Our Ferrous Metals Seminar, held at the National Maritime Museum in London in February, drew a large crowd of architects and conservation and restoration professionals ready to broaden their knowledge of our favourite subject. There were presentations by our board of experts and plenty of questions and comments from the audience.
The seminar was followed by a tour of the first classically inspired building constructed in England, Inigo Jones’ 400 year old Queens House.
The focus of our interest in this was the Tulip Stairs, with their superb blue-painted wrought iron balustrade, restored recently by Hall Conservation, who recreated the “smalt” paint technique of the time, which involved grinding up cobalt glass and sweeping the dust into the paint base in situ to create the tactile matt surface and subtle colour.
Don’t miss the next seminar on Recording & Surveying at Hartlebury Castle – keep an eye on our events for more details.
The seminar opened with a welcoming address from our chairman, David James. David gave a potted history of the National Heritage Ironwork Group, including the writing of National Occupational Standards for Conservation of Ironwork, the training of students through the Heritage Lottery funded bursary scheme and the development of Conservation Principles, which have since been adopted by a growing number of organisations.
The mid-afternoon film starring Geoff Wallis, consolidated the day’s seminars with a practical look at how cast iron and wrought iron are produced, as well as their history and how they are affected by corrosion. He continued to use case studies from his own portfolio to illustrate repair and conservation methods. This just left time to visit the Queen’s House and see the beautiful Tulip staircase nearly 400 years old which Brian Hall and Hall Conservation have just finished restoring with an interesting talk on the smalt paint system used.