Following the update of July 17, the secretariat received another email on December 5 from Rien de Graaf, churchwarden of the Reformed Church in Stavenisse. The following is the report from Erik Jan Brans, one of the restorers:
Tuesday 13 Aug: preparations for placing the white pilaster next to black slab.
Wednesday 14 Aug: white pilaster placed next to black slab.
Thursday 15 Aug: wall bricked up against back wall for placing pilasters.
Monday 19 Aug: preparations for placing the wide white pilaster.
Tuesday 20 Aug: wide white pilaster placed and partly anchored.
Monday 26 Aug: further anchoring of wide pilaster.
Tuesday 27 Aug: further anchoring and finishing of placed pilasters.
Monday 2 Sept: prepared white pilaster.
Monday 9 Sept: wax layers removed from memorial stone.
Tuesday 10 Sept: pilaster placed right next to memorial stone.
Monday 16 Sept: meeting in Amsterdam:
The front plate was set up so that it could be viewed from the front and back.
The starting point is that the front plate will be preserved using the Acrylicharzvolltränkungsmethod (Method IBACH). The salt content was checked and found to be low enough for treatment. The front plate has since been rinsed as part of batch 2. It was found that after rinsing, the fragile parts withstood the bath well. Some of the repairs disappeared (partially) after the bath, they may have been dissolved. These were plaster-like repairs, of which it was clear that they would have to be replaced anyway.
Before the slab can be sent to Ibach, a number of fragile areas will be consolidated. The aim is to strengthen these before intensive treatment will take place to avoid material loss as much as possible.
TK will contact Ben Massop to discuss material and technique of consolidation to make it compatible with the Voltränkungsprocedure. After contacting Ben Massop, perhaps Ibach will be contacted directly to coordinate the treatment and materials to be used.
After treatment by Ibach, further repairs will be carried out. Although there is quite a lot missing from the sculpture, it has been decided to fill only the disturbing gaps. These are mainly parts where a recognisable form has been lost. Broadly speaking, this concerns two hip bones whose knob is (partly) missing.
In addition, there is damage on the underside that disturbs the straight lower line of the plate. In the top left corner, a corner was reinstated during an earlier restoration. This restoration is disturbing. The glue seam will redone. The rust spot will not be treated.
Prior to the consultation, TK shared a photo with damages and possible restoration spots. The areas circled in red will be reinforced prior to impregnation, the areas circled in yellow will be touched up after return. This is an indication. It will also be completed in the list above.
The sculpture
The sculpture has a number of superficial damages in the form of white spots that have darkened. These are expected to soften with subsequent wax treatment. In addition, the fingers of the left hand have been reattached or repaired in the past. This repair is noticeable and will be redone. The repair of the little finger will be touched up. Due to plaster support, small cracks have become visible and stand out white. This will be de-stained. Support plaster still needs to be removed here and there. The sculpture will be rinsed in a separate charge.
Parts not to be rinsed
It was decided earlier that parts showing no damage will not be desalted. This decision was taken at a time when it was believed that the visible damage was caused by salt crystallisation from salts present in the marble. Now, after research shows that the substances that increase the conductivity of the rinse water come from the surface, this may have to be revised. It is possible that the surface substances also precipitated on the surfaces that were not visibly damaged. In charge 3, only a slight increase in conductivity was measured when rinsing parts high in the back wall. However, the conductivity measurement was interrupted because during the holiday period, the first rinse water was drained away via siphoning action by an immersion pump. After refilling, the conductivity was found to hardly increase. On the one hand, this can be explained by the fact that possibly already during the first filling the surface substances were dissolved and drained away undetected, but it is also possible that these parts are less sensitive to these substances or that less of them precipitated. This includes the free-standing sculptures, escutcheons and text block. It may still be necessary to rinse these parts as well. The sculpture has relatively little damage/ saccharification characteristic of the monument. It is possible that the sculpture also has little tarnishing. After rinsing the sculpture, it was decided to see whether this is the case and whether it is to be expected that the other little-affected parts also have little degrading substances, or whether they happen to be better able to withstand them. Based on the data collected during the rinsing of the sculpture, it will be decided whether the parts excluded from rinsing so far will still be rinsed, or whether this is considered unnecessary. EB will schedule a Team meeting in due course.
Planning
With the experience of the first batches, the next two batches are expected to take about 3 months. After that, the final assembly work and finishing will take another 2-2.5 months. Completion is now expected in the second half of March 2025. It is taken into account that the total treatment of the front plate will not be ready before this date and will therefore be installed afterwards. It should therefore be taken into account that at the time of delivery, the front plate will not be present. Temporarily, an actual-size photograph will be installed.
Tuesday 17 September: Removing wax layers and discussion in Stavenisse:
The parts of the rear wall are set. Here it was decided to set back the rightmost pilaster a little further to allow the joint to the piece next to it to be slightly reduced. Another load of parts will arrive from Amsterdam next week.
Saccharred sections of white marble
On reflection, the surface has become rough in a number of places due to saccharification and some edges have also become somewhat chipped as a result. TK will conduct a trial with a consolidating agent HCT Prosocco and Finisher.
Chapped areas
The black marble was covered with a thick layer of black wax. This wax has been removed. Now the marble comes out chapped underneath. Surface irregularities and white veins have also become visible here and there. It is expected that with the application of a thin layer of beeswax and Carnauba wax with some black pigment, this chapped surface will become more even.
The white marble has also become locally chapped see 8.3.2 and will also be treated with wax. These treatments will be carried out at the very latest when the entire monument has been put back in place.
Friday 27 Sept: pilasters brought in by Tobias from Amsterdam
Tuesday 10 Oct: removing wax layers.
Monday 14 Oct: meeting.
Tuesday 19 Nov: setting pilasters.
Wednesday 27 Nov: remove wax layers and glue pilasters.
Thursday, 28 Nov: Mail contact Tobias:
Transportation of front plate: We are waiting to see when the transportation of the front plate will take place. We would like to know in time so that we have time to prepare the front plate for transport.
Regarding the parts where it was decided that we will not rinse them but clean them:
Proposal of cleaning: Clean one part and collect the water so that the water can be examined by Ineke. Based on the result of the water sample, it will be decided what the next step will be. Global schedule: week 49 cleaning.
@Erik Jan: Ineke could then collect the water sample in week 50 (9-13 December). Will you commission Ineke for this? I will let you know asap when the water sample is ready.
0 comments