8.

Professional Notes 245

ward Gallery, London, 26 January to 16 April 1989 (see catalog, softback ISBN 1-85332- 026-9 pp. 218-241). See also, The Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci (Macmillan, New York, 1965); Los Angeles County Museum, Leonar- do da Vinci: An Exhibition of His Scientific Achievements (1949), original in ‘Codex Atlanticus 82 rc’.

9. There are very few examples of postwar scientific instruments that have gained any acceptance as artifacts parallel to the great collecting interest in early scientific instru- ments. One wonders what science museums in the 2Ist century will do to illustrate the development of instrumentation in the 20th century.

H. J. Plenderleith and S. Cursiter, ‘The 10. Industry generally fully depreciates capital Problem of Lining Adhesives for Paintings - scientific equipment over 5 years, though Wax Adhesives’, Technical Studies in the Field individual instruments may continue in ser- of the Fine Arts, 3 (1934-1935), pp. 90-l 13. vice for a substantially longer period.

NORBERTS. BAERAND CHRISTOPHERBLAIR

Conservation II The Role of the Textile Conservation Centre in Preserving Our Textile Heritage

The glare of unfavourable publicity has focused attention in the United Kingdom on the management and care of museum collec- tions. The national debate has arisen because of questions raised by the House of Com- mons Committee of Public Accounts and the publication of their report on the Manage- ment of the Collections of the English National Museums and Galleries (HMSO, 23.11.88) and the preceding Minutes of Evidence (HMSO, 20.4.1988). The Commit- tee identified many important management problems. The shortage of trained textile conservators was highlighted - it was noted that one textile conservation post remained unfilled for six years. A review of the work of the Textile Conservation Centre seems timely.

On 12 April 1989 the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) will have celebrated the fourteenth anniversary of its establishment. Mrs Karen Finch OBE, Founder of the TCC and its Principal from 1975 to 1986, de- scribed the work of the TCC in the June 1983 issue of this Journal (1983, 2, pp. 191- 194). The author, as the Centre’s present director, has taken this opportunity to prepare a brief account of the Centre’s recent

work. The TCC was established in 1975 as a charitable company limited by guarantee, and it has the honour of being housed in Grace and Favour accommodation at Hamp- ton Court Palace, close to London. The Centre’s role has developed to fulfil two main aims: the training of textile conserva- tors, and the provision of a textile conserva- tion service for public and private textile collections.

Training

The Centre provides a range of training opportunities, and the Head of Studies and Research is responsible for a staff of six, which includes experienced conservators, a photographer and a librarian. A special feature of the training is that students, apprentices and interns can benefit from the skills of the conservators working in the Centre’s Conservation Service departments, as well as from their tutors.

Currently the training of textile conserva- tors is achieved in three ways:

1.

2.

3.

A Three-Year Postgraduate Diploma Course is run by the Textile Conservation Centre in conjunction with the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. (This Course was preceded by two pilot Certificate Courses of two years’ dura- tion.) Three-year apprenticeship trainings are given in tapestry and upholstery conser- vation. Internship opportunities are provided whereby visiting conservators can study

246 Professional Notes

A member of the Textile Conservation Centre’s team of trained conservators treats the flaking paint of a painted banner. The Centre is partly funded by income earned from conservation work entrusted to it.

and work at the TCC on individually designed programmes.

The Diploma Course consists of a struc- tured training with lectures, seminars and practical work. Up to eight students are accepted each year; eight students can be accommodated in each of the first, second and third years, making a total of twenty- four students at any one time.

The Centre is justly proud of its training record. Forty-one textile conservators have graduated from the courses run in conjunc- tion with the Courtauld Institute of Art. With the apprenticeship scheme, twelve specialists in tapestry conservation and two specialists in upholstery conservation have been trained. Former students and appren- tices work as textile conservators in key posts all over the world.

