Eek! Only 15 days till we open

It’s been a while since our latest post about what we’ve been up, but we promise we have definitely been busy.  The last few weeks of the winter clean is always fairly hectic.  This year however added to te usual mayhem has been the deinstallation of internal protection work from the first phase of building work, plus preparations for the next phase.  We have also had various contractors and conservators in and out of the house.

The dust protection tunnel and hoarding has now come down in the Leicester Gallery, Museum Room, Billiard Room, Spangled Dressing Room and Spangled Bedroom.  This meant we could finally deep clean the rooms, and it’s a good job we had the protection because it turns out there was a fair amount of dust!

Volunteer Zena, gives the bay window of the Museum Room a thorough clean after the tunnel was taken down.

Our contractors dismantling the tunnel section in the Billiard Room.

With the tunnel  removed from the Billiard Room, it was time to move the Billiard Table back in to its usual place in the room.

The team re-hang net curtains and blackout curtains in the Billiard Room.

This image demonstrates perfectly the need for internal dust protection during building work.

The tunnel coming down revealed that an area of plaster ceiling in the bay window of the Spangled Dressing Room had become unstable.  With our building surveyor Robin and our contractor we discussed what approach should be taken to make it safe.

Some small bits of plaster had broken off altogether.

After investigation and discussion it was decided to remove the unstable are of plaster. It turned out to be a modern plaster skim…

…and not as much of the plaster needed to be removed as we first thought.

Earlier in the month we took a delivery of some parts of the James II Bed, including the headboard and and some curtains.  They have returned after several years of conservation work.  As they are very carefull packed and in quite large boxes we took the decision to store them in the Venetian Ambassador’s Bedroom.  The Headboard will be no display to visitors during the 2013 season.

Conserved parts of the James II bed have returned from the National Trust textile studio in Norfolk.

It took a whole day for the conservation Team with  two of our volunteers to move all the boxes from the Great Hall to the Venetian Ambassadors Bedroom.  There has been lots of other lifting and moving around of various objects in recent weeks.  Including two tapestries on 4.5 metre long tubes.  They came from Lady Betty’s Bedroom which is now empty for the building work and were stored in the Billiard Room last year.  As the Billiard Room has been re-instated we needed to find another temporary home for them.  It turns out they both fitted rather nicely under the refectory table in the Great Hall.

So where do you store two tapestries on 4.5 metre long tubes…? Under a table of course!

Cliveden Conservation have been back carrying out more work to the Great Hall and Great Stairs floors.

Wet paper towels are left overnight on recently repaired areas of grouting to help it set properly.  If it dries out to quickly the new grouting can fail. 

Toning in the new grouting to match the colours of the stone. 

This week CSC Window Films have been in working int he first half of the house, where windows have been repaired.  They apply a film to the windows that absorbs ultraviolet light out of sunlight coming in the windows.  It is very important to minimise or stop completely any UV coming in to the show rooms as it is the most damaging part of the light spectrum and especially harmful to our textile collection.  Light damage is cumulative and completely irreversible.

Applying new UV film to the windows. The Museum Room window has never had film on before as it has been behind a display cabinets since the 1960s!

More shifting and lifting about!  This time four large portraits needed hanging at the north end of the Leicester Gallery.  They had been taken down while the dust protection was up in front of the window.

The deep clean of rooms has now been finished, leaving two of the long galleries, the Billiard Room, Great Stairs and Spangled Rooms floors to be waxed and polished.  We have already started uncovering some of the rooms and putting the furniture back in to place.  Two more weeks to go and we’ll be open again.  Where did winter go?

Sarah, Lucy, Melinda and Emily

p.s it’s snowing AGAIN!

The words you don’t want to hear over a radio call are…

… “there is a leak in the Ballroom!”
Thankfully it wasn’t quite as bad as it sounds and water wasn’t pouring through the ceiling, but dripping through a crack in the panelling and running down the wall.

Unfortunately the water was running in to the path of one of the paintings and gilt wall lights.

