Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Since our last conservation blog post, the team have moved out of Oak Hall and into the Somerset Room. This year because the ‘Constable at Petworth’ exhibition, which is taking place from 11 January to 14 March next year, will require the use of the Somerset and Square Dining Rooms, we need to get the deep clean done here first.

So far, so good!

Dusting one of the many paintings and it's frame in the Somerset Room. Easiest for two people to do it working on different levels of the scaffolding (sometimes three if it's a really big picture!)

Cleaning the curtains. We drop the curtains during the winter so that they can be completely dusted off. We do this with an upholstery attachment on the vacuum, which might be covered in gauze depending on the fragility of the material. The curtains in the Somerset Room are relatively robust. They look very dramatic hanging down in the room!

A "how to" in moving ceramics! Large vases like these are best moved by rolling them along the base, supporting the body by leaning the weight of the ceramic into your own body.

The safest way to transport ceramic! We used a pump truck to remove this vase from its plinth before I cuddled it while we moved it between rooms! (There were photos were I was actually smiling, but I was told I looked too happy, so I used the most serious of the lot!)

We are looking forward to welcoming visitors for the first of our Petworth House Undercover snapshot tours next week!

Sarah
Conservation Assistant