These pedestals were commissioned by
George IV for the Royal Pavilion in Brighton
and they're of 6. The pedestals left Brighton in
about the 1850s when Queen Victoria sold
the Pavilion to the Brighton Council.
In doing so she decanted most of its objects
into Buckingham Palace so this is where we find
our pedestals.
Of course, with the Reservicing programme taking place
they were removed from the East Front and deemed that
they needed a little bit of work so that's why they've
come into the workshops today.
It's really exciting working on an object with so
many materials. It allows myself as a conservator
to really get to grips with the object and think in
different ways and have different approaches to treatments
because of the materials.
First and foremost I myself look at the object as a
whole. I see what materials are missing, I see what
I'm working with as well. And also we were able to have
someome come in and do a paint analysis.
Paint analysis reveal that they were created
by different craftsmen, which is evident in the materials
and the techniques used in each pedestal.
Cleaning the roof itself was a really joyous moment
because of all the years of applied shellac and varnish
and cleaning and polish and all sorts,
we weren't aware of the actual design underneath,
a beautiful sort of scale, almost like a dragon, very fitting for the
Pavilion, and we were able to remove all those years of built up
shellac with solvents and we were able to get a lovely finished
clean and unveil that beautiful decoration that you see today.
The conservation approach for the tiles was a really quite interesting
one actually, we were able to lift them from the pedestal itself
and you could just see around the edges all the dirt that was
collected so it was a really sort of nice contrast.
Also, on the actual surface you couldn't see any of the detail
whatsoever in the leaves and their vines. It was a real
joy to clean that and reveal that decoration.
Also what was apparent was the actual smell of mustiness
and tobacco almost. You could just imagine them being in a room
with someone smoking and all those years it's gone into the
object itself, it was quite interesting actually.
One of the most difficult challenges of conserving this pedestal was the bamboo
elements. It was one of my jobs to seek, mend and
replace missing material.
One of the first approaches was sourcing the bamboo
from Buckingham Palace gardens, which was a real treat.
We actually brought the bamboo here into the workshop
and trialled, played, manipulated the bamboo to try and
achieve those shapes.
The approach of using the bamboo sourced from the
garden proved quite laborious and difficult
and challenging to really get those intricate shapes.
Fortunately there was a box of bamboo elements at
Brighton Pavilion.
We believe it's more than likely that it's a box from the
initial removal of the interiors at Brighton Pavilion
when it was sold.
The feet of the pedestal needed to be created from
scratch. Luckily, each pedestal had about 4 or 5
so they weren't toppling over as it were.
Our Senior Furniture Conservator was able to build
up around that and actually build these new feet while
retaining the original material.
Once conservation treatment is complete they'll be heading back
to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. They will sit
in the Long Gallery and so that we can now
recreate George IV's original interiors.