More Chambers Tiles

More Chambers tiles have fallen from the plywood backing in Grimsby.

This is an excellent opportunity to remove the various types of adhesives on these and get m into shape to re-mount.

Here I am removing contact cement from a tile. Contact cement, asphalt and tile adhesive!

After pieces large areas together, I intend to get interior reinforcing done. I will also take up bad original fits by bridging gaps where the tiles shrank in the kiln. 

Here's me 'buttering up' the interior of a tile to bridge gaps before the curved top surface goes on.

From an Amsterdam 'Excavation'

April 8

What happens when an old restoration breaks? Sometimes you want to save it as part of the history of the object.

Here is an interesting blue-glazed buff earthenware charger bought in Holland which is almost 35% plaster restoration. 

This restoration might have been done about a hundred years ago and I would say it was a nice restoration. 

Then, the charger was broken into fragments again. Whoever tried to repair it was not finding it very easy to glue together the plaster restoration. Perhaps a few people attempted it with various glues.

So, what do you do now? The plaster is very nicely shaped with nice replication of the pie-crust edge and embossed punts. Before I did some surface cleaning on the majolica fragments, the blue colour looked well matched.

I'll be posting progress on this object as I treat it. The first step will be to remove paint and shellac from the original material. Then it will be stabilized - the joins, both majolica and plaster, will be reinforced and filled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

April 15

This 2nd picture shows the same charger surface-cleaned, reinforced, filled and the plaster repair re-saturated on the surface. 

The change of vibrancy of colour is perhaps not as marked in real life. The lighting and camera used were different, I must admit; but there is a marked improvement in detail both on the original material and the repair. The surface dirt had been giving it a sickly cast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

April 22

Here's the charger after touching up the in-fill and an overall microwax.

Fireplace Surrounds

A few years back I was asked to help with the production of two new fireplace surrounds for a home renovation. A box of assorted Victorian tiles landed on my doorstep and I was to clean and mend scorched tiles that were prised off an old fireplace. It was quite the assortment.

After we had a final count of tiles, it was realized that many more fireplace-grade tiles of the same size and 'depth' or width would have to be found.

I realized that this wouldn't look right unless the new tiles were English, from the same era (Aesthetic Movement) and had similar transfer-decorated motifs, style and colours. The tiles were largely floral in various colours - some very emphatic! They tended to be geometric rather than realistic. So, English fireplace grade transfer non-embossed Aesthetic Movement Victorian tiles.

It was EBay to the rescue! After many false starts, I found dealers in England who had boxes of mixed tiles in storage and often had two of the same type.

The computer was useful in making tiny virtual tiles that I could move around on digital versions of the fireplace drawings. Above is one of the fireplaces with an assortment of 'provided' and 'aquired' tiles.

Huaco Jaguar Vessel

Disaster struck recently when a workman blundered into a beautiful Peruvian jaguar vessel at the home of a collector.

When an object is in so many pieces it is always difficult to get a perfect fit again. You can see from the bottom that there was considerable material loss on one side.

The same view with the in-fill toned to be less obvious.

The finished piece.

Inserting Missing Text

Not something that I have to investigate very often - finding missing text.

Recently, I had to make lot of in-filling on the Merton Chambers tiles that were removed to my studio from the Grimsby Library project. Here are the areas with rough fill.

We ended up finding the text online in an unexpected place! An Adventist Newspaper from the 1920s - in Melbourne Australia.

'The corset - which compresses the vital organs overheats the region it covers, distances the pelvic (contents) serves as an (excuse for) ha(ng)ing the (clothes) upon the hips, the load impedes the circulation of the blood in the extremities lungs and brain and robs the wearer of freedom of grace and movement.'

Here is the article in it's entirety.

If it is difficult to read you will find it here -

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CCsQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adventistarchives.org%2Fdocs%2FAAR%2FAAR19200223-V24-04__B.pdf&ei=9aL_UobJDqWIyAG55YHwCw&usg=AFQjCNEbwUsBuv1i56_Tv7IcJAIB5Rn25Q

Was it a reprint in Grimsby? Early plagiarism? More than likely a reprint. Or was it from the Grimsby archives at all?

Definitely a crowd pleaser, I'm sure the quaint reference would excite interest from anyone stopping to read it.

Merton Chambers had an Australian wife, Anita Aarons who was a well known artist and arts administrator herself. Her beautiful stained glass windows can be seen at the Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue in Downsview. http://www.yorku.ca/rsgc/BethEmeth.htm Chambers also has a tile mural in the same location. They must gave collaborated often.

Just a thought...

Merton Chambers Mural Tiles

The work progresses on the Merton Chambers tiles for the Grimsby library.

