V. Gordon Childe's
Windsor Chair
Institute of Archaeology, University College London
Sack-backed Windsor chair purported to have belonged to V. Gordon Childe, the director of the Institute of Archaeology from 1946 to 1956. He is most famous for his theories about prehistoric cultural evolution, especially the agricultural revolution (a term he coined). The only real evidence that the chair belonged to the V. Gordon Childe comes from a label attached to the chair. The label reads, “We think this was Gordon Childe’s chair from the Institute of Archaeology, Jean.”
The conserved chair has been currently housed in the present director of the Institute of Archaeology's office since 2017.
Before Treatment
The top rail has broken off at the dowels from the middle rail. This damage split and broke the dowels and has led to cracking at either end of the top rail. Because it was detached from the rest of the chair approximately a year before, it warped significantly, curling inward.
There is a crack on the back right side of the arm rail. This goes all the way through to the other side and moves when pressure is applied to the right arm. Historic repairs using iron pins, wedges of wood, PVA, polystyrene fills are visible throughout the chair.
Treatment Process
After consultation with Phillip Kevin, organics conservator at the British Museum, and Elizabeth Pierce, furniture conservation student at UCL, I removed the proper right arm to create a stronger join. I applied successive cotton poultices wet with warm water to soften the animal glue repairs and aid in removal. Unfortunately I discovered that the top of the right arm support was a polystyrene fill covering a metal screw. This was removed with Dean Sully's help (A).
Phase 1: cutting the dowels to size and shape and drilling out old restoration material. The first phase took place at UCL’s Institute of Making. The decision was made to take the chair there in order to take advantage of both expertise of the technicians and the power tools and large workspace that the Institute of Making provides (B).
I fit the top rail into the dowels on the arm rail and spindles on the back of the chair and adhered using Kremer Fish Glue, chosen for its ease of application. I injected the glue into the crack on the right side of the arm rail using a glass pipet and clamped everything in place with straps and wood clamps to keep the warped top rail in place while the glue and fills set (C).
I filled areas of loss and gaps in the joint areas of the chair with Araldite 2020 bulked with glass bubbles over a barrier layer of two applications of 15% Paraloid B-72 w/v in acetone. The fills were then inpainted to match the rest of the wood and shellac using acrylic paint and Porcelain Restoration Glaze (below right)
After all treatment was completed, 50:50 beeswax pellets in white spirit was manually buffed as a protective coating.
A
B
C
