Soft soap and patience
Sir: After working in the clock and antique restoration trade for nearly half a century, I read Bruce Boucher's excellent article (Arts, 9 January) on conservation with fas- cinated horror. The general tendencies in sculpture restoration he reports are also obvious in other restoration fields.
One might well expect a 70-year-old clockmaker taught by his grandfather to be firmly set in his ways in 1993. Not so, I hope, in my case. I still enjoy the fun of experimenting with new methods, new equipment and new ideas, but I would like to build up a good few years' experience on scrap materials before using anything new on a genuine antique.
To take only one example in post-war experience, about 40 years ago the chemi- cal industry developed a whole range of new cleaning compounds. They were quick, easy to use and achieved on the surface spectacular results. Under laboratory con- ditions they may well also have been non- destructive. In real life in a busy workshop, with the foreman in a hurry and bench- hands of varying degrees of competence, they have turned out to be lethal in decades. I have yet to find a satisfactory and safe alternative to pure soft soap, water and patience.
William Galbraith
29 Britton Street, London EC1
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