The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art, Treatment, Repair, and Restoration

Harold Plenderleith was arguably the most important figure in conservation on the world stage in the middle of the 20th century. He was however not the first in the field. The application of science to the conservation of antiquities and works of art had its origins in the early 19th century. The story of these pioneering days has yet to be written in a coherent form, but the activities of scientists like Sir Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday in the UK, and no doubt others on mainland Europe, paved the way for the permanent presence of scientists in museums in both Germany and Denmark before the end of the 19th century. In Denmark it was the problem of the treatment of waterlogged organic material found in peat bogs that was of primary concern (Madsen 1987), while in Germany it was inorganic materials from excavations that were of interest. In the Royal Museums of Berlin, Friedrich Rathgen started work in 1888 and the laboratory that he founded lasted until the Second World War (Gilberg 1987). The importance of the world done by Rathgen and his colleagues cannot be overestimated and although many of his pioneering techniques are no longer used he left a legacy in his little book on the applications of science to conservation (Rathgen 1898). This book was translated into English in 1905 (Rathgen 1905). If the UK had been in the forefront of using prominent scientists as consultants in the 19th century, it was slow to employ them to develop conservation in museums. In fact it was the First World War that resulted in a laboratory being established at the British Museum in 1920. To protect from bombing by Zeppelins that started in 1915, some of the British museum treasures were packed away in wooden boxes and hidden in the underground railway tunnels. It does not seem to have occurred to the curators that there was any potential danger to the collections from this activity, but when the wooden boxes were retrieved in 1919 considerable deterioration was found to have taken place to some objects. Iron and bronze objects from excavations were found to be actively corroding and moulds were growing on some organic materials and paper had developed foxing. The museum authorities were alarmed and resorted to their usual procedure of calling in a scientific consultant. Dr Alexander Scott, frs, wrote a report and recommended the setting up of a laboratory