Japanned Tray - View of Bull Ring

Rectangular metal tray with deep convex-moulded sides and rounded corners; pierced with oval slots (handles) to each end; Japanned scene of the Bull Ring showing St. Martin's church and a stagecoach; reverse black; Birmingham; 19th century

Condition: traction craquelling (due to not enough pigment in the paint); livering (skin effect - mainly in the recesses of the rim); small areas of corrosion; some areas of corrosion over-painted (these are now discoloured); varnish covering the whole image yellowed; rim seems to have gilded lacquer edge - now mostly covered by a layer of varnish with black pigment in it; brown stains mainly in the top left part of the image

Treatment (after initial tests): 1. Varnish was removed with a solvent; 2. Stains were removed with solvents and with a scalpel under microscope (however, some stains could not be removed completely); 3. Filling was done with Flugger Acrylic Putty (due to the blistery texture of the damaged areas - the result of corrosion - it was not possible to make the fills completely smooth and flat); Flugger was coloured with pigments to aid the retouching; 4. The tray was varnished with a Brushing Solution of MS2A in Stoddard; the varnish was used for its longetivity and retreatability; 5. The fills were in-painted with pigments and MS2A in Stoddard as a binding medium