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Secret Squirrel's avatar

Lovely description of the thinking underlying his process. I hadn’t realized the research behind these ancient windows. Which makes me wonder. Why, when you restore, do you need to make everything look old again? Surely the elements will do that for you, as they did with the originals?

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Ann Walker's avatar

That £260 translates to nearly £36k today, which I guess would be a little bit more reasonable for all that work. I also note that I was born exactly 100 years after that bill was written - inconsequential in the scheme of things, but a rather nice coincidence all the same 😊

It’s very true about the meticulous processes and cleaning that conservators and restorers undertake, even on work that is so far away that it can barely be seen. Church ceilings come to mind - restoration work on a painted and gilded chancel ceiling 60 feet up between hammer beams is carried out as exactingly as if it could be inspected from a foot away on the floor below. We see everything we work on through a microscope (sometimes literally) and it all has to be as precise as we can make it. Even if nobody else ever sees it until the next conservation round, WE know it’s there and we take great pride in getting it right. We can never be ‘it’ll do’ jockeys!

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