Staffordshire Spaniel Ceramic

Photo of a white Staffordshire Terrier Ceramic broken into 196 pieces placed on a black background. The pieces are organised from largest on the left to smallest on the right.
Staffordshire Terrier Before Treatment

Cultural History

Staffordshire Terriers were originally displayed as a matching pair and were very popular in Victorian England where they would be placed either side of a mantelpiece. This ceramic dates from 1850 to 1870, an early example since later versions used a manufacturing technique called slip casting, early versions were hand pressed into a two part mould and joined along the seam with slip. The ceramic was then fired in a process called biscuit firing. The front of the body was decorated with gilding while the back wasn’t as it was not meant to be seen.

Largest fragment is imaged showing grooves to the inside of the clay body. These marks were made by fingers.
Manufacturers fingerprints on the inside of the ceramic.

Condition Before Treatment

Before treatment, the body of the ceramic was in 196 pieces and stored in a bag where the edges would abrade, causing losses to the glaze. It became necessary to restore the appearance of the body as it was no longer recognisable as a Staffordshire Terrier ceramic.

Photo of 60 pieces of ceramic sherds all placed together in a small clear plastic bag. There is a 25 cm scale placed at the bottom of the image.
Photo of 100 small what fragments of glazing placed on a black background. the pieces are organised in the shape of a square and there is a 20cm scale at the bottom of the image.
(Left) Most of the small fragments of ceramic were stored in a plastic bag. (Right) Small chips of the ceramic glazing.

Treatment

To return this object back to its recognisable state, the fragments were organised into their corresponding original locations in a shatter diagram (shown below). This made planning how to re-join the pieces easier as the body could be divided into larger fragments to avoid lock-out ( where pieces are adhered together in the wrong order and access is no longer possible to put a piece back).

Photograph of a white Staffordshire Terrier broken pieces organised into a shatter diagram with corresponding locations of fragments.
Fragments organised according to their original location

The fragments were organised where the break edges would be straight, uniform direction to limit the amount of complex break edges during later re-assembly. The object was divided into 14 large fragments.

Photo of broken ceramic Staffordshire Terrier ceramic organised into the corresponding original locations. The image is divided up by blue lines into 14 large sections.
Fragments grouped into larger pieces for joining.

Once fragments were organised into larger sections, the pieces were adhered together using a conservation grade acrylic adhesive, HMG Paraloid-B72. To hold the fragments together, tape was used on the glazed side and the fragment was placed into a sandbox to hold the piece upright to allow the weight of the pieced under gravity to apply pressure while the adhesive dries.

photo of harry, wearing a white lab coat. his long brown hair is tied up and he is applying adhesive to the break edges.
photo of a large fragment of ceramic places into a yellow box. This fragment is supported by sand to keep it vertical. The sherd has a triangular shape.
(Left) Harry Adhering the base fragment, (Right ) Fragment placed in a sandbox to hold the fragment.

Once the fragments were joined in larger pieces, they were ordered for final assembly, a dry run was done to make sure there was no risk of lock out and to ensure the break edges were all correctly aligned as a single misaligned piece will push the rest out of alignment. This dry run showed there was limited risk of lock out, however 4 fragments would need to be assembled simultaneously while the adhesive was wet as the complex nature of the closed hollow body meant the piece had to be put together in 3D. To slow the drying time of the adhesive to increase the working time, the adhesive was diluted with acetone, early adhesive testing showed that the adhesive would remain strong even when diluted. This enabled the fragments to be joined swiftly and secured using tape. While the adhesive was drying, a hot air gun was used to close the cracks as much as possible as the adhesive was thermosetting while it dries.

Photo of 9 fragments laid out in order of joins. These fragments range from large to small. These piece are placed on a large piece of grey paper.
Fragments laid out according to the number of joins.
Photo of the front of the Staffordshire terrier missing its head. the body has a gilded golden chain and lock going across the body. The curls on the are shaped into the ceramic body.
Photo of the back of the Staffordshire Terrier. The back of the head is missing and the joins can be clearly seen and light cracks across the body of the ceramic.
(Left) Front of ceramic body after joining 10 large fragments. (Right) Back of body.

Gap Fills

Before the fragments could all be re-joined, gap fills were necessary for structural support while there was access to inside. In order to make recreate the losses, dental wax was used to support the fill medium. Plaster was built up and shaped using a dampened spatula to follow the form and shape of the body.

photo of a small area of loss to the back of the ceramic body. A piece of pink dental wax is placed behind the fill.
Photo of built up wet plaster piled into the gap shown in the previous image.
photo of the plaster fill shaped to follow the shape of the original fill. The colour of the fill is grey.
(Left) Area before fills. (Centre) Application of plaster. (Right) Plaster after shaping.

Internal Fills

To provide structural support for safe handling, internal losses were filled with plaster using a small petal spatula.

Photo of the inside of the ceramic. light can be seen between the cracks due to losses of the ceramic body.
photo of losses shown in previous image filled using plaster. no light can be seen showing through the fills.
Before and After Internal Gap Fills

Fills to the Cracks

In order to blend the joins, the cracks were filled using Flugger, a conservation grade water soluble filler. This was pushed into the gaps using a metal spatula. The spatula didn’t risk causing damage to the glazing and the results of the gap fills showed that most of the lines were lessened. These fills were then cleaned using a dampened swab with water to remove much of the excess and left to dry. The fills were then finished with abrasive paper (like sandpaper but finer and doesn’t damage the glazing) ready for retouching.

photo of a crack being filled using Flugger. A metal spatula is shown pushing the filler into a crack to the left ear of the Staffordshire terrier.
photo of Harry applying the flugger to the face of the Staffordshire Terrier. He is wearing a white lab coat, and holding a small metal tool to shape the fills in his right hand. His long hair is tied up.
(Left) Application of Flugger using a metal spatula. (Right) Photo of Harry applying the Flugger to the face.

Retouching

The final step of this treatment is to retouch the areas of loss to blend the areas of loss. Retouching to the back of the head was done using Golden Acrylics colours and glaze and applied to the fills. Areas of lost gilding due to impact damage was replaced by applying Rabbit Skin Glue to the area of loss. This was left to dry and reactivated using head. Gold leaf was then applied to the area of loss and left to dry. Once dry the gold leaf was cleaned using a cocktail stick with water to follow the shape of the original lost gilding. Areas of worn gilding were not re-gilded to preserve the evidence of use.

Before and after retouching

In order to make the retouching visible upon examination and follow conservation ethics, the retouching medium is visible under Ultraviolet light and glows.

Back of the bead of the staffordshire dog after retouching, the damage is no longer visible.
Photo of the back if the Staffordshire Spaniels Head under ultraviolet light. The areas of retouching are lit up bright blue.
Retouching to the back of the head under UV light.

Before Treatment

After Treatment

Reflection By The Conservator

This object has improved my skill of visualising a 3D jigsaw and understanding what order I re-join the pieces. This object has also taught me patience of treatments as the gap fills took a long time but was worth it for the final result.

Headshot of Harry. He is a white male, wearing a long-sleeved red buttoned down shirt with a collar. He has long brown wavy hair down to his shoulders and shown smiling. The background is black.

This object was treated by Harry. Click on his photo to see his personal profile and learn more about him.