Bronze Behaving Badly: Antique Bronze Restoration Series, #1

By Lucy Branch

Learn The Principles of Bronze Conservation

 

Lucy Branch runs a bronze conservation company, Antique Bronze Ltd, in London and has worked on some of the most well-known bronze statues, monuments and architectural features in the UK. In this book, she teaches the principles of bronze conservation for those who have had no formal training in the field. She brings her practical expertise together with academic knowledge in an easy and relatable way that will guide you towards a better understanding of how to care for outdoor bronze. 

 

 This book is for you if:

 

You want to be confident about bronze conservation so that you don't have to rely on others to advise you

 

You'd like to be able to write specifications and guide conservation contractors

 

You'd like to be able to use the right language and ask the right questions of contractors and discern whether they know their subject

 

You need to understand why your bronze is behaving badly and be able to shape a plan to do something about it

 

You want to build your professional development

 

You want to ensure you are doing the best for the bronzes in your care

 

 

Areas coverd in the book: 

 

 

• Key definitions
• The Significance of Bronze
• Bronze in Context
• How Bronze Features are Made
• Science around bronze and its degradation
• Corrosion: The ways bronze corrodes
• Common Causes of Degradation
• Ethics of Bronze Conservation
• Ethics of Repatination
• Practical Techniques
• Protective Coatings
• Preventive Conservation
• Conservation Reports & Documentation 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lucy Branch
• Release date: Sep 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393738879

Book preview

Introduction

My mum collected me after a sleepover with a school friend when I was around ten years old.

‘How was it?’ she asked as I threw my bag in the back seat.

I slumped into the car and exhaled. ‘It was weird.’

‘Weird, how?’ She looked concerned.

‘Well, when we ate dinner, they served spaghetti bolognese and discussed politics!’

My mum nodded, her face uncertain. ‘And?’

‘Well, don’t you think that’s weird? They didn’t mention bronze once!’

In my family, bronze was as present at the dinner table as any one of us. That’s because my mother is a sculptress and my father was a restorer specialising in large-scale bronzes. Our evening meals were peppered with anecdotes about bronze restoration projects, wrangling with artists, unusual corrosion products, how my dad had teetered on the edge of a ladder next to the River Thames (apparently H&S didn’t exist in those days). Both my parents loved sculpture and my dad’s CV was poetry to an art lover’s ears.

I had the good fortune of being mentored by him for many years and had unfettered access to his lifetime of experience. Still, I chose to spend time outside of the family hub, being shaped by great institutions: University College London as an undergraduate studying History of Art with Material Studies, and the Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal College of Art as a mid-career masters student specialising in the conservation of bronze.

I joined my parents’ conservation company in London around twenty-five years ago and now run it with my husband. We work every day with bronze and have run high-profile projects like the bronze conservation on Nelson’s Column, Selfridges, Eros, Hampton Court Palace, Cleopatra’s Needle, The Albert Memorial and many others. I have also been an examiner for The Institute of Conservation’s professional accreditation scheme for over a decade.

I spend a significant proportion of my work time on the front line, being a practical conservator with a small team. We’ve had the opportunity to grow the company over the years, but that would mean I’d have to assume an entirely managerial role: something that does not light my fire and wouldn’t provide any fuel for my other great love, which is writing.

Why I’ve written this book

Bronze is pretty much my favourite subject of all time – no prizes for guessing that. I realise that doesn’t make me sound like the kind of person you’d invite to a dinner party, but in case you’re considering extending me an invitation, I do try to limit myself to talking about it where I think it will have some value.

Discussing how to care for bronze is a highlight of my work because I see the power in it. Bronze is a burden to many of the managers I’ve come across. It is only a small aspect of a much bigger project that is their responsibility. Yet, it weighs on them because it’s complicated: they’ve had next to no training in it, and a quick Google around provides articles-a-plenty, but many are contradictory, and others, frankly, should have been titled How To Ruin Your Bronze.

The conversations I’ve had with these managers have changed something for them. During our meetings, we’ve talked about many of the things I’ll discuss in this book. As soon as they understand the subject better, they can’t help appreciating the value and beauty of the feature that previously they’d shaken their heads over. As their confidence grows, so does their interest. Before long, they start bringing other team members over to look at the bronze and admire it, and they’re the ones talking about bronze, rather than me. At this stage, their interest becomes a commitment, and suddenly, the bronze has a champion.

Conservators are only with an object for a certain amount of time; their treatment might be essential, but finding someone who will speak for the object after the work is done is the best preventive conservation strategy there will ever be. Only by talking about bronze can we do this, and to talk about bronze, we have to have the right language and knowledge.

Although I graduated from the category of novice in this field some time ago, I still consider myself a student and I’m a tad zealot-like in my devotion to continued professional development. What I can promise you is that I really know what it’s like to feel a topic is unfamiliar and overwhelming, and your deepest instinct is to give it the side-eye and scuttle past. But my biggest leaps forward as a professional have always come from places where I’ve fought the inclination to duck out, and instead – stepped up. Usually, before I realise it, momentum builds, I’m caught up in the project, I’m riding it, and then, shock horror, enjoying it.

Do you need a book on bronze conservation?

Bronze has survived for, like, a zillion years, hasn’t it?

