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Galleon Tile Panel - Conservation

The tile panel actually consistes of two separet panels, each consisting of 20 hand-painted 6 -inch square tiles, backed again by as many unglazed stoneware tiles. Both panels are enclosed within the original oak frame.

When we received the galleon tile panel it had a number of problems which needed conserving.

The Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund generous assisted with this essential work.

The primary problems with the panel were two cracks which ran from top to bottom of the panel. The cracks were not recent and appear to have been caused by the removal of a backing board. The stress on the tiles as the board was removed causing the painted tiles to break. adhesion of some type of board to the back of the support tiles. These cracks needed to be consolodated before the panel went on display.Perhaps more seriously were chips to the edges of the tiles caused by the tiles moving in the frame. These chips had been poorly restored and Claire had to remove the fills and redo them.

Photo of the tile panel showing areas of damage

Our conservator Claire Spicer filled the cracks in order to stabalise and strengthen the panel and then painted the areas with modified epoxy glaze - carefully matching the colours of the original in order to replace the missing areas of design. The idea being to lead the eye, allowing the overall effect to be enjoyed without the distraction of damage. Several chips and areas of damaged glaze were treated similarly.