A MUSEUM’S most famous exhibit is being studied in minute detail this week in a bid to preserve it for future decades.

The Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle invited a team of curators and conservators from across the UK to look at its iconic 248-year-old Silver Swan automaton.

They have worked alongside clockmaker and senior conservator Matthew Read, to partially disassemble and investigate the iconic automaton.

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From their observations, they hope to come up with a plan for the swan’s long-term conservation including the training required for its future care.

It is hoped that the week will be a catalyst for a new knowledge exchange among experts in the global automata and horological sector.

And series of public events including online discussions about what the swan means to the public will also help shape its future display and interpretation.

The work follows on from a conservation project in 2008 when parts of the 248-year-old mechanism were found to be worryingly fragile.

 

Matthew Read, right, with the team of experts

Matthew Read, right, with the team of experts

 

Mr Read, who has worked with The Bowes since 2008, said: “This project came out of another project that actually started 13 years ago, in 2008, when we carried out the first complete disassembly of the swan for more than 40 years.

“As part of that 2008 project, we discovered two or three areas of the mechanism that are actually quite worrying in terms of its long-term operation and preservation.

“So we have an invited audience of curators and conservators this week and we’re looking more intimately at those areas of concern, including the multifunction cam – which if you like is the kind of brain of the swan which makes its neck move and rotate and spits out the fish.

“Also the silver plumage that our visitors see – the neck rings that are normally here, 113 interlocking rings are actually one of the most stressed elements in the machine so we're looking at those as well.

“At the end of the week we probably won't have any definitive answers but what we will have done is to have spread the knowledge exchange about what it does, what the risks are and we can begin a longer discussion and dialogue about what the future might look like.”

 

Jane Whittaker, collections manager at Bowes Museum, during Silver Swan week Pictures: SARAH CALDECOTT

Jane Whittaker, collections manager at Bowes Museum, during Silver Swan week Pictures: SARAH CALDECOTT

 

Jane Whittaker, collections manager at the museum, said: “We are asking ourselves all sorts of questions about what maintenance do we need to put in place with the Silver Swan for the next ten to 20 years, how can we interpret the Silver Swan, what does it mean to the Bowes Museum and to our audiences?

“We will probably come out of the end of the week with more questions that we've got answered.

“It is the start of a conversation which we want to take forward into the coming months and build a proper maintenance strategy for the swan and decide how we're going to how we're going to curate this object going forward.”

 

Daniela Corda from Royal Museums Greeenwich one of the Conservators and Curators from across the country are at Bowes Museum to study the Silver Swan Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT

Daniela Corda from Royal Museums Greeenwich one of the Conservators and Curators from across the country are at Bowes Museum to study the Silver Swan Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT

 

Among the project team is Daniela Corda, horology and scientific instruments conservator at the Royal Museums Greenwich.

She said: “It is really exciting and a real privileged to be invited to take part in this project.

“It is an incredible and very unique object and it’s been fascinating to see it all come apart. Each piece has its own story, it might have been replaced or night be original, 250 years old approximately, and there’s so many stories to extract from this object.

“I’m really excited for the next phase of the swan - how it is displayed, the educational aspect, the mechanics, there is so much exciting information and stories that can come out of this, it is great to be part of.”

The solid silver swan appears to swim and fish in a 42 second musical routine which is usually performed at the museum at 1pm each day.

It first astonished crowds in 1774 when it was displayed in the Mechanical Museum of James Cox, a London showman and dealer.

The Museum’s founders, John and Joséphine Bowes, saw it exhibited by jeweller Harry Emanuel at the Parish exhibition in 1867 and eventually bought it from his Paris shop in 1873 – paying 5,000 Francs which was the most money they spent on any object in the Museum.

For information on the museum visit thebowesmuseum.org.uk

 

Conservators and curators studying the Bowes most iconic object

Conservators and curators studying the Bowes' most iconic object

 

 

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