Mail Restoration, Stabilisation and Study

I have worked for or assisted various museums.

The Wallace Collection

At The Wallace Collection I restored, mapped and logged all the mail in the oriental gallery, later assisting in the cataloguing.

Whilst there, I assisted with an exhibition titled “You've got mail” showing the methods, tools of the trade, not to mention rare and wonderful examples of the art.  

I was requested to accompany a team from the Wallace (David Edge, Head of Conservation; Dr Alan Williams, a leading metallurgist, and Dr Tobias Capwell, Curator of Arms and Armour ) to Prague to examine the Wenceslaus  Armour for the Treasury of St Vitus Cathedral, subsequently co-writing a paper for Acta Militaria Mediaevalia (tom VIII).

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I was asked back to the Wallace later to demonstrate the method of restoring mail for a symposium of Indo-Persian arms and armour. During a lecture given by Dr Capwell, whilst talking about the mail restoration, he was kind enough to mention the work I had done both for the them and for other clients and said  I have “more mail restoration experience than any other person on the planet,” which was very much appreciated.

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The V&A Museum

The V&A commissioned me to stabilise and restore a fascinating selection of their Indo-Persian pieces in their Blythe Road archive so they could be safely moved to a new site. 

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The work included detailed mapping, restoration and report writing.

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The Bannockburn Museum

I was also commissioned by the Bannockburn Museum to make a mail coif for their exhibition. It was designed to fit over a cervelliere, with a ventail, and it is now displayed as part of their battle exhibit.