Graham Bignell Studio

Founded in 1981, this leading London based studio specialises in the conservation of all archival material and large works on paper and parchment; ranging from posters and maps to prints, drawings, manuscripts, books and original artwork.

The studio has a proven track record in handling large-scale projects. They are happy to work on single items and on site.

A comprehensive service is provided to libraries, business archives, institutions, museums, galleries and private clients; including surveys, reports and storage recommendations as well as an emergency response.

The studio offers bookbinding, framing and mounting services to conservation standards.

Conservation is divided into three areas.

Conservation

The majority of work done in the studio involves direct intervention where they carry out an initial assessment of an item to decide an appropriate method of repair. With archives this might involve lining with spider tissue, local repairs, infilling missing areas with toned repairs, and carrying out binding work that keeps as much of the original as possible with the aim of stabilising its condition and retarding further deterioration.

Each area of work involves an initial assessment of the condition and an agreement with the client as to how far they should proceed.

Preservation

This relates to a number of areas within the studio and where they offer a range of services. Through the initial consultancy service they offer, condition surveys, cost analysis and examination of the archive environment to give an overview of how to improve the preservation of the archives, books, documents or pictures.

They can give recommendations on storage and display, sometimes recommending the making of facsimiles as an alternative to displaying the original, as happened with All Hallows by the Tower, making two facsimile volumes for their display, as the cabinets were not environmentally controlled and would have been harmful to the originals.

The studio can also organise book refurbishing and archive cleaning programmes where they address the storage methods and boxing of cleaned books and documents.

Restoration

Restoration is an extension of conservation in that they carry out the same repair work but spend more time on disguising as much as possible the repair work to any given item. More time is spent in toning papers exactly and retouching. This is more common with the lining and retouching of posters, prints, drawings, and watercolours for collectors or dealers.

Please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.