Thursday 7 February 2013

Spring is just around the corner...


I am just about to restore the painting on the Four Seasons scagliola panels and the season of which most cherubs (and backing material) are missing is Spring. So I have free rein from my client to make it up as I go along, and I am really looking forward to it. The above picture is of a set of four, cast-concrete things that you can buy in the USA for a mere $250, but they are depicted in exactly the same way as my Georgian cherubs, the only difference being that during the Summer and Autumn on my panels, the cherubs are riding a rather reluctant lion which represents Summer coming in, then going out again.

You can tell that the symbolism originated from the Mediterranean from the Summer grapes. Us Northerners only had grapes when the Romans brought them in, and even then they were exclusively white ones. There is no mistaking Winter, though. On my panels, the cherubs huddle around a meagre brazier with their backs to the wind, their thin cloaks blown away from them and exposing their chubby little bodies. Everyone in the Northern Hemisphere knows that feeling.

When I first saw these panels lying broken and neglected on a palette in a warehouse, I made an impassioned plea to the owner to allow me to restore them because I recognised them as being unique one-offs, dating from some time in the late Georgian period. I knew from the start what a challenge they would be to restore, because of their complexity, delicacy and the fact that I had never made scagliola before (see previous post?), but I like a challenge and have blagged my way right through my professional life since I started out.

It is only now, when they are starting to clamour for them to be put up in a prime position on an uneven wall, that I understand how successful the petition to my client actually was.

They have to be slightly better than perfect, I think. EEEK!


Spring



15 comments:

  1. You can do it Tom! Well you've got to haven't you? Those cherubs are relying on you.

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    1. Yes, I've got to. Almost anything can be done if you have to, and this - by comparison to some of those things - is a small order.

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  2. A bit of a challenge then Tom ? .... and, what a difference between modern concrete reproductions and the real thing Your client's Georgian panels are beautiful ..... you've just got to get them looking even more beautiful ....... No pressure ..... you have the technology ! XXXX

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    1. Well you have to remember that the concrete panels are just casts of a real thing, and that thing was sculpture, not painting. Someone modelled up that sculpture, and did a very good job on it. Then someone made a pretty good job of casting it as well. It's all relative.

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  3. And they will be, Tom...they will be!

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    1. I'll be happy if they come close, and by 'coming close' I am talking about a colour-match. The colour-match is the most difficult part, as there are so many factors involved.

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  4. I wondered what had happened to them.. after all your work it will be great to see the finished (better than perfect) result.

    As Jackie says, no pressure..

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    1. I actually feel no pressure. That is how I have got through the last 40 years, never flinching when handling items which would bankrupt me if I dropped them without insurance, and why I am poor. Of course, there is no such thing as a perfect restoration, but there can be a good camouflage.

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  5. I met a stone mason in the Salisbury antiques market yesterday. He was out of work and selling old ephemera from his attic. I suggested that he try the cathedral for work as sections of it seem always to be surrounded in scaffolding. He answered that he had originally trained at the cathedral but had been working elsewhere. On recently re-applying he was informed that they were managing with a skeleton crew and had no need of more masons.

    He reminded me of a stonemason's young wife who bought vintage textiles from me when I had a unit in the same centre several years ago. At the time I was only recently removed from a lifetime in London and was fascinated and thrilled by their story, reminding me of characters in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.

    What's this got to do with your scagliola - nothing except the reminder of what hard work your chosen profession is. And my admiration for you.

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    1. I pity the poor stonemasons, which is why I have never called myself one. That is their first big mistake. A stonemason is cannon-fodder these days - and maybe always.

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  6. I would like to reserve you NOW for the creation of my tombstone. If I leave it up to my dear husband I'll get a wood pallet with my name scribbled in pigs blood. What deposit do you require?

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    1. I used to cut tombstones, but now I refuse to - there is grief of every kind in the making of memorials. A friend of mine's 3 year-old daughter died, and he asked me if I would make a white marble headstone of an open book with her name cut into it.

      I swallowed hard and agreed, knowing I was about to lose a lot of money. Then his wife turned up halfway through in tears, and said she wanted a large, carved angel standing over the book and pointing down at it - all free of charge. Foolishly, I said I would do that, but they would have to wait until I had earned enough to be able to spend the time on it and the marble.

      About a month later, I had a phone-call from the wife, who screamed at me, saying I was hindering her grieving process by making her wait, and she was probably going to have a break-down - all my fault, of course.

      I have not made a memorial since, and now send people to monumental masons, who charge about £10,000 for what she wanted.

      I could scrawl your name in pig's blood on a wooden palette for $5, though. Shipping extra.

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    2. Oh Tom, how sad for all concerned. I hope one day mama realizes how you had nothing to do with her grief...in the meantime I think I'll skip the headstone, send you a 5 spot at the time of my demise and you can have one of something in my memory. Carry on.

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  7. That job fascinates me. Quite a task; I look forward to seeing it 'finished'.

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