Conservation technologies
Preparing to move Southport's Queen Victoria monument
As a technical services department within National Museums Liverpool we can offer a wide range of services to suit your needs, utilising the resources, experience and expertise of our staff.
National Museums Liverpool incorporates several public venues and each site houses specific types of object on public display. These include sculpture, jewellery, maritime collections, paintings and natural history collections. Technical services are able to offer a comprehensive service for the movement, packaging, mounting and relocation of objects of any size.
As well as moving objects for the museums (including a sectioned 50ft totem pole) we have performed the removal and installation of items for a wide variety of other organisations; such as war memorials for churches, architectural features from buildings and clocks from towers. This often involves the movement of large delicate objects around buildings with awkward access. As we deal with museum objects on a daily basis, we are fully aware of their fragile nature and the special care needed in handling. Risk assessments and method statements are produced for all movement work carried out.
Technical services have worked on the installation of permanent exhibitions for National Museums Liverpool as well as other museums. This involves the design and construction of stands, plinths and cabinets, which need to be specifically tailored for each object and its display environment. They can be designed to enhance the display or to suit the style of building within which the display is housed. Within the last three years technical services have produced 2600 custom made mounts.
Replacing a bronze sculpture on Liverpool's Nelson monument after conservation treatment
Technical services are able to produce a range of models for exhibition or showcase needs, whether it is a mannequin, scenery or architectural sections. We have produced life-sized horses for a carriage, dinosaur skeletons, ships figureheads and a Viking long boat. We are also able to produce natural history and topographical models and have recently completed missing parts of a skeleton in perspex.
We are able to protect objects during transportation by building microclimate boxes (to arrest deterioration), transit cases and storage support structures. These provide a stable environment for delicate and brittle objects and allow transportation with minimum risk.
See some of the specialist mounts produced by technical services in our online case study.
For further information contact Peter Spinks, or email the sculpture conservation department.