Research project on change in decorative furniture in historic houses

The UCL Centre for Sustainable Heritage has recently been awarded a
3 year Post-Doctoral research project to study change in decorative
furniture in historic houses. Understanding the changes and when
they turn to damage will be one of the key research questions,
addressed by the project Research Fellow, Dr Naomi Luxford.

Furniture is often richly decorated with veneers of exotic woods,
forming highly ornate marquetry. The different materials exhibit
different responses to changes in environmental conditions, and this
can lead to damage. Understanding them is vital to successful
management of change and to protection of these collections for
future generations. The collection of the research partner, English
Heritage, will be used to study these beautiful but vulnerable
objects. The research will identify and test methods of
non-destructive monitoring to study changes to decorative furniture
surfaces. By understanding the effect of current display on material
change, the impact of future environmental changes on decorative
furniture can be assessed. Based on this, recommendations for care
of these important collections will be drawn, enabling their future
preservation.

More information can be found at

  <URL:http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainableheritage/changeordamage.htm>

The project is funded by the AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage
Programme.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:10
                   Distributed: Friday, July 30, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-24-10-001
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