Textile Conservation Service

The Centre provides a textile conservation service to a wide range of clients, including local and national museums, The National Trust, London livery companies and private individuals. The Centre’s Head of Conserva- tion Services is responsible for a team of fifteen trained textile conservators, who work in the Tapestry and General Conserva- tion Departments. A wide range of textile conservation services are provided, encom- passing advice, consultative visits and on-site work, as well as preventative and remedial conservation work. Conservation work is charged at an hourly rate set to recover the labour and other costs, but without any profit element.

The Tapestry Conservation Department specializes in the treatment of large tapestry- woven wall-hangings. In the last fourteen years over 150 tapestries have been treated at the TCC, including a magnificent set of four tapestries woven at the Mortlake Manufac- tury between 1623 and 1636 which illustrate scenes from the story of Hero and Leander. Three of the tapestries are displayed at Lyme Park, Cheshire, whilst the fourth is part of the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. On the other hand the General Conservation Department under- takes the treatment of a wide variety of historic textiles, including flags and banners, costume, upholstery, embroidered hangings, samplers and archaeological textiles. Recent projects of particular interest include cos- tumes worn by Jeremy Bentham and Flor- ence Nightingale, and one of the earliest well-authenticated trade union banners, which is dated 1821.

Research and Development

The Centre has contributed useful research into the methods of wet cleaning historic textiles, despite funding limitations, and new teaching and assessment methods have also been developed. The Centre’s conservation staff is one of the largest groups of trained textile conservators working together any- where in the world. This expertise and teamwork has allowed the Centre to develop specialist skills; it is well known for the development of conservation techniques for

Professional Notes 247

A second-year student at the Textile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court Palace, is examined on her treatment proposals for a 19th century coat. A maximum of 24 students can be accommodated on the Diploma Course at any one time.

tapestries and painted banners. As each object presents unique conservation prob- lems, treatment methods are being adapted and refined continually. The Centre hosts an Annual Seminar where former students and staff visit the Centre to exchange ideas about current methods and approaches.

Ethics and Professional Practice

Karen Finch, a pioneer of conservation training, attached great importance to main- taining ethical principles in conservation. This standard has been maintained and staff and students are expected to work to the highest ethical and professional standards. In treating a historic textile the conservator aims to conserve all that remains of the object in order to preserve its interest as an historic object. Great emphasis is placed on conserva- tion as opposed to restoration. The aim is to preserve objects, not to restore them to their original appearance. Each object is assumed to be unique and is carefully examined and

assessed before treatment proposals are formulated. Written and photographic re- cords are made of conservation treatments. Karen Finch stressed the importance of preventive conservation in her 1983 article, and this continues to be a high priority in our training and conservation services.

Funding

The Centre charges fees for courses and for conservation commissions entrusted to it, but by the nature of the work it is difficult to cover the whole cost involved in running this type of organization. The Centre has reached a stage where it is almost self-funding, in that earned income from commission and tuition fees covers the Centre’s basic running costs. Grants are still necessary for purchases of capital equipment, improving our facilities, staff development, publishing and research costs.

In addition to the benefits of being housed in Grace and Favour apartments at Hampton

248 Professional Notes

A third-year student at the Textile Conservation Centre prepares an enzyme treatment for starch removal. Former students and apprentices work as textile conservators in key posts all over the world.

Court Palace, the Centre continues to benefit from the help of its many supporters. Recent grants from charitable trusts and a commer- cial company have allowed improvements to be made to the Centre’s Reference Collection of historic textiles, its tapestry store-room, and its wet-cleaning facilities. In 1982 the Friends of the Textile Conservation Centre was established as a separate trust with the aim of supporting the work of the Centre. The Friends and their trustees offer help and advice as well as fund-raising on the Centre’s behalf. Last year the Friends launched a special appeal to establish a bursary fund and named bursaries to help students studying at the Centre. In this way the Friends aim to help both individual needy students and the Centre, which would thereby be relieved of the insecurity caused by fluctuations in fee income.

