Recent Work
Conservation Of The Portrait Busts For The Royal Society of Musicians
While The Royal Society of Musicians is mid-way through a two-year project to refurbish its new offices, Julia restores eight of its busts of composers. Eight composers, Beethoven, Chopin, D'oyly Carte, Gounod, Handel, Haydn, Mellon and Parry, have had their busts conserved by Julia. An average of 50 hours' careful retouching, waxing and polishing has been lavished on each bust.
Conservation of two badly-damaged, oval 17th Century Baroque / ‘Kneller’ frames for the Charterhouse
As part of the long-term conservation programme currently under way at the Charterhouse, Sutton’s Hospital, Charterhouse Square, Julia’s studio has recently completed the conservation of two badly-damaged, oval 17th Century Baroque / ‘Kneller’ frames. Over the centuries the frames had so deteriorated as to threaten their very survival intact, as all four joints, top and bottom, had lost virtually all symmetry and cohesion. The original gilding had long since vanished and been replaced, many decades ago, with a layer of gold paint. Even this colour had almost disappeared, as the surface had become so dry and degraded that scraps of the original layers of material were falling away. The statutes of the Charterhouse, owing to its age as an eminent charitable foundation, do not permit it, regrettably, to spend any part whatsoever of its financial resources, on the conservation of its heritage collection, Julia, in recognition of these constraints, decided therefore to carry out, on a pro-bono basis, the urgent conservation of these frames to encourages others to support on a similar basis the urgent work needed to preserve the collection for the enjoyment of future generations. Shown below is some of the detail of the work involved in the conservation of the frames.
