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CODEX CONSERVATION

LATEST NEWS...

Project Funding Success for Impact Heritage CIC

Over lockdown, I have been working with 2 other wonderful and very experienced conservators to set up Impact Heritage CIC, a not-for-profit organisation to help develop conservation projects for community archives. It is an exciting project and Ruth, Ian and myself are delighted that our first major project has just been granted Arts Council England & Lottery Project Funding.  We will be working a collection of 50+ Bibles for the Charterhouse Museum, with Samantha Hare, an emerging conservator, and Creative Writes, to provide online creative writing workshops inspired by the project. 

​To find out more about Impact Heritage follow this link: 
www.impactheritage.uk
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Giving the Maureen Duke Lecture for the Society of Bookbinders, December 2021

Maureen Duke was an inspiration to all avid bookmakers and historians, it was an absolute absolute pleasure to present her memorial lecture at the London & South Region Christmas Meeting for the Society of Bookbinders.  I spoke about the Conservation of the Dickens Fellowship Scrapbooks which I worked on at the beginning of 2021.  No doubt the lecture will be reviewed in the London & South Region newsletter for all those who couldn't make it on the day.

TV appearance on Quest's Salvage Hunters the Restorers

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The filming of this episode began in the summer of 2020 so it was fantastic to see it go out as part of Series 4 (Episode 15) .  Follow this link for a snippet of the action:
twitter.com/i/status/1425387308849713155


Let's hope that it leads to many more exciting opportunities.

Specialist Lecture for Preservation Equipment Ltd.

It was my absolute pleasure to present an online talk for one of the leading conservation suppliers, Preservation Equipment Ltd. We had a really mixed group of interested attendees and the whole presentation is now available for free online:
​www.preservationequipment.com/Blog/Blog-Posts/How-to-describe-book-bindings-Webinar

Completion of Dickens Fellowship Scrapbook Project funded by Arts Council England (ACE) & Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)!

This video is an in depth look at the full conservation of one of the Dickens Fellowship Scrapbooks. It covers all of the treatment steps giving you a rare glimpse into the conservation processes.  This was an incredible collection to work on, and they can be accessed online via the Resources Section of the Charles Dickens Museum website.  It is a joy to share my experience of these fascinating volumes.
I was hugely proud to accept the support of the ACE HLF Project Fund for Dickens Fellowship Archive Project – Enabling Access for the Future
This project was for the first phase of funding conservation and cataloguing of the scrapbook collections which are fundamental to the Charles Dickens Museum.  It has allowed this previous unsearchable, and hugely significant collection to be available to scholars and enthusiasts around the world, via the online catalogue, in good time for the Museum’s centenary celebrations in 2025.  The 97 volumes of Fellowship Scrapbooks date from 1905 to 1997 and contain newspaper cuttings on any Dickens-related topic, from national publications to provincial papers. They contain primary materials including advertisements for theatrical performances, newspaper cuttings (mainly British papers, with some American articles), photographs and paper ephemera and were compiled by members of the Dickens Fellowship who founded the museum.  
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 Online Training...

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Following on from the success of my parchment workshop in 2020, I have since been developing bespoke online training and workshops for librarians and conservators around the world. 

The next one starts this week working with the National Library of Singapore. It is going to be another practical workshop making a limp paper binding based on the work of the late Chris Clarkson and a practical workshop on book conservation techniques.  It promises to be really interesting, especially for those who are keen to make a beautiful, well-constructed binding and discuss the ethical issues around using the techniques on collection items.

I have been working on a bibliography around the subject which is available via the this link:
​limp_binding_bibliography_jan_22.pdf


 Exciting New Collaboration - Conservation Training for Auction Houses & Book Dealers

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It is always a pleasure to work with other conservators and over the last few months I have been working on a couple of projects with Suzanne Press ACR (www.suzannepress.com/) an experienced conservator of works of Art on paper, also based in London.  One of these has resulted in our collaboration to reach out to auction houses and book dealers in and around London to offer conservation training on handling, assessment and how to offer and access advice for clients.   We have now provided training to the teams at Bonham's and Sotheby's, which has been incredibly interesting. The teams work with a huge books from all periods and cultures, with all kinds of damage from minor tears, and old insect damage to full-on obliteration of bindings due to fire.  We are keen to extend this training opportunity as valuable knowledge for our allied professions.

Here is a link to the leaflet that we have created about the training: sp_cc.pdf 
Please feel free to contact either of us to find out more, either via the information provided on the leaflet or  this website.

Parchment Bindings Lecture - Available Online

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I have also given a lecture on the conservation of 4 parchment stationery bindings as part of the virtual training programme for the Archives & Records Association. I was in great company in this lecture series and the talks by Victoria Stevens and Katherine Beaty are a must for all those obsessed by parchment stationery bindings like me!

Here is the link to the video of my conservation of parchment stationery bindings video:
https://play.webvideocore.net/popapp.php?l=324413&w=720&h=800&p=4GE35AGFE12D4C4&title=Make%2C+Mend+%26+Do%E2%80%A6The+Conservation+of+4+Eighteenth-Century+Parchment+Stationery+Bindings&bgcolor1=%23ffffff&bgcolor2=%23e0e0e0&hide_playlist=&hide_description=&hide_live_chat=1&layout=default&is_inversed=&theme=light&image=https%3A%2F%2Fmember.streamingvideoprovider.com%2Fpanel%2Fserver%2Fclip%3Fa%3DGenerateThumbnail%26clip_id%3D0%26size%3Dlarge%26playlist_id%3D324413%26is_playlist%3D1%26segmentName%3Dsingle&use_html5=1&live_id=&sel_playlist=1g2ab52ge47574c&sel_multiplaylist=&is_responsive=1&is_vertical=&one_thumb_per_row=1&thumbs_size=medium&disable_hash=1&skinAlpha=50&colorBase=%23250864&colorIcon=&colorHighlight=%237f54f8&fs_popin=&start_volume=&close_button=&player_align=NONE&player_bar=1&auto_play=&auto_hide_player_controls=1&chat_position=&description_position=&playlist_position=&allow_fullscreen=1&player_start_volume=&widget_height_behavior=0&template_published_fields=-1&play_button=1&play_button_style=pulsing

To accompany my publications and work on the Conservation of Parchment Bindings I have compiled a downloadable bibliography.
stationery_binding_1500-1800_july_20.pdf
File Size: 204 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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