There was a considerable ammount missing from these two tiles as I posted earlier. Here they are a little too clean and with preliminary in-fills. I also upped the contrast of this picture under led light to study the text.

The text was found online in a Melbourne Australia Adventist newspaper. The missing text was a rant on the perils of wearing corsets. It must have been a reprint in a Grimsby newspaper. Oddly enough, Chamber's wife was Australian.

Here's the restored and 'dirtied-down' tiles after treatment shown in sunlight, where they will largely be viewed. I'm very pleased with the results.

Restoration of ‘Atalanta’ by Susan Shantz

Last summer I also worked on a large installation at the Burlington Art Centre. 'Atalanta' is a multi-part installation of plaster panels on wooden doors. Susan Shantz used found materials for the doors and made the plaster panels incorporating vermiculite to be able to work thicker.

Some of the panels had crumbled in storage and had to be pieced together and reattached to the doors.

Here is the same panel restored and reattached.

Terror Set

From the summer of 2013

Last year I worked on a set of earthenware plates with a fascinating history. It's the set from the Captain's table of the 'Terror'. You thought the Terror went down in the Arctic with Franklin? Well, actually she was refitted a few times and someone took this set away during a refit. (Someone who didn't mind eating off plates with 'Terror' written large on every plate.)

To Quote the Wiki article on the Terror -

"HMS Terror saw service in the War of 1812 against the United States. Under the command of John Sheridan, she took part in the bombardment of Stonington, Connecticut, on 9–12 August 1814 and of Fort McHenry in the Battle of Baltimore on 13–14 September 1814; the latter attack inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that eventually became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner". In January 1815, still under Sheridan's command, Terror was involved in the Battle of Fort Peter and the attack on St. Marys, Georgia.

After the end of the War, Terror was laid up until 1828, when she was recommissioned for service in the Mediterranean under the command of David Hope. On 18 February 1828, she ran aground on a lee shore near Lisbon, Portugal as a result of a hurricane; eventually refloated, she was withdrawn from service after repairs.

Terror was repaired and next assigned to a voyage to the Antarctic in company with Erebus under the overall command of James Clark Ross. Francis Crozier was commander of Terror on this expedition, which spanned three seasons from 1840-1843 during which Terror and Erebus made three forays into Antarctic waters, crossing the Ross Sea twice, and sailing through the Weddell Sea southeast of the Falkland Islands."

Then Franklin got her on an ultimate refit.

"Erebus and Terror were both outfitted with steam engines, and iron plating was added to the hulls for their voyage to the Arctic with Sir John Franklin in overall command of the expedition inErebus, and Terror again under the command of Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier. The expedition was ordered to gather magnetic data in the Canadian Arctic and complete a crossing of the Northwest Passage, which had already been charted from both the east and west but never entirely navigated."

The set is apple green bordered earthenware on a pearlware type of body and is quite wonky and crude in execution. There were many chips and the botanicals in the centres were quite rubbed and many cracks had to be reinforced.

We absolutely loved working on the set and tried to sing 'Northwest Passage' whenever we could remember the lyrics.

Faust and Marguerite

A nice snowy day and a great time to be in a well lit studio finishing the restoration of a huge figure group by John Rogers. It depicts Caruso and Geraldine Farrar performing 'Faust' at the Metropolitan Opera in the early part of the 20th Century.

Here is a picture from my Victor Victrola book. It had photos of various Fausts from the Metropolitan Opera during that time period and the pics match the costume of the figures exactly.

 

Caruso just started with the Met in 1904 but he would be well known in advance. The figure would have been issued quite late in John Rogers' life. I believe Rogers died in 1905. 

There is a very good Wikipedia article on John Rogers and his statues. Apparently they sold for about $15 but I imagine that this huge one with 2 famous contemporary figures and elaborate staircase would have sold for more.

Grimsby Library Books

Here's Mark helping me out with a huge project at the Grimsby Art Gallery. I needed a driver as it was an exhausting project to accomplish in one day. 

I cleaned, sorted and reattached many tiles and fragments to tiles. Now I have to hope that the gallery will allow enough time for perfect adhesion. To get the tiles to stick, a lot of old adhesive had to be chiselled out. I had to use materials I know very little about. It's all a bit of a gamble on my part.

These plywood panels of terra cotta 'books' hung in the old Grimsby library as a solid installation - a 'wall' of terracotta and text reflecting the history of Grimsby. 

Over the years many book tiles had detached and were either broken or reattached with various cements. Here is a picture of two broken tiles removed to my studio for treatment. Missing material is indicated by yellow arrows.

A detail of a panel before any treatment.