioration of the item can be easily recognised.
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| Here you can see the tools that I mentioned above. This item came from the Crimson Bedroom and is part of a wash basin, soap dish, water jug and chamber pot. This particular item is a 'slop bucket', which the chamber pot would have been emptied in to before being taken downstairs to be disposed of. The part on the left is an 'anti splash' lid, that ensures that the unlucky person whose job it is to carry the bucket downstairs, isn't splashed with any of the waste contained within. It certainly wasn't a particularly pleasant job, to be sure! |
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| Here you can see me in action, cleaning one of the wash bowls. It is actually a really nice piece, which has been hand painted and is part of a much nicer, larger set. |
So far during my time here, I have learned how to clean a variety of materials; metals, ceramics, textiles, gilding, lacquer work, wood. However, the one that I find to be most rewarding to clean is textiles. Once shown how to do this once, I made it my mission to clean as many textiles in the house as I could. And it makes such a massive, visible difference. As part of my training, I was let loose on a George III sofa, which dates from the late 18th century, and is situated in the houses "Sutherland" Room.
Similarly to the way we clean ceramics, the first thing we do is prepare our work station in advance, laying out all the tools we need in preparation for the task. In this instance, we need a dust sheet, a vacuum cleaner with adjustable suction, some thin netting, a square wooden frame covered with netting and a flexible netting mat.
The vacuum is placed on its lowest suction setting, to ensure that as little disturbance is done to the textile in question, but enough to suck up the dust. The vacuum head has to be covered with some of the thin netting and masking taped in place. This is done to ensure that the vacuum only catches the dust particles and not any stray fibres which may be lose on the surface of the fabric. Similarly, this is why we have the square frame and netting mat. These too also act as an extra barrier between the surface of the textile and vacuum itself. The flexible netting is used on non flat surfaces such as folds and creases.The netting frame is used on items such as cushions. Once everything is in place, you carefully vacuum over the exposed area. Then once that has been done, you can examine the item to see if it should be done again.
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| Here you can see myself cleaning the George III sofa using the equipment mentioned above. In this instance, I decided to use the netting mat as it was easier than the frame on this particular surface. |
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| Another photo, again showing the work in progress. |
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| The finished result. After the sofa had been done, all of the sofa cushions were taken off and cleaned as well. The whole sofa took me two days to complete and more than 6 hours of work. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
As mentioned earlier, there's only so much preventative conservation that can be carried out before a piece needs to be restored. A perfect example of restorative cleaning can be seen in the Crimson Bedroom bedroom in the house, which contains a variety of deep red furnishings, dating from 1829. The set comprises of a bed, curtains, stool, chair and sofa. The bed in particular is one of the best examples of William IV style upholstery and was probably built for royalty by the royal upholsterer George Morant. It has recently been restored fully in 2013, after being in the house since Lady Iliffe purchased it from Ashburnham Place for the grand total of £100! The video below tells you a bit about the bed.
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So, as you can see, this is just some of the work that I do on a daily basis in the house. I still have a lot to learn, but so far I have enjoyed every single minute of it. It is exactly 4 weeks today until I leave, and I will be so sad to go. When you find a job that you truly love, you never work a day in your life. I hope to find some employment after this that can bring me as much joy as I have heard here these past 8 weeks. I look forward to sharing with you all what is to come.
Until then,
Best wishes,
Craig
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