Since one of the main functions of a museum is to preserve its collections for generations to come, all museums need to be aware of any potential problem. Museums tend to be dark and they tend to be warm, with objects often housed in cases or left for long periods of time without anyone opening or moving them. And this means that museums are perfect places for bugs!

This is why every three months or so, myself (the Curatorial Assistant) and a volunteer go round the museum to check the bug traps. These are cardboard triangles which sit, hopefully hidden, in small corners or behind furniture and have a sweet smelling sticky pad on them to attract and then capture insects.

You can find out all about the common (and the more rare) pests that can sometimes be found in museums and galleries at the website www.whatseatingyourcollection.com – not for the squeamish among you!

Common insects found in UK museums include:

A case bearing moth. (c) Entomart

Moths (both clothes and case bearing moths)

A carpet beetle. (c) André Karwath

Carpet Beetle (both aried and Guernsey)

A biscuit beetle. (c) Sarefo

The Brown Carpet Beetle or Vodka Beetle. Its nickname, ‘Vodka Beetle’, comes from the second part of its binomial name, Attagenus smirnovi! And if you need some sustenance to accompany your drink, there is also the Biscuit Beetle: so-called because of its fondness for dried foods and spices, pharmacological products, but also (and more importantly for us), leather, books, and some types of furniture.

A silverfish. (c) Aiwok

And, of course, the Silverfish – in fact a small, wingless insect.

A furniture beetle. (c) Entomart

The creepy-crawly that is particularly worrying to museums, especially ones with a furniture collection as extensive as our, is the Furniture Beetle. This beetle is a wood-boring insect, and the females lay their eggs in cracks and holes in the furniture. Thankfully, the Wallace Collection does not have this beetle: touch wood (!) However, if we did have an object affected by this pest we would have to isolate it immediately so that the infestation didn’t spread to other areas of our Collection.

When checking our traps for these, and other, insects, we pick up each trap (gingerly) and record the number of pests we find on it. We have to identify not just the adult beetle or moth but we also have to recognise its larvae too, as these are often the critters that cause the damage in the first place.

We note down any fluctuations in number, and look for unusual patterns that may appear. For example, if there is a peak in numbers in winter when we would usually expect insects to hibernate or die down because of the cold weather then we will need to examine what the reasons behind this may be.

Together with the Conservation team we monitor the levels of cleanliness and examine our objects regularly. So if you see a bug trap on the floor, don’t touch it, it hasn’t been dropped or forgotten it has been deliberately placed to catch pesky little creatures that might eat our objects!

The Great Gallery, the largest gallery at the Wallace Collection, has been closed since October 2012 to allow much-needed refurbishment works to be undertaken. The hang of the works of art had been in place for over thirty years, and the gallery was in urgent need of care and attention to bring it up to the same standard as our other beautiful rooms. Due to reopen in autumn 2014, the finished gallery will feature new, rich red wall silk, a raised ceiling, beautiful decoration – from gilded coving to parquet flooring – and a sophisticated new lighting scheme.

While you will hopefully have been enjoying the new temporary display of the Great Gallery works of art in our other sumptuous rooms here at the Wallace Collection, the Great Gallery itself has been undergoing a transformation. In recent months, the rather tired old silk has been taken down, the scaffolding has gone up, and the roof has been, quite literally, raised!

As the roof demolition continues, we thought you might like to see some behind the scenes photos of the progress being made. We will keep you updated on the refurbishment throughout this year and the next, and we look forward to unveiling the Great Gallery to you in all its glory next year. Do let us know what you think of the progress, and whether you like seeing these special behind the scenes shots: you can get in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter (@WallaceMuseum), and at enquiries@wallacecollection.org.

1. The internal demolition of the Great Gallery is well underway. The walls have been stripped back to the original brickwork and the ceiling has been almost completely demolished, exposing the roof void steels and service ducts. We have built a crash deck scaffold in the gallery to provide access for high-level demolition; in this picture, the apparent ‘floor’ is actually the top of the crash deck. To the right of the picture one can see the cornice and the remnants of the coving (with the gilded trellis pattern), making it easier to picture the height of the deck.

2. The Great Gallery at floor level, underneath the crash deck. The walls have been stripped and the floor protected.

3. The first hole in the Great Gallery roof! This hole is currently used as site access in and out of the Great Gallery from the external scaffold. All of the waste from the demolition is taken out this way.

