C O N T E X T 1 0 8 : M A R C H 2 0 0 9 31 Chris Daniels Weymouth’s Coadstone king A statue of George lll has been restored following assault by vandals, exposure to Weymouth’s seaside weather, and 200 years of accumulated paint and dirt. As the great, great, great, great grandson of George lll, it was fitting that the Duke of Gloucester should unveil the commemorative plaque to the newly restored King’s Statue onWeymouth seafront this summer. He met some of the members of the conservation team that carried out the work: Phillipa Hammond, Nigel Biffen and Mark Gallagher. Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, had awarded the contract for the monument’s restoration to Osirion Building & Conservation Ltd. Based on my conservation report commissioned some years previously by Colin Ellis, the council’s conservation officer, the process was to clean, dismantle as much of the broken statuary as necessary, repair, then rebuild, before painting and gilding. After the accumulation of 200 years of paint and dirt had been removed by carefully controlled, highpressure steam cleaning of the monument using the Doff system, the Portland stone plinth was shown to be peppered with holes and fractures. Rusting iron cramps had expanded, causing the ashlar work to break and collapse. The figures of lion, unicorn and king with his symbols of state, constructed from Coadestone (a terracotta developed in the 18th century by Eleanor Coade of Lyme Regis) were also in a perilous condition. Not only was rusting metal pushing apart the pieces, but also many years of inappropriate repair had exacerbated structural and construction problems. The most impressive discovery was the exquisite detailing on all the statuary. Decoration had been obscured by up to 5mm of paint layers. Ironically this paint had served to cushion the erosive effect of weathering to the extent of preserving most of the fine modelling. Traditionally Coadestone was produced by the best sculptors and modellers of the time. They produced some exceptionally fine pieces, such as the impressive lion at the end of Westminster Bridge in London. When the statue was originally commissioned, it was to be situated lower down and in front of a building (the back being plain and unadorned), where the full quality of the work would be appreciated. It ended up high and out of range. Initially it was delivered to Weymouth and assembled by the supplier four years before it was erected in its present position. The subsequent re-assembly on top of the Portland stone plinth was poorly executed. Metal fixings became exposed, and pieces were mounted incorrectly, with Chris Daniels examining the statue
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