Water running down the panelling in the Ballroom, behind a painting (you can see the bottom of the picture frame at the top of the photo)

So we immediately sprung in to action to remove both objects from the wall.

Painting of the 3rd Duke of Dorset removed from the path of the water.

The gilt wall light that hangs above the portrait of the 3rd Duke.  It is temporarily resting on a sheet of plastazote and acid free tissue till it is safe to be re-hung.

Once the painting was down we thoroughly inspected the back of it to check for any water damage.  The back of the frame in one corner and a very small area on the back of the canvas were slightly damp.  We will allow this to dry out before going back on the wall and monitor it to ensure there is no mould growth or further physical damage.

Very small damp area on the back of the canvas.

Once the movable objects had been taken down from the wall and away from the route of the leak, we set about protecting others that were too big to move, and as the leak was so small unnecessary to move.  We wrapped the large portrait of Elizabeth Colyear, 7th Duchess of Dorset, in tyvek so if there were any further drips they would not come in to contact with the painting or frame.

Absobent pads placed on top of some dusters, on top of the tyvek protecting the picture frame and painting. Although the leak has been isolated this has been left in place just in case more drips find their way down through the crack in the panelling again.

As we were busy moving paintings and hanging Tyvek our Premises Team were hunting down the source of the leak.  Thankfully they found it quite quickly and were able to isolate the problem until it can be permanently repaired.

Just an average Thursday afternoon for the Conservation Team!

Emily, Lucy, Melinda and Sarah

A Time Capsule for Knole

The building repair work at Knole has already revealed some fascinating information about people who have worked and lived in the building in the past – including graffiti on the panelling, hidden behind the Victorian render of 1891.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As part of the programme of work continues the roof spaces are being cleaned out with a vacuüm cleaner to remove years of accumulated dust, plaster rubble, fragments of timber, as well as wasps and birds nests!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we clean each roof space we are collecting samples of what has been removed.  During this process we made another exciting discovery in one of the central roof spaces, a matchbox!

 

 

 

 

The bottom of the matchbox was cut out and stuck back in, with two names written on the cut out piece and a date (1949) added to one of the side panels.  The matchbox was certainly left deliberately, and it’s discovery has the Knole team thinking about how we should commemorate the National Trust’s work of the 21^st century.

We need your help!  How should we ‘leave our mark’ on the building?  If we were to create our own ‘matchbox time capsule’ what could we put in it?  For example, if we were to leave a digital record on a USB data stick will the same technology be around in 100 years time for the information to be accessed?  Please send us your suggestions to Inspiredbyknole@nationaltrust.org.uk or comment on this blog.

Focus on the Ballroom – Part One

The Ballroom is one of the most striking and unique showrooms at Knole.

The Ballroom at Knole

The distinctive decoration dates from the time of the 1^st Earl of Dorset Thomas Sackville, who upon acquiring the house in 1603, began several years of renovations and remodelling. He wanted to transform the house into a fashionable and imposing country residence which would reflect his position as a leading figure of the Royal court. Contemporary accounts suggest Thomas employed master craftsmen, many of whom had previously worked at Royal palaces.

Between them they created many of the structural features that we still recognise today; the distinctive frieze and panelling, the plaster ceiling depicting the Sackville leopards and the magnificent marble fireplace.

The frieze, decorated with mermaids and mermen and hippocamps (seahorses) & the marble fireplace.

The spectacular marble fireplace.

With so much to consider in the Ballroom, it presents us with a number of conservation challenges.

As we have no environmental control in this part of the house, the Ballroom, like the other showrooms, suffers from fluctuating relative humidity. The constant change from dry to damp and back again can cause the panelling to split, develop staining and threatens the intricate carvings around the frieze.

Splits in the panelling and from the frieze…

…to the ceiling.

The changing humidity and temperature (along with the plentiful food supply) also help to create the perfect home for pest insects, particularly clothes moth and carpet beetle larvae. These have recently caused damage to the Ballroom’s 17^th Century carpet.

