Cosmetic Surgery By Textile Dealers & Remedial Conservation

I certainly wouldn't want to give the impression that all dealers resort to a bit of nip and tuck when sprucing up some of their purchases for sale, but some do give into temptation. Shocking, I know, and I couldn't believe it myself when I first came across the practise. In the video below you can hear how Elizabeth-Anne Haldane, Textile Conservator at the V&A, went about corrective surgery on an 8th-century Egyptian tunic which had been tidied up by a dealer.

Surprising Pre-Raphaelite Mural Find @ William Morris' Red House, London

James Breslin, National Trust property manager at the Red House says, In the morning we had one and a half murky figures, in the evening we had an entire wall covered in a pre-Raphaelite painting of international importance. It all began as an attempt to restore one blurry image that had been hidden for a century behind a large built-in wardrobe on William Morris's bedroom wall. After months of painstaking removal of layers of paint and wallpaper what was revealed was an entire wall painted by Morris' young friends who would become what was known as the pre-Raphaelite artists. The near-lifesize figures on the wall at the Morris' first married home, Red House, at Bexleyheath, are now believed to represent the joint work of Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his wife Elizabeth Siddal, Ford Madox Brown and Morris himself. For more details, click here.

Giveaway Winner of Darning Booklet Is.....

This week's giveaway draw winner is Mary from Houston.

Free Jigsaw Download - Beaded Stuart Panel

This rather wonderful beaded Stuart panel appeared on an old diary page that was cut out and sent to me - but sadly without details.To download the jigsaw - Click here next Click Open, then click the .EXE file name and click Run, when you see the jigsaw puzzle, click Play Too many pieces? Try clicking on Trays on the top tool bar to create any number of resizeable trays to sort your pieces ........ you can also click the Cheat button and watch the puzzle solve itself! The software is by David Gray designer of Jigsaws Galore - the powerful jigsaw player and creator for Windows.