Conserving context: relating object treatment to collections and settings

Abstract

"The conference papers contained in this volume explore the manner in which the significance of objects relates to their collection and setting as interdependent elements of the whole context. Complex interacting or conflicting contexts - such as past, dispersed or destroyed collections and settings - affect the intentions of current decisions for treatment. Also the methods chosen for treatment of decorative surfaces of objects can conserve or change the whole context of collection and setting. Consideration is given to the dilemmas encountered in attempting to maintain a consistency of approach between the intentions guiding the treatment of a setting and objects within it, and whether it is appropriate for objects to be considered and treated in a different way from their wider context. The approaches taken with these issues are complex, nuanced and distinctly formulated." -- Back cover.

Contents

Context and understanding in country house collections / Christopher Ridgway -- The decorative surface within the working royal palace / David Wheeler -- The Picture Gallery and Grand Staircase at Attingham Park: to gild or not to gild? / Sarah Kay -- The conservation and reproduction of neo-classical window seats designed by Robert Adam for the library at Kenwood House / Ann Katrin Köster and Laura Houlistan -- The two make a pair: differentiated treatment of a pair of gilded stools displayed in the furniture gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum / Zoë Allen and Lea Wegwitz -- Re-altering the glazing alterations of a Burne-Jones frame / Alastair Johnson -- Working with complex collections: the Staffordshire Hoard / Deborah Cane -- Making Mrs Soane's morning room "permanently magical" / Jane Wilkinson.