4. The temporary roof is under construction. Once finished this will be fully weathertight, allowing us to demolish the Great Gallery roof. The zinc ridge and glass panels of the existing roof are visible. In the background you can see the huge glass triangle of the Collection’s courtyard glass roof, above the restaurant.

5 & 6. The temporary roof under construction.

We look forward to keeping you up to date with the changes as they happen over the coming months, and do please come and visit the other beautiful rooms at the Collection which are open for the duration of the refurbishment project.

Helen Jacobs
Project Manager

The commode in all its glory after careful conservation

Each year, we must raise at least £2 million in order to carry out the vital work that will allow this unique collection to be enjoyed in its beautiful surroundings for generations to come.  Through a series of blog posts, we would like to share with you some of the extraordinary work that goes on at the Wallace Collection and ask you to contribute to our development of this family collection and international treasure house. Each donation brings us closer to our target, and we appreciate every single one. You can donate online via The Big Give.

This week, we would like to tell you about an exciting project that has rejuvenated one of the collection’s most prized treasures: A Commode for Marie-Antoinette, by Jean-Henri Riesener (1780).

As one of the most accomplished makers of Louis XVI furniture, Riesener was Marie-Antoinette’s favourite cabinet maker. He was known for creating richly decorated pieces covered with mahogany veneers, floral marquetry and gilt mounts. He was also celebrated for his ingenious mechanical fittings which allowed desk- and table-tops to be raised or lowered by a single button.

The Wallace Collection has 10 pieces of furniture either by or attributed to Riesener. This piece was acquired by the 4^th Marquess of Hertford when it came onto the market following the French Revolution. The commode was originally an integral part of the furnishings in Marie-Antoinette’s cabinet intérieur in her apartments at Versailles and her cipher can be seen in the delicate gilt-bronze flower mounts.

A close-up shot of the damaged veneer before conservation

The colourful marquetry has now faded but we were delighted to discover that underneath the veneer, the main body of the commode is in good condition. The exterior, however, needed urgent conservation, skillfully carried out here at Hertford House by Jürgen Huber, our Senior Furniture Conservator.

The commode has been returned to its former glory by stabilising the marquetry, painstakingly rehydrating the existing glue one tiny piece at a time. The dark polish that was applied in the 1940s has now been removed and a final treatment process has taken place to protect and stabilise this stunning and important piece of furniture.

The Riesener commode is now back on display in the Study, which contains more examples of Marie-Antoinette’s furniture than any other room in the world. This amazing transformation can we seen in this short video about the conservation process, and you can read more about the making of the video in Danielle’s blog post here. Readers in London might like to come and visit our Conservation Galleries to view the new display focusing specifically on the commode.

In order to continue with our vital conservation programme, we need your help. If you can, please make a donation via The Big Give. Thank you for your support.

This initiative has been funded by IC tomorrow, part of the Technology Strategy Board. IC tomorrow supports innovation and economic growth in the digital sector by running a range of funded contests. One of these contests linked digital start-up companies with leading cultural organisations and the Wallace Collection was lucky to be partnered with StickyWorld. The money provided by IC tomorrow has allowed StickyWorld to develop their platform using HTML5 and allowed us to document one of our most exciting projects of recent years; the refurbishment of the Great Gallery. The gallery is currently closed until summer 2014, but our new StickyWorld allows you to explore how the gallery used to look and lets you link to information about the objects that were previously displayed there, much of which is now in store. We are also posting photos of the build as the project progresses and you can comment and ask questions to museum staff by leaving virtual sticky notes on the slides. We’ll do our best to answer them all!

You can visit the room by clicking on the image above.

Please do try this exciting new application. We’re really interested to know what you think!

Along with workshops decorating wooden Easter eggs and illustrating comics, families were asked to create a musical story inspired by our wonderful paintings of Venice by Canaletto and Francesco Guardi. Working with artist Marc Woodhead and musician Luke Crookes, the families created sound effects and lyrics based on elements found in the paintings, which included gondolas, acrobats, chatting people, dogs barking and church bells ringing. They then spent some time making and decorating their own boat shaped hat, before performing their soundscape in front of the paintings to a rather bemused but totally enchanted watching public.

You can listen to the songs and soundscapes created by the families below.

Musical Stories: Workshop 1

Musical Stories: Workshop 2

Musical Stories: Workshop 3

Musical Stories, family drop-in workshop, 11 April 2013

Pietro and Ferdinando Tacca, ‘Hercules with the Bull’.

