Pyke pedestal organ clock project

In the collections at Temple Newsam House there is a splendid pedestal organ clock from 1765 made by George Pyke. When it functions it can play eight different tunes via its weight driven organ. It is part of a larger group of similar objects by English makers, which are represented in collections in museums in Beijing, Naples, Utrecht, London and Birmingham. George Friedrich Handel wrote music for the pedestal organ clocks made by Charle Clay. Pyke was apprenticed to Clay and continued working in Clay's tradition. This object, acquired in 1954, possibly had Handel music originally but it is known with certainty that the organ's barrel was re-pinned in 1817.

This pedestal organ clock has not functioned properly for some time, and the decision was made to stop its function until such time as sufficient funds became available for a programme of conservation and restoration works to its organ, automata, clock movement, metalwork and case. Comprehensive reports on its condition, with treatment proposals were done by a West Dean College student, Brittany Cox, and these formed the basis of finding the funding for the project. 95% of the funds have been secured from donors: from the family of Raymond Burton, in his memory, of Burton's Menswear fame, and who during his life was incredibly supportive of Temple Newsam; from the Pilgrim Trust; and from The Friends of Leeds Museum. The remaining balance will be funded by Leeds Museums and Galleries. The project is live, and the Pyke pedestal organ clock has been dismantled, packed up and shipped to West Dean College for a "full monty" programme of conservation and restoration works. The Pyke pedestal organ clock is due back at Temple Newsam House in mid-July, all singing and all dancing for the benefit and enjoyment of our visitors! Watch this space for updates as the project progresses.

Twitter updates on works to the Pyke pedestal organ clock available by following:
https://twitter.com/pykewestdean

By Ian Fraser

John "Longitude" Harrison display installed at Leeds City Museum

Audio visual content being loaded on to touchscreens.

The display is located near the front entrance of Leeds City Museum

A little tweaking to do, but the display is ready for visitors now. This display complements the displays at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (part of the National Maritime Museum) that are dedicated to navigation, precision timekeeping and John Harrison. It is the only display outside of London about John Harrison, and, by chance, is near to his birthplace, Foulby, Wakefield. Harrison's magnificent contribution to advancing precision timekeeping cannot be overstated, equally so its significance. It not only advanced navigation science, and map making, but has also had profound effects on engineering and technology. Harrison was an autodidact, his was an intellectual journey to achieve precision timekeeping as a means of finding longitude at sea, the lack of such means being a huge problem for mariners on their journeys. Pervasive throughout cultures around the world, in art, literature, poetry, music, film and faiths, are references to journeys and navigation, to time and stars. The star of Bethlehem, guiding the three kings on their journey for example, or Eccesliastes 3:1, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens". Or in literature, fiction, and non-fiction equally, from Peter Pan, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, to the biographies of great people like Albert Einstein, Captain James Cook, or Charles Darwin, and the voyage of the Beagle, the putative beginning of Darwin's long thinking and reflection that led to the great truth he discerned, The Origin of Species. Whenever I have encountered them, these references, they have stood out to me.

Directions to Leeds City Museum:

Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning. Free top-ups of fairy dust available from Tinker Bell via your phone network. Your network may charge for call time. Call TINK, or 8465, to top up.

Harrison precision pendulum clock No. 2, from the collections of Leeds Museums and Galleries, the object at the core of the display.

Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning, keep on trekking!
"Location aware music" contemporary performance art and GPS combined, in a great example of the human drive to create beauty, and seek moments of awe, and using new technologies to serve this human need.

Sidereal time is the time scale that is based on the Earth's rate of rotation measured relative to the fixed stars. This is a technique that was known and used by John Harrison in regulating his timekeepers. "All men have stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides…."
John Harrison advanced precision timekeeping, by mechanical means, by an amount that had not been seen before or since. Today the time standard is kept by atomic clocks, that in a sense are gauging the entropy of the universe. We can understand what timekeeping is, but what is time itself? Perhaps the best explanation is the concept of the arrow of time. Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity also goes some way, perhaps, of explaining what spacetime is. Einstein also had a very good sense of humour: “When you are courting a nice girl, an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.” This much is certain: time is a precious resource, not to be wasted, crack on, like smoke and oakum.

