The 2009 American Glass Guild Conference
July 16-20, 2009
Buffalo, New York
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Diane Roberts Rousseau
Ancient Glass from Hampton Court, Herefordshire: An Approach to Conservation
In 2003, a major 15th-century window was removed for its own safety, during gallery expansion at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The treatment approach was arrived at in collaboration between the author and the MFA’s conservation / curatorial team, and carried out in phases over the next five years. The main goals were cleaning of the exterior surface, which had been inaccessible for 70 years, and joining of perimeter pieces damaged during WWII. However, the documentation phase revealed three distinct sets of earlier repairs. This prompted research into who had done them, when, and why. Lab analysis of fragments, close observation of edges during cleaning, and scholarly input all helped to provide the answers.
A methodology for handling these different types of repair is described. The treatment process is shown, including cleaning, edge joining, and reintegration of the robust 1925 matrix with new perimeter leads. The paper concludes with a description of the new framing and installation system, which will allow removal of any or all sections for further treatment, loans, or their security in the distant future.
About Diane Roberts Rousseau
Diane Rousseau is a conservator in private practice, based for the past fifteen years in western Massachusetts. She began working with stained glass in 1987, shortly after taking her BA at Washington University and the University of East Anglia, Norwich UK. Her postgraduate coursework in stained glass conservation, at Vauxhall College in London, included a placement at the Canterbury Cathedral studios. The desire to combine formal study with the traditional apprenticeship model brought her from England to North Adams, where she focused on conservation projects done within a large studio environment. In 2006 she opened her own practice, on the campus of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
Her area of particular interest is the comparative study of adhesives, and their use in treatment of both stained glass and glass objects. Since opening the studio her range of work has expanded to include glass vessels, ceramics, and reverse paintings on mirror. She is a member of the American Institute for Conservation (Objects Specialty Group), ICON, ICOM, and several other conservation-related acronyms. She teaches a biannual course, “Care of Stained and Leaded Glass”, at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation. Her current preoccupation is three-dimensional casting with fusible glass powders.
