Disaster Recovery Conservation
A Church Collection — 5 Copes and a Pall
During the pandemic, the studio received a phone call from a very distressed verger from a church in Richmond, who’d checked in on the church after it had shut its doors for lockdown. To his horror he found the church had flooded, and their beautiful collection of copes were floating around the undercroft. The waterlogged vestments were put into bags and rushed to the JLT studio.
The damage was mixed and included particulate soiling, staining, dye run, weakening of the silk, interlinings, and linings. The metal threads were tarnished throughout, much of the surface decoration was loose or coming off from failing threads, and there was plenty of mould.
In total 360 hours was spent on the deconstruction, cleaning, supporting, relining, reconstruction and the remaking of the cream cope and the purple pall.
Expert textile conservation and restoration services with a passion for preserving history.