It is often the case that we detail recent restorations for damage caused to items while in transit. We’ve posted many articles for paintings showing how we have repaired substantial damage – all caused when an artwork has been moved with insufficient care and protection.

Of course, it’s not only paintings that are subject to such harm. We recently had an enquiry from a client whose striking curlew bird sculpture had been damaged during a house move.

The piece is by celebrated British artist Guy Taplin who specialises in creating bird sculptures.  It had been badly damaged while in transit – it’s wings had been clipped and it was no longer able to be freestanding.

Our client asked if we would be able to collect it for a full assessment with our conservator, which we were happy to arrange with our collection team.

Assessment

Once in the studio, we ascertained that the sculpture was made from driftwood and covered in gesso.

Large pieces from different areas of the sculpture were cracking and falling off, and the wing of the bird was unstable and wobbly also. The multiple areas of damage included a swathe of missing gesso from the bird’s neck, cracking around the eyes and beak, and impact damage to the join of the wing.

Our client had been able to retain a small amount of the cracked gesso, although some pieces would need to be re-created.

It would be a very fragile piece to work on as the gesso had been applied very thinly over the wood, however, with appropriate care and attention it would be entirely successful to restore the sculpture.