Our Decorative Arts team is led by ICON accredited conservators
Our highly skilled team carry out the repair and conservation of stone, terracotta, church monuments, mosaics, statues, gilding and decorative surfaces and polychrome.
We provide ongoing conservation and care of house collections and garden sculpture such as the National Trust Country House collection of antique and 18th century garden sculpture, including major collections at Petworth House, Waddesdon Manor, Cliveden, Anglesey Abbey and Powis Castle.
Mosaics
We clean, stabilise and repair small and large-scale mosaics from wall panels, pavements, floors and fountains to extensive museum displays. Our Decorative Arts team can also remove, transport and reinstall floor mosaics in a vertical position with a bespoke structural fixing frame system.
Painted Decorative Schemes and Polychromy
Cleaning, consolidation, conservation and restoration of polychrome and painted surfaces is undertaken with extreme care and involves research, analysis and trials. Our conservators consider all factors that could affect the deterioration of the painted surface and substrate.
Gilding and Specialist Decoration
We restore missing elements of gilding and decoration and reinstate decorative schemes with the application of new gilding and traditional paint.
Metalwork
We undertake the cleaning and conservation of metalwork including statuary, railings and decorative pieces. Bespoke security fixing can be provided to safeguard collections.
Statuary
We sympathetically clean, consolidate and repair statues and where necessary replace missing structural or decorative elements using appropriate materials. Condition analysis and trials are carried as part of a project.
Our practical and advisory services provide for the transport, display and ongoing care of statuary collections.
Archaeology
Our consultancy services extend to some of the most important sites around the world including Aphrodisias, one of the oldest and most treasured sites in Turkey.
Aphrodisias is a special project for us. Our founder Trevor Proudfoot began the work there as a personal project in 1990, and regularly invited workshop members to accompany him.
Case Studies
Church of St John, Hackney, London
Cliveden Conservation was commissioned by Hackney Church to undertake the remedial treatment and reinstallation of memorials and brass plaques.
The Campbell Family Mausoleum
The Campbell Family Mausoleum (Grade II* listed building), St Mary’s RC Cemetery in Kensal Green was erected in 1904 to the designs of the architect Charles Henry Bourne Quennell and is a high-quality example of an Edwardian mausoleum in a striking neo-Byzantine style.
Chester Cathedral Wall Mosaic
The wall mosaic on the east wall of the St Erasmus Chapel, designed by JR Clayton and executed by A Salviati, was installed as a memorial to Thomas Brassey and his wife in 1879.
Related news
Restoring Pugin Project – The Chapel of Our Lady
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Celebrating International Women’s Day: an introduction to the Restoring Pugin Project team at Nottingham Cathedral
In celebration of International Women’s Day, Nicola Collins, Project Manager, Decorative Arts Section, introduces some of ...
Work continues at the Crown Bar, Belfast
Members of our conservation team were pleased to return to the famous National Trust Crown Bar in Belfast to carry out conservation treatment to the decorative tiles.