A recent article in Heritage
Today (the English Heritage members’ magazine) has profiled the research of
Dr Naomi Luxford (UCL Centre for Sustainable Heritage, Bartlett School of
Graduate Studies) who is investigating the cause of damage to marquetry
furniture. Change or Damage? is a three year project funded by the AHRC /
EPSRC Science and Heritage Programme and is a partnership between the UCL
Centre for Sustainable Heritage and English Heritage.
The article highlighted the monitoring work being undertaken
at the case study site, Kenwood House, an English Heritage property on
Hampstead Heath, North London. As part
of Change or Damage? a year-long
monitoring project on the veneer and marquetry furniture is being carried
out. The monitoring uses a range of
techniques to study changes in colour, surface profiles, chemical deterioration
and crack formation. As wood is
hygroscopic it responds to changes in moisture throughout the year, however the
damage caused by these changes has not been studied previously.
Traditionally museums use air-conditioning to minimise fluctuations and maintain an average relative humidity around 50%. However in historic houses, such as Kenwood House, these systems are not present and installing them would damage the historic building fabric as well as requiring significant energy costs to operate. The research assesses what happens to the historic furniture collections outside these ‘desired’ conditions and how damaging, or not, they are. The monitoring results are being compared with the display conditions within the historic building to study the effect the current environment has on the historic furniture. This assessment will lead to recommendations for environmental control in the future to prevent damage to marquetry and veneer surfaces on historic furniture.
(Above) An example of the intricate floral marquetry on a commode at Kenwood House
(Top) Kenwood House, English Heritage
The article mentioned
another Science and Heritage project Heritage
Smells that both UCL and English Heritage are partners with the University
of Strathclyde. This research is studying
the volatiles generated by paper and plastic within collections to help
identify the condition of the object. These cause the distinctive musty book smells; however these gases,
indoor generated pollutants, often cause deterioration to the same materials that
produce them.
Links
Change or Damage project website
Science and Heritage Programme