Sea Fever

BY JOHN MASEFIELD
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking,
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

The hard opening of the display was on 23/01/2014, and was marked with a very fine lecture, to an audience of nearly 180, by Dr Richard Dunn, Senior Curator, Science, Technology and Navigation, from the National Maritime Museum. 
Blog of the Board of Longitude project "Leeds leads"
Posted by Ian Fraser

A Day in the Life (I fixed a door today, oh boy)

My work can be highly varied, something for which I am always grateful and one evening last week, reflecting on the day's work and the number of diverse tasks I had undertaken that day, I thought "Do a blog, a snapshot of the day!"

Repair of damaged and broken Georgian door furniture, and installation, to the door between the Gothick Room and its dressing room, at Temple Newsam House.

 
Working with Temple Newsam site staff to determine water ingress problems over the South Wing and the Darnley Room, for reporting back to property management for attention. I lecture on the subject of conservation of historic houses, interiors and collections to students from the universities of Leeds, York and Hull, so I also updated the lecture with some more examples of what can go wrong and why. Additionally, conservation of historic buildings falls within conservation policy, an official policy document written by Head of Collections, Registrar and LMG conservators. Friday, last week, it was chucking it down, so that is the best time to look for leaks, and also spotted an overflowing downspout, indicating a blockage. The day before had been lovely, however, and I had the company of a heck of a lot of swallows on the roof of Temple Newsam House.

Picture by Jeff Darken

Ensuring that all the facets of the display development at Leeds City Museum, centred on the John "Longitude" Harrison precision pendulum clock, keep going forward, audio visuals, graphic treatment, showcase, other display accessories, and the objects themselves. Applying the size coat in preparation for gilding these finials for the hood of the John "Longitude" Harrison precision pendulum clock. The making of the finials was donated by craftsman Barry Horton, link to his website at the bottom of this blog.








Continuing with structural repairs to some fine chairs by Thomas Chippendale the Younger prior to their being reupholstered.

Some minor repairs to objects coming back to Temple Newsam from a loan to Sewerby Hall, East Yorkshire.

Posted by Ian Fraser (with gratitude to John Lennon for blog title inspiration, and for all the music)
http://www.barry-horton.com

West Dean College furniture conservation students visit Temple Newsam House

West Dean College is a very special educational institution near Chichester, West Sussex. It was the place where I studied and trained in furniture conservation after my training and experiences in cabinetmaking, design and joinery. West Dean College first year furniture conservation students, and their tutor, Norbert Gutowski, visited Temple Newsam House today. As one of the great decorative arts museums in the UK, with an outstanding furniture collection, Temple Newsam has long been a standard visit every year for West Dean students, both furniture, and clocks. And as usual a very international lot they were, the students coming from Poland, New Zealand, Germany and England.

http://www.westdean.org.uk/WestDeanHomepage.aspx

Posted by Ian Fraser

You've been framed!



Madonna and Child tablet conserved
but needing a frame for display.

Detail of moulding being carved

Making things that are curved can be interesting technical challenges. The Madonna and Child tablet that has undergone conservation works is for display at Temple Newsam House. Missing its frame, a new one, of an appropriate design for the 17th century, is being made in Temple Newsam's conservation department. Starting from the tablet a template was made, and then divided into four pieces. Oak was chosen for its strength and density; softwood would be easier to carve, but because the tablet is heavy, and softwood is also prone to some movement and splitting, this makes it less than ideal for framing the sort of object we are talking about here. It is also historically accurate, oak would likely have been used in this instance, and certainly all good church and cathedral joinery is done in oak. Four pieces of quarter sawn oak were rough shaped, and their ends precisely surfaced so that the ends met cleanly. Quarter sawn oak is very straight grained, and stable. The four pieces were glued together under the pressure of a web cramp. After the glue had set a floating tenon was let in across each of the four joints. Precisely shaping the inside and outside curves was the next step. This was followed by laying out with a sharp pencil the lines of the mouldings to be carved, the carving. This was done entirely with an old hacksaw blade that I ground to make a kind of planing knife. It worked surprisingly well, and the carving was quicker than I thought it would be. Keeping the edge sharp is essential, of course. So, regularly, it is over to the diamond grit lapping stone to get an edge back, and then giving the new edge a tickle on the polishing wheel. Wicked edge achieved! Over the coming days I will update with all the procedures, because eventually this frame will be watergilded, and then toned down to give the sort of appearance of an old gilded surface.

Frame in oak being fabricated and shaped.

With the moulding carved and smoothed the frame is ready
for the next stages.

