Conserving and Restoring the Hereford Screen

Abstract

In this film, the Victoria and Albert Museum's Head of Metalwork Conservation, Diana Heath, describes her involvement in the intricate conservation and restoration of the Hereford Screen over a number of years. From her first encounter with the screen in 1983, as its fragments arrived in the conservation studio packed in cases stuffed with straw, to the return of the screen to its former glory when it was installed as a whole object in the Metalwork Galleries above the main entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum, Diana Heath guides us step-by-step through the restoration process of one of the most significant pieces of nineteenth-century metalwork.

Keywords

• Conservation
• Restoration
• Hereford Screen
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• Francis Skidmore
• George Gilbert Scott