The powerful composition in bronze, by the seventeenth-century Florentine sculptors Pietro and Ferdinando Tacca, shows the classical hero Hercules grappling with the river god Acheloüs, transformed into the form of a bull. It is one of a series of large bronzes depicting stories from the legend of Hercules: two of which, Hercules with the Centaur and Hercules with the Bull, are in the permanent collection of works of art at the Wallace Collection. Ferdinando Tacca (1619-1686) was a multi-talented figure who as well as being a successful sculptor was also an architect, engineer and a stage designer for the theatre.  His extraordinary sense of Baroque theatricality can be felt too in his bronze sculpture, which is full of drama and exciting and complex interplay between figures.

The Classical myth inspiring this sculpture is one of love, violence and metamorphosis. One of Hercules’ rivals for the hand of his beloved Deianeira was the river god Acheloüs. During a tremendous wrestling match with Hercules, Acheloüs was able to transform himself into the forms of other monstrous creatures, a bull-headed man, a serpent and a bull. Hercules defeated the bull by pulling off one of its horns, which then became transformed into the well-known symbol of the cornucopia, or horn of plenty. A magnificent cornucopia can be seen in the Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens’ newly conserved Allegory of Fruitfulness in the Wallace Collection.

This model originated as one of a set of large bronzes depicting scenes from the life of Hercules, originally part of an abortive commission for King James I of England. Pietro Tacca’s original models seem only to have been cast after his death, by his son Ferdinando.

The Wallace Collection also possesses two fine bronze candlesticks from a Calvary Group, made by Ferdinando Tacca for the Chapel of the Ducal palace in Massa, near Carrara in Tuscany, and inventoried in 1662. The group included a second pair of angels as well as a large Cross with the Crucified Christ. It was broken up in 1796, when the palace was pillaged by French troops, following Napoleon’s invasion of Italy and on the Emperor’s orders. Both figures are, exceptionally, signed by Ferdinando Tacca in monogram on the drapery around their waist. As well as visiting Hercules with the Bull in the Large Drawing Room, visitors can venture to the Sixteenth-Century Gallery where they will find these two Tacca works of art.

Not only can visitors enjoy seeing this special loan in the context of other works by Pietro and Ferdinando Tacca, but they can also see this unique bronze alongside many other works of art that were once part of the French Royal Collection. The cast of Hercules with the Bull was first recorded in 1689 in the collection of the Grand Dauphin, son of  King Louis XIV of France, and carries on the rump of the bull the royal collection inventory number ’302′. All objects in the collection were numbered, and visitors can find numbers 297 and 298 in the Billiard Room, inscribed on two bronze fire-dogs on marble pedestals, cast c. 1655-1680 from models by the Italian bronze sculptor Alessandro Algardi. Algardi, like Pietro and Ferdinando Tacca, takes inspiration from Classical mythology, and the two, impressive fire-dogs represent Jupiter victorious over the Titans: ‘Fire’ and Juno Controlling the Winds: ‘Air’.

Tacca’s Hercules with the Bull left the Royal Collection during the French Revolution and has now been generously lent by a private collector, to allow it to be appreciated and studied in the fascinating new contexts afforded by the Wallace Collection. Eagle-eyed visitors might also recognize the sculpture from last year’s acclaimed exhibition at the Royal Academy, Bronze, where it was on show until December.

Hercules with the Bull is on display in the Large Drawing Room until September.

Claude Blair worked at the Tower of London Armouries and at the V&A, where he eventually rose to become keeper of metalwork. He also had a great interest in church monuments, especially from the medieval period, many of which of course depict men as warriors and knights. His expertise and knowledge on his chosen subject was immense and he appears to have been an avid book collector. He could be scathing in his criticism of ill-researched or ill-considered scholarship but was always ready to share his knowledge with those who had an interest in arms and armour and actively encouraged young researchers.

Tucked inside many of the books acquired by the Wallace Collection were letters and photographs sent by those who desired his help in identifying a particular weapon or piece of armour. His answers are always detailed, to the point, and above all, show a fascination with his subject that lasted from his youth to the end of his life. These letters and documents have now been collected up into folders for future archiving.

The books themselves are a real mixture in terms of age, size and content. Some are early guidebooks to museums, some huge scholarly tomes on particular subjects, some thin pamphlets or offprints on individual weapons. The subject range, though always focused on arms and armour, is also immense. In these books you can find everything from archery to artillery, from chivalry to cannons and swords to saddles.