Onto the bare oak a coat of rabbit skin glue size is brushed on. Mixed 1 part rabbit skin glue granules to 10 parts water, and then gently heated into solution. The subsequent layers of gesso is the size in the same dilution with chalk (calcium carbonate) mixed in. More about gesso and its purpose when we get to that stage. The hot size when applied to the oak will be absorbed a long way into the timber. This will prevent excess rabbit skin glue in the gesso being absorbed into the oak. This would weaken the gesso and make it crumbly. The size also helps with bonding the gesso to the wood, forming a chemical bridge between the two. Powerful hydrogen bonding takes place between the size and the wood, and the size and the gesso, an interface between the wood and the gesso, and absorbed into both.

Rabbit skin glue size being brushed and worked
into the surface of the wood that will be gilded.

Gesso is a mixture of the rabbit skin glue size and powdered chalk. Its purpose is to enable an extremely smooth surface, on the item being gilded, to be created. The binding medium, rabbit skin glue is also used in the subsequent layers, the bole, and the size water applied at the gilding stage. The size water activates the dry glue in the gesso and bole, and bonds the gold leaf down to the surface.


Powdered chalk is mixed into the
size to make gesso. Enough chalk is mixed in
until the gesso has the appearance and
consistency of single cream.





Several coats, at least 12, of gesso are applied to the substrate.
The coats should all be applied the same day to ensure the
layers bond properly.

After enough gesso has been built up it needs smoothing,

and re-capturing of the detail that has gotten a little clogged up

with gesso. This is done with abrasive papers. Also with "water-

polishing". Fine cotton cloth slightly dampened slightly

dissolves the surface and allows a little re-distribution and smoothing.

Application of bole is the next stage. Bole is made of rabbit
skin glue size, and very fine grain coloured clays. Here
the clay is being crushed and mixed with water before being
added to the size.

Here the clay and size have been mixed, filtered for smoothness
and is ready to apply, fairly hot.

 Several coats of bole are applied. Yellow colour bole, and red bole

on areas that will be burnished (more about that at the

application of gold leaf stage!).

The coats of bole are made extremely smooth with
a succession of abrasive papers, finishing with
an abrasive of at least 6000 grit. Effectively this
action is polishing the bole. The surfaces are now
ready to receive the gold leaf.

Gold leaf is extremely thin. In water gilding it is bonded to the substrate by the glue in the bole and the gesso. This is re-activated with water. To help bonding further a little rabbit skin glue size is added to the water. A little ethanol (a kind of alcohol) is added too. This helps to break the surface tension of the water and helps it to wet the surface instead of beading. Gilders call this solution "size water". The gold leaf is cut to manageable, suitable, sizes and shapes with a gilder's knife. The gold is supported on a gilder's cushion at this stage, having been drawn out of the book of gold leaf it was stored in. A gilder's tip is a kind of wide, fine brush. It is used to pick the gold up. It has to be slightly sticky so that the gold transfers to the tip. I put a little Vaseline on the back of my left hand, and periodically, when the gold no longer stays on the tip, brush the tip over the Vaseline.

Laying the gold leaf

Picking up gold leaf with a kind of brush called a gilder's tip

Size water is applied to the bole. This activates the glue
in the bole, and gesso. As the water is drawn into
the porous surface the gold leaf is sucked down onto
the surface, and is bonded by the glue.

All the gold leaf down. Next step, after the gilding has
dried, is to dust off the excess, and then burnish the
two round mouldings.

Some hours after applying the gold leaf the gesso reaches the right
moisture content for burnishing. The tool for this is a polished agate stone.
Gentle pressure compresses the gesso and gold, and brings about
a deep and lustrous shine.

The tablet has been offered into the frame's rebate. Two battens
are carefully shaped to the contours of the back of the tablet.
When fixed into place the battens apply no tension to the
tablet. Plaster behaves well under compression. The same cannot
be said for its being under tension!

The frame has been toned down with some coats of weak size
with black and brown watercolour mixed in. This is very effective
in giving an aged appearance, taking down the very bright, new gold
without detracting from its lustre. Ready for installation by
Temple Newsam's technicians. Fait accompli!