Yes, bronze seems robust in some ways because of its strength. People do indeed pluck bronzes, almost entire, out of the sea now and again, or dig them up and discover they hail from thousands of years ago. But, more often than not, bronzes tend to behave badly.

What I mean by this is that they do not necessarily develop an appealing mature, seasoned patina. Their surfaces can do unexpected things for odd reasons, and be a downright headache if you are responsible for them.

If this has been your experience, you’re not alone. Bronzes are much more diva-ish than you might imagine – super-sensitive in so many ways – and the last thing you’re likely to want to see is something happen to them on your watch.

There are many excellent sources of information about bronze preservation, conservation, corrosion, and technical advice out there in the world. However, what I’ve found annoying is that few of these sources of information are tied together. A piece of research that champions a protective coating’s success in tests isn’t much use unless it’s tested in a real-life environment, because when does a lab situation ever represent reality? Real life involves people, and people cause all manner of havoc. Maybe the researcher didn’t mention that their test samples were 5 cm square when you are dealing with a bronze 3 m in height and standing on a 3 m stone pedestal.

What I want to do for you is to curate this information and season it with my own practical experience and extensive archive of images. I aim to tie up the academic with the practical so that you can see what certain aspects of theory mean in practice.

Who is this book for?

I’m writing this book for those with little or no training in metal’s conservation. It’s particularly for all those custodians, architects, surveyors and managers who have found themselves responsible for large bronze features and sculptures, but don’t know the first thing about the field. I’m not excluding my own kind – conservators will get value too. However, if you are trained in any area of conservation, you will be more familiar with the themes and language around it, so there will be more sources that won’t daunt you, and you’ll know to be suspicious of people giving dubious advice on YouTube, such as the best thing to scrub your bronze with is toothpaste.

We are going to talk mostly about large outdoor bronzes because that is my thing. Does that matter? Well, yes, it does a bit. Although much of what we go over will be relevant to all bronze objects, conservation of indoor bronzes is a little different. Damage tends to be less surface-related as the environment is more controlled. It’s a slightly different subject – a book for the future, perhaps?

There are many benefits of knowing even a little bit about bronze. Above all else, it empowers you to sift. Do the contractors you are hiring mention the kind of things you’ll learn about in this book? They should. Are the manufacturers or foundries telling you the truth? It’s quite possible they’ve never seen what happens to a specific patinated finish when it’s next to a building site. Believe me, you’re likely to be surprised.

Being able to spot when you have a problem and prevent it from growing into a BIG problem saves trouble and money. Big problems have big price tags attached. Knowing how to describe the issue you’ve noticed to a professional in such a way that enables them to be as prepared as possible for their site visit will save everyone time. Especially important today when, between viruses and mad traffic in urban spaces, going somewhere once rather than having to return a second time has never been more essential.

What you’re going to get from me

I have written the kind of book that I like to read. The loftiest ambition I have is to be handy and helpful. This book is an overview of a large subject. It is not an academic tome by a long stretch, so if academic research is your holy grail, then you can do a lot better than me. Although I have served my time in institutions (academic, not penal), I am a practical soul at heart. I’m also a busy person, and writing is only a small part of what I do, so if a line does what it’s supposed to do, you won’t get a paragraph from me.

I should also warn you that within all this deep and serious talk about bronze, there are a fair few anecdotes dotted around. I just can’t help myself, so, sorry about that.

A thing you should know

Before we get started, I’m going to give you the opportunity to change your mind and get your money back! This book is an accompaniment to my online course,

Bronze Behaving Badly ¹

In the course, I teach you all of the topics directly and with a heck of a lot more images than I can put in this book. More importantly, there is a Facebook group and, if you don’t like social media, a private blog for discussions and bonus material, enabling you to have a dedicated place to ask questions.

If you didn’t know about this and it seems more your thing, just email me, [e-mail], with the subject title Bronze Behaving Badly, and I will send you a 10 per cent discount code for the course, which will cover the cost of this book and buy you a coffee as well.

Part I

DEFINITIONS

Talking Conservation

Being able to talk about bronze, whether you are a custodian, or just learning about bronze conservation, is the start of the conservation process. It is the part where we are getting to know the object, saying hello, connecting with it, becoming familiar with its foibles.

Having the right language to hand and knowing what you’re looking at is the foundation of really understanding your bronze, but it’s also the part many people fudge. They have a rough idea of what they are seeing and a few terms in their back pocket and muddle through that way.

In the first part of the book, we are going to have a broad talk about bronze conservation. Here we’ll work on clarifying the sorts of terms that get bandied around a lot in this area. They are like my second language, and I often assume their meaning is obvious, but occasionally someone picks me up on it, and I realise it’s not obvious if you don’t understand the nature of bronze.

1

Bronze And Its Structures

So, a man carries a statue into our conservation studio one day and loosens the bubble wrap to reveal an outbreak of corrosion on the shapely rear end of a naked female figure.

‘What do you think of my bronze?’ he says.

What I’m thinking is:

‘That ass is brass, and don’t even get me started on the bubble wrap …’

When someone presents you with a bronze, the first thing that should go through your mind is that it might not be one.

Bronze is a generic term for a copper alloy. It has