My knowledge of arms and armour increased exponentially while I was cataloguing these works and I regularly amused colleagues, friends and family by coming up with a new ‘fact for the day’. Did you know, for example, that leather cannon were used in the 17^th century? The cannon consisted of a thin metal tube tightly wrapped in heavy cords and then covered in leather. Unfortunately, the cords and the leather acted as excellent insulation materials which meant that the cannon became too hot to use after only a few shots had been fired. The metal tube easily deformed with the heat, so that the cannon were liable to burst, with disastrous and most probably lethal consequences for the loader. Ultimately, the design was scrapped because it was considered too unreliable, which must have been a disappointment but also a great relief to all concerned!

Most of the European languages are covered in these books. I soon learnt the words for ‘weapon’, ‘century’ and ‘exhibition’ in more languages than I would have considered to be possible. My transliteration skills were seriously put to the test by items in the Cyrillic alphabet and I soon found, to my dismay, that Serbian-Macedonian Cyrillic differs from that used inRussia… thank goodness for the official transliteration tables approved by the American Library Association and the Library of Congress. Items in Finnish and Hungarian left me completely baffled and very grateful for the wealth of online dictionaries and translation websites. I do not know how cataloguers managed before these resources existed!

In cataloguing these books, it soon became obvious to me that Claude Blair not only travelled widely to visit collections of arms and armour all over Europe and beyond, collecting books and pamphlets as he went, but that his fellow scholars held him in high regard and would, more often than not, send him a copy of their newly published works, hoping for the praise that was only bestowed where it was deserved and so was all the more worth having.

The following books are by necessity only a small selection of the works I catalogued but they are all special in one way or another. The first (pictured above) is a facsimile reproduction, with commentary, of The adventures of the Knight Theuerdank, an epic poem detailing in fictional form Emperor Maximilian’s journey to meet his bride, Mary of Burgundy. The book is large format, beautifully produced and filled with wonderful contemporary illustrations.

The second is a book with the title Der Helm, von seinem Ursprunge bis gegen die Mitte des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts, by Gustav von Suttner. It is a 19^th century German publication, printed in Gothic type, with colour plates showing all kinds of different helmets through history (two of which are shown above).

An amusing publication is one fittingly entitled Firearms curiosa, by Lewis Winant, which describes all kinds of unusual firearms. From pistols with built in blades and knuckledusters to concealed weapons and even guns in sundials (set to fire punctually at noon, obviously), this books contains images of and information about the strangest firearms you are likely to see outside a James Bond film.

The final book is about weapons in medieval Serbia, Bosnia and Dubrovnik. Simply transliterating the title was quite a challenge! I have to admit that my heart sank a little when I read the word Beograd (=Belgrade) on the cover and realised that it was in the other Cyrillic alphabet…

I have now completed the cataloguing of Claude Blair’s books: 740 new titles have been added to our library and will hopefully be useful to many scholars in the future. I like to think that Claude Blair would have been pleased.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/12/claude-blair-obituary

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7590800/Claude-Blair.html

Helen Jones, library cataloguer

When I was told that we were to acquire an eighteenth-century book with the title L’eloge des tetons I thought that my French must be seriously at fault, since it sounded rather risqué, if not positively pornographic. I know that in art ordinary rules about showing the naked female form are somewhat suspended but this seemed to be going a little bit too far, especially for a book of this period. However, it turned out that my French was not at fault at all. This book, to be housed in an eminently respectable art library is really and honestly about what might – euphemistically and in contemporary parlance – be called a woman’s ‘endowments’.

Titlepage of ‘L’Eloge des Tetons’, purchased for the Library in 2012 through the John McKee Bequest.

After getting over my initial reaction of surprise and hilarity, I was most intrigued by this extraordinary publication and the reason for its inclusion in our collection. The explanation, as I was somewhat relieved to find out, lay in the provenance of the book. It once belonged to Richard Seymour-Conway, the 4^th Marquess of Hertford, and is a handsome volume bound to match other books from his library. The boards are marbled and the spine is covered in fine leather with gold tooling, including the Hertford’s crest of the phoenix rising from flames. If not for the title the book might be taken for a slim volume of sermons.