Posted by Ian Fraser

Outreach

Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent, a National Trust property

The collections and historic buildings at Leeds Museums and Galleries have a very high cultural value, so much so that many of the collections are Designated as being of national significance. Moreover, Temple Newsam House is the greatest historic house under local authority management in the United Kingdom. This value, or intellectual capital, has been created by curatorial expertise, often with conservation support. Curatorial expertise, and leadership, and what is generated from these for visitors, are core functions and strengths of service delivery. All other museum functions, including conservation, are, in effect, parasitical to those core strengths, i.e. they draw their reason for existence, and the "raw materials" of service delivery from the core strengths. The expertise, experience and judgment built up by working with these great collections and buildings has value to other organisations in advisory capacities. Two examples of outreach to other heritage organisations, to which I have contributed, are set out here.
The team at Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent, will be, all being well, embarking on a multi-million pound project to conserve the building fabric, interiors, and collections of the National Trust's (NT) largest, most important and most problematic historic house. The project also has a major audience development element, in keeping with the NT's policy of "Bringing places to life". Very excitingly the NT plans are to include the creation of conservation studios in the medieval barn adjacent to Knole. The NT are preparing a Stage 2 bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for project funding, and as part of developing the bid held a specialists' consultation day on 06/02/2013. Specialists in conservation, archaeology and historic house interpretation and audience development were invited by the National Trust to review their plans and comment. The exercise will help the National Trust to develop its Stage 2 bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The medieval barn at Knole. It was badly damaged in a fire in the 1980s, and the
roof is modern. As part of the buidling's conversion to conservation studios the original
steep roofline will be restored.

Maquette of the Carved Room at Burton Constable Hall

Burton Constable Hall, near Hull, with whom LMG has worked in partnership since 1992, has a hugely interesting Baroque interior, from about 1680, the Carved Room. Unfortunately this room was heavily interfered with, and damaged, when it was converted into a catering kitchen, when Burton Constable Hall was still a private house. The room is entirely wooden panelling, and replete with fine carved mouldings. Most of the panelling survives ex situ. Paint analysis shows that it had a very light green, terre verte decorative scheme, with elements of the carving picked out in gold. There is also a fine double-vaulted ceiling that will need re-consruction, along with the extensive woodwork repairs, installation and decorating of the panelling. The sash window is one of the earliest in existence, contemporary with sash windows at Hampton Court. Elevations of the walls have been drawn, as well as ceiling plans. The distribution of green and gold has been mapped. Wooden components have been linked to their places on the elevations. The maquette in the picture has been prepared both for visitors and for Burton Constable Trustees. With plans and costs now all determined the next step is applications for funding to funders like the Pilgrim Trust, the Monument Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is going to be a thrilling project, and a rare opportunity to research and re-construct a Baroque interior, and an opportunity to refresh the joiner and carver skills.

Design for the vaulted ceiling

Posted by Ian Fraser

Time is fleeting.....

Re-assembly at LMDC

Harrison clock movement being prepared for transport

Hindley telescope in its showcase for Keeping Time 

Matthew Read preparing the telescope for transport

The "Keeping Time" exhibition at Fairfax House, York, ended on 30 December 2012, and Friday 4 January 2013 two of the star items, the John "Longitude" Harrison clock, of 1727, from Leeds Museums and Galleries, and the Henry Hindley telescope, of 1742, from Burton Constable Hall, were dismantled and prepared for transport with the expert help of Matthew Read, clocks programme tutor at West Dean College, and one of his students, Tim Hughes. The Harrison clock is safely back at Leeds Museum Discovery Centre. The Hindley telescope is at West Dean College now for an extensive programme of conservation and recording, a project that is being funded by a very generous donor, Josie Rowland. The telescope has been blogged about before, it is of tremendous importance within the history of scientific instruments, being the first-ever equatorially mounted telescope, with some technical details about the thread-cutting that has even Matthew a little puzzled. The full dismantling, recording and analysis should be very revealing. The other one made by Hindley is at the Science Museum. There will be blogs about this project as it progresses. The aim is to share the information gained as widely as possible, and to that end a study day is planned, as are papers for Antiquarian Horology Society, and the Scientific Instrument Society. Its display and interpretation at Burton Constable Hall will be informed by what is revealed, as well as the historic context. The dance of communication between curator, conservator and education specialists is what creates the unique offer for visitors that great museums aspire to, and the curatorial committee at Burton Constable Hall, of which I am a member, is looking forward to making the most of this unique and significant navigational and astronomical instrument.

Antiquarian Horological Society
Scientific Instrument Society
West Dean College
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hindley
Burton Constable Hall
Equatorial mounts

Posted by Ian Fraser