In order to reduce this problem, we removed the old, woollen underlay which was providing the pests with plenty of food and replaced it with a synthetic one, which we hope will discourage the pests by reducing their food supply. The carpet was cleaned and the floorboards beneath were treated with insecticide to kill any remaining pests.  (More information about how we are tackling this can be found in an earlier blog entry http://knolenationaltrust.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/how-many-people-does-it-take-to-roll-a-carpet/).

The fantastic marble fireplace is made from black, white and grey marble and alabaster. Over time, cracks had developed which required consolidating to prevent further cracking.  In 2012 Cliveden Conservation repaired the cracks to ensure the safety of the fireplace.

Cracks in the stone were filled and secured by Cliveden Conservation.

A leaky water pipe in the attic above the Ballroom caused water damage and staining to the ceiling. When the stain had fully dried, the Conservation Team scaled the scaffolding tower to remove surface mould that had developed with a smoke sponge. This is a fine, specially treated sponge made from vulcanised rubber which is used to clean dirt or soot from surfaces such as paper or plaster without the use of water.

Water damage to the ceiling.

We hope that as the Inspired by Knole project progresses and we are able to gain a tighter control on the environmental conditions, it will help us to prolong the life of this amazing room and the furniture and art work that can be found here.

Lucy, Emily, Melinda and Sarah.

How do you look after tens (if not 100s) of leopards?

Knole is adorned with leopards almost everywhere you look.  Stone leopards sit proud on the gables of the roof, look down on visitors from the screen in the Great Hall and greet you as you climb the Jacobean Great Stairs.

Leopards on the west front

The two leopards that frequently appear at Knole, on either side of the Sackville crest, are known as supporters and only knights and aristocrats were entitled to use them on their personal heraldry. Exactly why the leopard was chosen is not known but like lions, they symbolise rank, status and therefore power. Thomas Sackville became Lord Buckhurst in the 1560s and the use of the leopard probably dates from this time. The use of the leopard may be connected to the Sackville family link with the Boleyns, namely Anne Boleyn, and through her, to Queen Elizabeth. The royal connection was a familial link of which Sackvilles were undoubtedly proud and wanted to advertise as can be seen all over Knole, often accompanied with their coats of arms.

The leopards are made of a variety of materials which all need different types of care.  Here are some of them leopards from around the house and courtyards:

Leopards supporting the Sackville family crest at the top of the Great Hall screen. We can only clean these once a year in the winter as it takes a very high scaffold to get to the them. They are dusted with a pony hair brush and lint free dusters.

More leopards at the bottom of the Great Hall screen. These are dusted weekly.

Painted leopards. This and the following leopard are part of the grisaille painted decoration scheme from Thomas Sackville’s remodelling of the Great Stairs (1605-1608). The wall painting is extremely fragile and is best left untouched as areas of the paint scheme are flaking and cracking. If we see any cobwebs on the wall we very carefully tease them off using the tip of a soft pony hair brush.

This leopard (holding the family crest) is a painted version of the wooden newel posts.

Two leopard newel posts on the Great Stairs. They are painted wood, not as fragile as the wall painting but we still use a pony hair brush to dust them. We dust them about once or twice a week.

Glass leopards…in the windows of the Great Stairs. Other than removing cobwebs with the tip of a pony hair brush, when necessary, no other cleaning is carried out to painted glass, except for any remedial works needed which would be done by a glass conservator.

Painted, carved wooden leopards in the Ballroom panelling. Dusted with a hogs hair brush. These are within reaching distance and are cleaned every time the room is deep cleaned during the open season.

Plaster leopards…part of the Reynolds Room ceiling decoration. These are cleaned once a year during the winter clean when the scaffold is up.

There are also leopards in the Retainers Gallery ceiling.

Leopards on the lead drainpipes in Stone Court

Thomas Sackville really was a bit of a show off!

Lucy, Sarah, Melinda and Emily