Dear Frank,
as I am a restorer, I should say first of all that this kind of works
should be done by people very expert in restoring antiquity. I say this
because I faced many times restoration made by paiters without the real
knoldge of the subject. And many times sundials lost their original coat of
paint, and more, they didn't respect the, let say, "calligraphy" of the
original author.
Said this lets go to your questions:
> The first concerns a dial dated 1700 on a house in Corbridge,
>Northumberland, England. It is a small stone dial with an iron gnomon,
>mounted on a wall. ... The 1700 dial, which is on a private house,
has also been
>painted, in white, but long ago. The owner is loath to use any modern
>materials on it without taking advice, having had earlier bad
>experiences of so-called conservation.
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Well I do not know the old and original English uses to paint a stone, but I
think that a stone should not be painted, or only inside le lines. But I
told you, maybe English diallers used to paint stones as well, I don't know
it. By the way if this is the use, I think that the last not original paint
should be removed, almost to prevent unaspected and unwanted accidents and
sort of chimical reactions. If you know exacly what kind of painture is the
existing one, my reply may be more specific, but since I don't know I cannot
tell you how is possible to stripp it off.
There are many ways and material good to paint on stone, nevertheless my
advise is that the stone itself must be treated first to accept the cover
paint. Usually a syntetic resin, well dilute, should be enough; it depend by
the state of the stone.
> The second dial is very different. It is on the parish church
>at Dalton-le-Dale, south of Sunderland, in County Durham. It is in
>almost the last throes of disintegration. It would hardly be worth
>attention except that I am convinced that, although mounted on a
>thirteenth century wall the dial is from the eighth century...
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For the sundial at Dalton-le-Dale, my advise is to push the relative
authority. The sundial is a great historical one, and his restoration never
must be done by an unexperted dialler or restorer. The stone may stop his
course to damage, in an anough good way. But this operation must be done by
experts, because there are involved Syntetic resins and specific chimical
products made just for that work (to fight the chimical damage of the
stone). I cannot tell you the names, because surely in England they have
another. The right thing may be to move the authority, or to find the money
to finance the right restoration. The sundial, as you say, is really very
damaged (acid rains!!!) ad it coul be a very good thing to get a cast of
the dial.
The old way to do it was the plaster (gesso) matrix, nowaday they use a
liquid or pasted rubber to do it with very good results.
See you
Mario
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Mario Arnaldi
Viale Leonardo, 82
48020 LIDO ADRIANO - Ravenna
Italy
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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