Once the book arrived, I soon saw that the text itself is far from being the slightly pornographic publication aimed at men that I had first imagined. In actual fact, the book, first published in 1720, this edition from 1775, claims to be for the amusement of ladies, and is dedicated to an anonymous countess. There are no illustrations and the text is a mixture of prose and poetry in praise or ridicule of the female form. Some of the passages are quite ribald but I can certainly imagine them causing a lot of amusement. Many of the poems are taken from earlier centuries and show a robust appreciation of the female body and somewhat earthy language similar to those of English Renaissance poets such as Donne or Marvell. The use of allusions and less formal words for describing female beauty (or the lack thereof) make some parts of the text rather challenging for the non-native French speaker but this passage (p. 51-52) by the unnamed author and the following poem by the 16^th-century poet Clément Marot illustrate the tone of the book and its quotations from poetry and prose.

Vous voyez par-là, Madame, que la blancheur, la rondeur & la fermeté sont des qualités essentiellement requires à des beaux Tetons. Ces deux dernieres sont moins communes que l’autre dans vos quartiers, & c’est un mal. Marot, qui étoit un connoisseur, les aimoit ronds: vous l’allez voir dans ces vers quie referment des conseils sur le choix d’uns Maîtresse.

Quand vous voudrez faire une Amie,

Prenez-la de belle grandeur,

En son esprit non endormie,

Et son Tetin bonne rondeur.

Douceur

En cœur,

Langage

Bien sage,

Dansant, chantant par bons accords,

Et ferme de cœur & de corps,

Si vous la prenez trop jeunette,

Vous en aurez peu d’entretien;

Pour durer prenez la brunette,

En bon point, d’assure maintien,

Tel bien

Vaut bien

Qu’on fasse

La chasse

Du plaisant gibier Amoureux;

Qui prend telle proïe, est heureux.

Now that the book has been catalogued it will join other books of a similar age and provenance in the Londonderry Cabinet. So, the next time you walk past it, see if you can find the one ‘naughty’ book amongst all the serious art-related titles!

The Londonderry Cabinet in the Large Drawing Room

Helen Jones, Library Cataloguer

I’d like to share the story of our latest project, a rarely seen peek into our conservation studio to investigate the conservation of one of our most famous pieces of furniture, Queen Marie-Antoinette’s Riesener commode.

All films produced so far aim to share something with our existing or potential virtual visitor, allowing them an insight into an area not normally viewed by the public. Our first film took the viewer behind the scenes of the refurbishment of the Dutch galleries, talking to the Director, Curator and Project Manager about the curatorial and logistical vision behind the eighteen month process and examining the role of the various craftsmen involved, from specialist silk hangers to gilders. We released the film in segments providing an update on the refurbishment process; a complement to the closed door to the space that visitors encountered in the gallery, and were hopefully intrigued by.

Our second film followed a typical family day, A Day in the Eighteenth Century and featured talks, costumed characters, games, craft activities and treasure hunts. The Wallace Collection offers a rich vein for young imaginations to mine, but not all know about these activities. This film was a means of sharing the sense of fun, excitement and exploration.

This sense of exploration has been expanded in our newest conservation film.  The Wallace Collection has a remarkable collection of ten pieces made by or attributed to Jean-Henri Riesener. Riesener started out as a poor German immigrant but an opportune marriage to the widow of his former master, Jean-François Oeben, allowed him control of his workshop, side-lining  strict French guild regulations set up to prevent foreign competition.  By 1774 he had received the official title of ébéniste du roi (Cabinetmaker to the King,) a title fitting for his artistically skilled and technically accomplished production.

Conservation work is ongoing at the Collection and all furniture and metalwork is conserved on site, yet this remains an unknown world for many visitors. Our conservators identify pieces and produce a thorough conservation proposal, working in tandem with the Curator to ensure the works of art remain in the best possible condition for the future. Work is characterised by minimum intervention wherever possible and only well proven, tested methods are used.

Prior to the actual filming process, I prepare a raft of documents from the original object file on the history of the piece and the conservation plan. The object file contains all research and correspondence on the work of art whilst it has been in the Wallace Collection.  It’s important that Rachel and Mark from Chocolate Films know as much as possible about what they will be filming. It’s a complicated procedure and they need to have a clear idea of the story before they embark, to help in the edit suite. We speak in detail with all the interviewees before any filming begins and devise a set of questions and prompts and a loose narrative.

The conservation process is time consuming, focusing on minute detail. Filming takes place in the conservation studio over several months, allowing us to capture the different stages of the process – interviewing Head of Conservation, David Edge, about the first pieces to be removed, the gilt bronze mounts, which are showing some signs of corrosion, and, at subsequent stages, Senior Furniture Conservator, Jürgen Huber, as he removes the varnish which has darkened in the sixty years since it was applied, rehydrates the marquetry and parquetry and finally re-polishes the commode.