The Future

The Centre’s future seems more secure than it did in 1983. As long as the demand for its

services is maintained, the future of the Centre as an independent organization, where earned income covers basic costs, is assured. With the help of our many suppor- ters we shall continue our teaching and conservation work, while improving our equipment and facilities, maintaining and extending our staff development policy, and expanding our research activities.

Conclusion

Karen Finch concluded her article by high lighting the need for conservation training. This need is no less apparent in 1989, when criticism of museums for not taking care of their collections coincides with a large number of unfilled vacancies for textile conservators. These posts remain unfilled because there are not enough trained textile conservators to fill them. The Centre con- tinues to attract able, well-motivated stu- dents; however, the high costs of conserva- tion training are deterring many prospective students. Although the Centre can accom-

Professional Notes 249

modate 24 students, lack of financial support preserve our heritage of culturally important means only 21 are undergoing training in historic textiles in the future. 1988/89. There is a pressing need to establish adequate training bursaries; this investment

Photo credit. The Textile Conservation Centre.

will ensure there are the specialists needed to DINAH EASTOP

Computers I One Type of Trap

Every database management system offers the customer a selection of what are called data types or field types, though the system documentation may use some term more fanciful than ‘type’. The data type is an attribute of a data field within a record; and, once assigned, it determines forever what form of data may be stored in that field. For example, a field given the type ‘short integer’ will take a whole number up to some maximum value, which is often 32,767. Thus it will accept 1 or 17 or 32,766 but not 2.14, 32,768, ‘one’ or ‘Rembrandt’. The content of such a field can be used in arithmetic operations.

Data types are not universal as to their names, their limits or their rules of applica- tion, all of which vary from one software product to another. Certain general types can nevertheless be discerned. Nearly universal among them are the short integer, introduced above, the ‘character’ type for alphabetical data and the ‘real number’ type for numbers with decimal points. Systems for scientific use offer numerical types unfamiliar to the layman. Systems designed for a mass market and oriented to small business operations often support a variety of ‘special’ types, with names such as ‘dollar’, ‘time’ and ‘date’. Much museum software is of this kind, supporting the type invitingly labelled ‘date’. Many fields of collection documentation also bear the name ‘date’: ‘date of manufacture’, ‘date of acquisition’, ‘date of birth’, and so on; so the date type seems too good to be true. It is.

The object of this note is not to discourage using this type but rather to warn against its misuse. In the business applications for

which it is designed the date type is a great convenience. It permits doing arithmetic with the calendar. Input to a date field conforms to everyday conventions and often allows some latitude as to format. Thus the input ‘6 JAN 89’, ‘January 6, 1989’ or ‘6/l/89’ may all be acceptable and all be recognized to represent the same day. Nearly all computers ‘know’ what day it is, so it is generally permissible to enter ‘today’ or even ‘tomorrow’. Systems for the international market generally let the user select either the United States usage, ‘l/6/89’, or that of the rest of the world, ‘6/l/89’, provided the chosen syntax is used consistently ever after. Since this note is published first in Britain, examples follow the international custom. Date arithmetic works like this:

31/12/89 - 1 = 30/12/89 31/12/89 +30 = 30/l/90 31/12/89 +lm = 31/l/90 31/12/89 -90 = 2/10/89 31/12/89 -3m = 30/9/89 31/12/89 -1w = 25/12/89 31/12/89 +2y = 31/12/91

Note, however, that this illustration is generalized: every system supporting the date type has its own syntax and capabilities. The type is convenient for contracts, re- ceipts, agreements containing deadlines, in- terest computation and notes to oneself about ‘things-to-do’. Its limitations become apparent only as one sees how the trick is done.

The original input, e.g. ‘31/12/89’, may or may not be retained in storage. Either way, a numerical value (an integer) is computed and stored in the date field, together with or else in place of the input expression. This integer is used for date arithmetic. The result is another integer. Thus if ‘31/12/89’ is con- verted to -1, then (-1) + 30 = 29; and for output the number 29 must be reconverted to