Doulton Tiles
Eura Conservation was employed to remove a large number of large hand painted nursery rhyme panels which originated in the Doulton/Royal Doulton factory. Not only was it essential to minimise breakage but there was also the imperative of working within a live hospital setting keeping dust, mess and fumes to a minimum. Eura Conservation received an ICON (Institute of Conservation) Anna Plowden Trust Award for innovation for the removal of these tile panels.
Project location: |
Doulton Tiles. Royal Victoria InfirmaryAfter much experimentation and assessment regarding the efficiency, effectiveness and weight bearing capabilities of our panel removal system we went into a live hospital setting to carefully clean, stabilise, protect and reinforce the 70 plus panels prior to removing them all from the walls and transporting them back to our workshops. Removing the panels was essentially like taking a diamond cheese wire into the brickwork. In the workshop all brickwork and mortar was removed from each nursery rhyme, a new backing put on, the protected front revealed (and where needed further conserved) and the whole encased in individually made brushed stainless steel frames before transportation back to Newcastle where two are on permanent display in the new hospital. Many panels had been drilled over the years to put essential medical equipment on the ward walls. These holes were appropriately filled and missing artists work replaced with a matt finish (to identify where conservation had taken place) but keep the artistic integrity of the piece alive. Eura Conservation Lts received the Ann Plowden Award for this work and in addition won the Nigel Williams Prize. |
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