Peter Cannon-Brookes

Water mist' for fire protection of historic buildings and museums

Overview Recent experimental work on fine water sprays indicates that they may have a considerably wider application in the fields of fire extinction and combustion suppression than previously anticipated and therefore may represent a new fire suppression agent. The present work outlines the characteristics of fine water sprays as fire suppressants, the extinguishing properties of fine water sprays in general, and the properties of particular interest to historic buildings and museums. To illustrate a practical application, some details of the on-going fire protection programme of the Norwegian Stave Churches are provided, while the perspectives of using ‘water mist’ for suppressing fires in other historic buildings and museums are discussed. Though there are still uncertainties as to the transferability of the technology from one application to another, and there is a need for more experimental and theoretical work, fine water sprays seem to represent an interesting approach for fire protection of historic buildings and as a potential replacement for Halon in museums.

ICOM-CC: Preventive conservation and heritage tourism

Brief review of the 10th triennial meeting of ICOM-CC (Committee for Conservation), stressing ICOMs need to reorganize the small working groups and the need for conservation in former Yugoslavia.

Transportation of works of art by sea

Air transport, for all but the largest and heaviest works of art, has virtually supplanted transport by sea, notwithstanding the much higher freight charges to be incurred, and this has been encouraged by a number of contingent factors. Until recently, marine freight rates have tended to be calculated on an ad valorem basis, so that the cost of shipping high-value objects by sea could be out of all proportion to their volume or weight. This practice has largely disappeared, though wharfage remains in some ports, and the insurance premium rates for marine transport compare very favourably with those payable for air freight when calculated on the basis that both are escorted/couriered consignments subject to special controls. The biggest disadvantages of marine transport have been the extended time during which the escorts/couriers are engaged in a single operation and the lack of precisely quantified information with regard to the environmental conditions actually experienced by works of art when transported long distances by sea.’ In order to be considered seriously again as a regular means of transport, the environmental conditions anticipated must be at least as good as those experienced in transportation by air, and the economies to be achieved by taking advantage of the very much lower marine freight rates must more than compensate for the increased manpower costs incurred if the consignments are accompanied by escorts/couriers. During the second half of 1990 the arguments in favour of alternatives to air freight have been much strengthened by virtue of one single carrier gaining a monopolistic control of all main-deck air freight between London and New York, accompanied by a sharp increase in freight rates. The second factor is political instability and the threat of terrorist attacks on aircraft. The old proverb recommends that one should not put all one’s eggs in one basket, and for this reason insurers of high-value consignments often require them to be split between a number of flights so as to limit the disaster risk. This, however, increases the number and cost of the escorts and couriers needing to be employed, whilst on a ship the exposure of containers to terrorist acts is substantially less. A damaged work of art, even a severely damaged work of art, is infinitely to be preferred to total destruction, and the liability to catastrophic loss, as against damage, in consequence of an incident is a factor that has to be borne in mind when a transportation strategy is evolved.’ The strategic intention is always to minimize the exposure of the work of art to hazards or changes in environmental conditions which might affect it adversely whilst limiting the financial cost of achieving the same. Thus, in evolving the transportation strategy, the mode(s) of transportation to be employed, the packing specifications, the insurance contract and the use to be made of escorts or couriers cannot be considered in isolation from one another because each has a direct impact on all the others. The total cost to be incurred is, of course, of great concern to the organization or person paying for

Connoisseurship and picture framing in the 1990s

Painted during the first half of 1791, Henri-Pierre Danloux’s Portrait of the Baron de Besenval (Figure 1) depicts the elderly collector in the Salon de Compagnie of his Paris h&d surrounded by his paintings and oriental porcelain. These paintings are hung on green damask-the preferred background in l&h-century France-and thanks to his meticulously finished style, the frames can be studied in some detail. But just how reliable, as a document, is this extremely rare, if not unique, portrait of an 18th-century French collector in his picture cabinet? And what conclusions can legitimately be drawn from it? Displayed in the remarkable exhibition 1789: French Art During the Revolution,organized by Alan Wintermute in 1989 for Colnaghi, New York,l this little masterpiece draws attention to how little, as well as how much, we really know about the history of picture framing.