Originally posted on 4 December 2010.
The British Toy-Making Project’s conservator, Richard Mulholland, explains some of the work he has been undertaking.
“Conserving the British Toymakers Archive presents a number of significant issues, not least the volume of material in the collection, which consists of many photographs, negatives, transparencies, original drawings, letters, printed catalogues and press clippings. Of most concern is the poor housing and storage of the material before its arrival at the Museum of Childhood. It had been kept by the companies in standard office stationary folders, boxes and sleeves, which are usually of poor quality, and do not provide an environment that adequately protects the material. Also, they may also consist of materials (such as PVC binder sleeves) that are harmful to the objects they store. To preserve these important materials for the future, and to allow safe access, handling and digitisation, in the first instance the objects contained in the archive are removed from their storage, and re-housed in new archival quality storage.
This rather passive approach reflects one element of a comprehensive conservation programme. However, some of the material in the archive is in substantially poorer physical condition and too fragile to handle and study without further damage. This damage also interferes with the ability to read the objects as they once were, in as close to their original context as possible. This material therefore requires more extensive intervention by a conservator. A good example of this approach is the conservation of a jigsaw design by the artist Freda Skinner, which she produced for Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Ltd.
Jigsaw design, original condition, Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Archive, V&A Museum of Childhood. © Freda Skinner / Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Ltd.
Freda Skinner, whom the Abbatts employed as a designer, studied at the Royal College of Art at South Kensington in the 1930s, in the same building that today houses the Paper, Books and Paintings Conservation department at the V&A. Skinner studied sculpture and wood carving under such luminary artists as Henry Moore and Alan Durst. After her studies at South Kensington, she taught toy making and sculpture at Kingston School of Art, and eventually became head of the sculpture department at Wimbledon School of Art. Several of her jigsaw designs are now part of the British Toymakers Archive, and the Museum of Childhood collection has several Abbatts jigsaws made from her designs.
Many of these original designs are in poor condition, and several of Skinner’s acetate and tracing paper annotated overlays have been lost. The work that has perhaps suffered the most is Skinner’s design for a Shire Horse jigsaw for the Abbatts company, for which the Museum of Childhood also has an example of the jigsaw itself.
© V&A / Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Ltd. / Freda Skinner
A presentation drawing in coloured gouache and synthetic enamel paints on thin discoloured tracing paper, the work was at one stage laid down to another sheet of thick white paper. Such a backing can cause physical damage to a much thinner paper due to the different expansion and contraction rate of the thicker paper as it absorbs and desorbs moisture from the atmosphere.
Were this paper intact and of a good quality, there would be a strong argument to retain it. However, damage from an early aborted attempt to remove the backing, and the innate brittleness of the poor quality tracing paper, has resulted in extensive skinning, tears and losses to the original painting. Furthermore, the flexing of the tracing paper through handling, and the lack of adhesion of both the coloured gouache and black synthetic enamel paints to its smooth-surface have meant that the paint layer has also suffered badly. Consequently, there has been considerable loss of paint, and much of the paint that remains showed signs of flaking.
In order to address the issues such as the removal of the old backing and the repair of the tears in the paper, this flaking paint needed to be secured. This was carried out using a consolidant – a dilute solution of a stable, reversible adhesive which is allowed to penetrate and surround the flaking paint. Once the paint layer was secure, the painting was turned over and the backing carefully removed.
Jigsaw design, during treatment, Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Archive, V&A Museum of Childhood. © V&A
The extent of the tearing and loss to the paper, and the brittleness of the discoloured and acidic tracing paper was such that it was necessary to reline the painting, this time with a more appropriate paper. Much of Western paper conservation techniques are borrowed from Japan, which has a long tradition in papermaking and restoration. The lining of Skinner’s design was therefore carried out using a thin, strong, long-fibred, hand-made Japanese Sekishu paper and a dilute adhesive made from wheat starch. This system has minimal impact on the physical and aesthetic nature of the work, and more importantly can be easily removed, if necessary, in the future. Once this lining had been added, the painting was allowed to dry under tension on a Japanese drying board (Karibari) so that it remains flat.
In the case of much fine art on paper, losses are filled with a paper sympathetic in tone and weight to the original. In some cases, particularly in prints and drawings, the filled loss is toned, integrated or ‘retouched’ by the conservator so as to make the missing area unnoticeable or less distracting to the eye. Skinner’s draft jigsaw design, however, is considered to be of an archival nature, part of a much larger archive of material, and although it retains its status as a painting, in such cases this kind of aesthetic integration is unnecessary. Therefore, once the design was dry and flat, the treatment was considered complete, and the design stored in an inert clear polyester sleeve, to be digitised at a later stage.”
Jigsaw design, after treatment, Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Archive, V&A Museum of Childhood. © V&A / Freda Skinner / Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Ltd.
Richard Mulholland, V&A Paper Conservator.
British Toy Making 