Naomi Luxford

Naomi Luxford, PhD Student

REDUCING THE RISK OF OPEN DISPLAY: OPTIMISING THE PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF HISTORIC SILKS

(Working title of MPhil/PhD)

English Heritage properties such as Audley End and Osborne House contain a wealth of textile artefacts on open display. Textiles are ephemeral organics, and those on open display are at particular risk, subject to the rigours of the environment: changing humidity, dust, airborne pollutants and light. Objects such as banners, curtains, costume and tapestries may show signs of deterioration, becoming brittle to the touch and leading to disfiguring surface abrasion and eventually splits and tears. A point is reached when the damage is irreparable and the objects must be taken off display.

My research has identified the various types, quantity and location of silk artefacts within the English Collection. Using past environmental monitoring to identify the display conditions, accelerated ageing experiments have replicated the deterioration of silk in order to identify the critical degradation factors. The results will be used to improve the display conditions and reduce the risk from the identified critical degradation factors increasing the longevity of the display and making the collection accessible in the future. It is hoped to share the results of the project by creating a set of recommendations for the display of silk collections.