Hello everyone! It’s another busy week here at the Memoria Technica workshop. I have some exciting news about the upcoming joint 44th Annual Meeting and 42nd Annual Conference in Montreal for the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) and the Canadian Association for Conservation (Association Canadienne pour la Conservation et la Restauration) (CAC-ACCR). David Lindow and I have been selected to give a joint lecture on Guilloché work in Conservation. Read more about it here. There will be a lot of exciting talks covering a variety of subject areas! I hope to see some of you there. The conference takes place in Montreal May 13-17 2016 – more info here.
What we will be talking about: “Guilloché , also referred to as engine turning, is work produced on a rose engine or straight-line engine. The rose engine was developed in the 16th century, but found wide scale popularity in the early 19th century when Breguet applied the craft to augment his watch dials, cases, and movements. Many believe it reached its apex with Fabergé. Developing a conservation methodology for Guilloché work appears to be a relatively new subject and understanding the processes by which an object was made or decorated may be the first stage in development. Little information is widely available on the enigmatic rose engine and even less is available on the process by which its patterns are created. We will briefly explore the history of these machines and their various uses through examining the steps required for accomplishing distinct patterns and looking at some of the diverse objects that employ them. The reflective quality of Guilloché work along with the effects of oxidation on this property will be examined. Through this we will identify various pitfalls in the practice of cleaning and repair. The rose engine was employed not only in horology to decorate metal objects of art, but also in other media such as pottery by Josiah Wedgwood and modern plastic injection molding patterns. As these machines were used from the early 16th century through the present, many conservators are likely to encounter objects that were either made or decorated by them. This session will seek to aid in the development of a conservation methodology for treating and working with engine made or decorated objects. ”
In other news – registration for the upcoming classes on Engine Turning at the workshop has been so popular, we’ve added another set of beginners classes. Please get in touch here to register if you’d like to join!