The crew are intrigued to see the piece deconstructed in the tiny upstairs studio. With the base plinth, drawers and mounts removed a stately piece appears much more humble, and importantly, offers fascinating insights into the process of creation. We know that the base plinth was enlarged and re-veneered sometime before the commode’s purchase by the 4th Marquess of Hertford in 1865. We discover pencil marks left (in very unobtrusive places) by conservators from the 1940s. When originally completed the commode was much brighter, the natural and stained woods including yellow, green, pink and blue to match the silk on the walls of Marie-Antoinette’s intimate and private cabinet intérieur. The removal of the gilt bronze mounts, which had protected the wood from the effects of light, makes the change in colour, a gradual process over hundreds of years, instantly visible before our eyes.

We learn from Jürgen that the initial examination has resulted in a fascinating discovery. The gilt bronze royal insignia of Marie-Antoinette’s initials had been carefully cut so that part of it could be removed, therefore potentially making the piece unconnected to Marie Antoinette. It’s well known that Riesener was employed after the French Revolution to remove royal insignia from his furniture; many of the pieces he re-purchased himself in the hope of selling them on. Analysis of the metal using an  XRF portable scanner showed that the removeable section of the mount has the same composition as the rest of it, so perhaps it was taken off at the time of the Revolution, and then re-inserted (perhaps by Riesener himself) at a later date when it was no longer politically unwise to acknowledge Royal connections. Unfortunately it wasn’t a successful tactic for Riesener, who died in comparative poverty in 1806.

To capture the story, directors Rachel and Mark choose to use a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. This camera, whilst fairly small, records very rich, detailed images: exactly what is required when filming detailed processes on intricate and beautiful objects.

Once the conservation process itself is complete, Chocolate Films return to film the ‘reveal’ of the commode in situ, back in the Study, surrounded by other key objects commissioned and owned by Marie-Antoinette. As with all gallery filming, this takes place early in the morning before the arrival of our visitors. Curator of French Decorative Arts, Helen Jacobsen, is interviewed to provide more context on the historical importance of the piece.

The film is now in the hands of Chocolate Films who take away detailed footage of the entire process, with the brief of condensing this into a six minute film! No mean feat! In the edit suite they choose appropriate music and intersperse older images of the piece, including photographs from 1903 from our detailed object files.  The first draft of the film is then presented and no dramatic changes are made: we hope an indication of good preparation, a clear sense of purpose and an effective working brief. Slight chronological issues are quickly resolved and a quick visit for extra sound provides the additional voiceover to complete the picture.

Once signed off internally, the film is made available for visitors on the Interact section of our website, on our You Tube page and promoted through our social media channels. There are also plans for further usage for this particular film. In April, a display will open in the Conservation Gallery on the Riesener commode. This film will play on a terminal in the gallery, aiding understanding.

The discoveries made on the Riesener commode aren’t isolated. This is just one example of the many fascinating stories that emerge over time, in the process of the focused curatorial and conservation work which happens every day at the Wallace Collection; bringing to life the beautiful pieces which were commissioned by intriguing patrons, created by master craftsmen and privy to fascinating historical events.

We hope that this film and this insight into its creation goes some way in revealing a hidden world to many of our visitors, both virtual and actual; to both ignite and quench your interest. Do let us know if you enjoy it, and also any ideas you have for further films.

Danielle Cunningham, Marketing & Press Manager

]]> http://wallacecollection.org/blog/2013/03/filming-the-conservation-of-marie-antoinettes-commode/feed/ 2 http://wallacecollection.org/blog/2013/01/special-event-a-day-in-the-seventeenth-century/ http://wallacecollection.org/blog/2013/01/special-event-a-day-in-the-seventeenth-century/#comments Sat, 12 Jan 2013 08:00:18 +0000 admin http://wallacecollection.org/blog/?p=1640 Read More]]> Free, drop-in special event

On Saturday 12 January, 11am – 4pm, travel back in time to the seventeenth century…

Activites include:

• Meet characters from the seventeenth century
• Join Tabla and Baroque music workshops
• Try family crafts, including Henna and ceramic paintings
• Enjoy talks and games
• Journey East at our community exhibition

This wonderful, completely free day out is a chance for all the family to explore the Wallace Collection, and to find out about the seventeenth century in a fun and friendly environment. No need to book, just drop in at anytime through the day to spend A Day in the Seventeenth Century!