The Balfour Library is pleased to have
loaned a book from its special collections for exhibition at Gainsborough's
House, the museum and birthplace of 18th century landscape and portrait artist
Thomas Gainsborough, in Sudbury, Suffolk.
It has
loaned its 1st edition copy of volume 1 of Mark Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the
Bahamas, 1731, shelfmark Folio (275). Find out more about the book and
its author here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/community/library/blog/2013/06/21/item-of-the-month-june-2013-mark-catesby-1683-1749?fromGateway=true
The
exhibition 'Catesby: watercolours from the Royal Collection' celebrates the
life and works of East Anglian naturalist and artist Mark Catesby, who spent
his childhood in Sudbury and travelled to North America to produce the first
detailed study of the flora and fauna of the 'New World'.
The
watercolours from the Royal Collection are original studies for the plates in
the book, and the volume will be on display alongside them, so you can compare a
watercolour (I think they’ve chosen a snake) with its final plate. The
watercolours on display are of a variety of animals and are stunning. The exhibition
space in the museum is beautiful and the museum is fascinating in itself and
very worthy of a visit.
The
exhibition runs until 12th October, so please do try to visit! Please see
the museum’s website for more information: http://www.gainsborough.org/
I had to
act as courier to oversee the volume’s transport and delivery to the museum. I also
had to clean the volume before packing it ready for transportation. I have
blogged a bit more about this, with lots of interesting photos, below.
Damage and cleaning
When
evaluating the condition of the book before agreeing to loan it, I sought the conservator
Caroline Bendix’s advice about the damage I could see on some of the leaves. I
wanted to know what it was and if I could clean it off safely before loaning. I
could see that there was considerable ‘foxing’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxing)
but there were also black specks of dirt, and some of the leaves seemed to have
warped.
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| An example of the 'warped' pages and dirt present at the top of some of the leaves and plates |
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| Specks of black dirt |
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| Foxing |
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| Foxing |
Caroline told
me that the leaves have cockled through changes in humidity over time and that dust
has penetrated. As it has been on the leaves for a while, it has stained them,
hence the marks you get when you brush it off. There are black
specks of dirt, as well as dark brown. These may be soot, which will leave
streaks if brushed off.
Caroline
advised that the best way of cleaning soot is with a smoke sponge. A piece
about half an inch wide should be cut off the main block (which should be kept
well sealed in a plastic bag to keep it in usable condition). Using a gentle
stroking movement, with the direction of the strokes varying all the time, the
soot and any of the dirt can be wiped off. I did this, and it worked really
well.
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| Smoke sponge |
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| Smoke sponge cut into a smaller piece. You can see how much dirt it removed! |
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| Before cleaning |
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| Before cleaning |
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| After cleaning - if you look closely you can see that the dirt has been removed although the foxing is left behind. |
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| After cleaning |
Packing
The book
had to be packed up really well for its journey to the museum. I first used
acid-free tissue paper and acid-free book repair tape to wrap the book itself.
I then wrapped it in bubble wrap.
Gainsborough’s House
The
specialist art transporters turned up at the library and I supervised the book
being secured in the van. I then followed the van by car to the museum and
oversaw the removal of the book from the van and its installation in its museum
case. I was unable to take photos of all of this, for security reasons, but I
did take a few photos of the outside of the museum.
The museum
also has a beautiful garden, at the centre of which is a huge mulberry tree
that dates back to the 1600s.
Digital copies
If you can’t
make it to the exhibition you can see a digital copy of the entire work at
Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/971#/titles
Visit the Royal Collection website to see Catesby's watercolours: www.royalcollection.org.uk
Interesting link
Find out
what Christie’s has to say about this work: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/books-manuscripts/catesby-mark-the-natural-history-of-5362357-details.aspx
