Petworth House Christmas Fair 2013

On the weekend of the 23rd and 24th November Petworth House will be hosting its iconic Christmas Fair. Opening times are 10.30am - 3.30pm on both days - adult entry is £5 (including NT members) and children are free.

The stallholders
With over 120 stallholders there will be plenty of choice for everybody, from jewellery and home accessories to chocolates, jams and chutneys. A selection of stallholders are listed below:

A Taste of Dreams 
Organic, gluten free and vegan cakes handmade on the Glynde Estate, East Sussex.

Goddard Ceramics
A fine selection of hand crafted necklaces and unique ornaments.

Second Nature
Home-made soaps made from the finest natural ingredients

Ouse Valley

Award-winning jellies, chutneys, jams, conserves, marmalades and fresh products.



A gift with a difference...

We shall have a National Trust stand in the exhibition room selling tickets for our Christmas spectacular A Festive Feast for the Eyes and for the Constable exhibition in the new year. Please click on the event titles for more information - A Festive Feast for the Eyes will run from 30th November till the 22nd December (closed Thursday/Friday) and the Constable exhibition will run from 11th January to the 14th March 2014.

A crisp winters walk

Once your Christmas shopping is done, why not relax with a lovely stroll through Petworth Park. The park looks particularly atmospheric at this time of year, especially on frosty mornings!

Bring out the dust sheets!

It was a busy day in the house yesterday as we began the winter clean. The house is now closed over the winter so that we can do a thorough clean of the collection. Everything, from top to bottom; which means ladders, scaffolding and crawling around on the floor. Furniture, sculpture, paintings, floors and carpets... everything in the house is going to be dusted and polished (where appropriate!)

For myself, Michelle and Caroline, conservation assistants, as well as some of our conservation volunteers, it is our first winter clean at Petworth House, so we were quite excited to get going.

We have started with Oak Hall, which would have been the servant’s entrance to the house (it's where the underground tunnel emerges) and is the first room visitors see. The pictures below show what we’ve been up to so far.

Caroline cleaning the Chinese chest at the top of Oak Stairs with a pony-hair brush.

Lots of equipment in Oak Hall

Cleaning the Exeter Carpet. We took it out of the Grand Stairs where it has been this season so we would have more space to clean it. Our volunteers, Tash and Emily, vacuumed both sides of the carpet through a gauze to create less stress on the fabric.

We then rolled the carpet - people power meant it was easier than anticipated! It was covered in acid-free tissue before being rolled around a carpet roll and protected for the winter.

Dusting the weighing chair (my favourite item in Oak Hall!)

Dusting the picture frames. Late in the day, so extra light was needed!

I’ll be posting throughout the winter clean, so keep an eye on the blog to see how we’re getting on. In a few weeks time, we are running snapshot tours of selected rooms in the house where you can see for yourself the work we are doing, how we care for the collection and meet the conservation team. Take a look at our events page for more details.

 
Sarah
Conservation Assistant

Petworth's Northern Lights

This week has been an exciting one for the house team, as a project which we've been working on behind the scenes for some time is finally being put into action.

For a long time, we have been looking at ways to improve the lighting in the North Gallery as simply opening the blinds more isn’t an option - the light damage could permanently affect the collection. You'll notice that some of the paintings currently have picture lights hanging above the frames, but these have a minimal effect on the visual impact of the pictures.

Last Thursday we welcomed a group of lighting consultants to the property, who have installed a set of new picture lights onto three of the pictures in the central east bay, on a trial basis. These lights work differently to the ones currently installed as they give a greater spread of light and don’t create the ‘spotlight’ effect you can see on the picture above. Instead a soft ‘glow’ is emitted over the paintings which really highlights the visual details of the works.

                                             

These new lights are only with us on a trial basis for now, they need to be approved - and the vital funds raised -  before we can move forward with the project. In a few weeks time, the lighting consultants will be returning to Petworth to make a few improvements to the lighting and install some trial lights on the Macbeth in the Square Dining Room, so watch this space. We're all keeping our fingers crossed!

Using the scaffolding, we removed each painting from the wall to allow the fittings to be added to the paintings.

Fittings were then added to the frame of the paintings.

The bulbs would then be tested for size and strength before they were attached to the frame of the painting.

Testing the strength of different bulbs on the Gainsborough. The light is really picking up the colours in the sky.

The paintings were then taken back up the wall, where the picture lights would be fitted onto the frames and tested in-situ.

 

This picture shows the contrast between the old picture lights on the painting on the right-hand side, and the new trial picture lights, which were being held over the picture on the left. You can clearly see how the old picture lights focus on the top of the painting, while the trial picture light spreads down the painting (and the final effect would be more impressive, as this light was only being held by hand).

And just because the final effect of the lighting was so impressive, a repeat picture! The lighting really brings out the colours in the chosen paintings, especially in the skies in the landscapes.

If you come and see them today or tomorrow, before we close for the winter, do let us know what you think!

Sarah

Conservation Assistant