2024 has been a good year for the awardees of our Tru Vue Conservation & Exhibition Grant Scheme in partnership with Icon. A fascinating range of projects from heritage institutions included conservation and display of a rare 17th century silk doublet and matching trunk hose, a 15th century Pre-Reformation cross found buried in the grounds of the Lamport Estate, and a watercolour painted by Norman Thelwell (1945) during active service in India.
Tru Vue have supported these projects with the donation of Tru Vue products and additional funding to help protect, conserve and present object(s) to visitors in a safe way.
The Conservation and Exhibition scheme is open to small heritage institutions with under 100,000 visitors a year, and runs yearly from July to November every year. To learn more about the grant scheme, further information and eligibility can be found here.
Applications through Icon are welcomed from any country outside the US with access to Tru Vue distribution. Applicants from the US should apply for the FAIC / Tru Vue Conservation and Exhibition Grant administered by the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation.
The full list of this years’ awardees are:
- Lamport Hall Preservation Trust
- REME (Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers) Museum
- SRAL (Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg)
- Two Temple Place
- Durham University Library
- Grimsthorpe and Drummond Castle Trust
- Hunt Museum
You will find details taken from the completed 2024 project reports (to date) below. For a full list of all previous winners, visit the Icon Conservation Register.
Lamport Hall Preservation Trust
Display of 15th Century crucifix in Optium Museum Acrylic® case
Lamport Hall in Nottinghamshire was home to the Isham family for over 400 years. Celebrating 50 years of the charitable Preservation Trust in 2024 with a new exhibition, one of the key objects on display is a 15th century crucifix which was found buried on the Lamport estate, and previously kept at Peterborough Cathedral for security reasons.
The grant has allowed Lamport Hall to display this rare and special cross on a marble altar table in a safe and secure way. An anti-reflective Optium Museum Acrylic case was constructed with edge-to-edge mitred joints to give the visual impression of seamless lines. Without distractions from unsightly edges and reflections, the viewer’s focus centres on what is most important – what lies within the case. All the details of the cross can be viewed with absolute clarity whilst mitigating hazards such as dust and exposure to UV rays.
REME (Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers) Museum
Conservation and glazing of Norman Thelwell watercolour (1945) Using UltraVue® laminated glass
The REME Museum used the grant to display a 1945 watercolour and pencil on paper of a sergeant in the Corps of the REME, by the artist Norman Thelwell (1923 – 2004). Although Thelwell is well known for his comic images of young girls and their ponies, this work is an early naturalistic portrait of one of his fellow REME soldiers, Staff Sergeant P.C. Cummins. It is signed and dated and was completed while both men were on active service in India.
The Icon / Tru Vue grant enabled REME to permanently display the work, in a busy public space, after appointing an ICON-accredited conservator to assess and conserve the watercolour, as well as purchasing the materials necessary to conserve it for the long term.
The watercolour was already quite badly faded when it was acquired by the Museum from the sitter’s son in 2023. The work was glazed using 4.4mm UltraVue Laminated Glass to mitigate any further deterioration to the remaining colour from harmful UV light and help eliminate reflections.
The paper on which the image was painted is acidic and of low quality, and probably reflects the lack of decent materials available in India during 1945. The use of a museum-quality mount ensures a neutral backing to display the work.
The painting has been framed using oak, and the rebate and back of the frame has been sealed with Marvelseal barrier film to prevent any off gassing from the frame affecting the work in the future.
Grimsthorpe and Drummond Castle Trust
Conservation and display of 17th century rare silk doublet and matching trunkhose with two Optium Museum Acrylic cases
For the staff at Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire, the conservation of a rare silk doublet, last exhibited at the V&A in the 1990s, prompted a mission to display this fragile object and its matching trunkhose at Grimsthorpe in optimum environmental conditions.
The objects are highly significant as rare survivors of elite court dress of the early 17th century. They may have been worn by Robert Bertie, 14th Lord Willoughby de Eresby (later 1st Earl of Lindsey and Lord Great Chamberlain of England) at the coronation of James I. Their display at Grimsthorpe Castle, where Bertie lived, is vital in contextualising their significance.
After conservation, the Grimsthorpe team realised that without sympathetically designed display cabinets addressing the complex protection needs of the objects, public exhibition would be impossible.
The grant contributed Tru Vue materials and finance towards the purchase and manufacturing of two bespoke made 6mm thick Optium Museum Acrylic cases with mitred edge-to-edge joints.
The case was designed to counteract agents of deterioration to minimise dust deposition, static, exterior RH and temperature fluctuations, visible light and UV. An integrated silica gel tray was incorporated to inhibit mould and stabilises RH within the cabinet, and inert materials were used to avoid off-gassing within the display unit. After display of the garments, the cabinets will be employed for subsequent displays of sensitive objects at the castle. Learn more about the Conservation and Display of the Rare Silk Doublet in the featured QuickVue post.
Please check back to the Grants Gallery as further projects are completed. For example, a specialist team from Durham University Library and collections plan to conserve and exhibit pages from Durham University’s Shakespeare’s First Folio with the help of the Tru Vue grant. The folio was recovered in a vandalised state in 2008 after its 1998 theft. The exhibition, planned for April 2025 in the Cosin’s Library will display the pages on double-sided plinths between two sheets of Optium Museum Acrylic.
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