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Kate Frame |
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KATE FRAME doesn't practice what she preaches. By day, she is one of the world's top conservators, responsible for the preservation of an irreplaceable collection of art and antiques. However, at home in her 1920s art deco apartment in central London, the Canadian breaks all the rules she so zealously abides by in her professional life, employing quick and easy decorating techniques that are an anathema to her profession. "I do the worst work at home," she confides. "But it looks great, and it's fast. I know what can happen to that unstable varnish in 10 years or what's going to happen to that fabric I tacked on with glue, but since I don't want to keep my things for ever, I don't really care." Hers is an understandable contradiction between professional and personal style. Professionally, Frame's official title is head of conservation housekeeping for the Historic Royal Palaces, an agency set up to care for the Queen's palaces and treasures. As such, Frame is responsible for the daily care and preservation of all paintings, murals, sculptures, furniture, ceramics, giltwood and tapestries at the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and the Banqueting House. As we wander the courtyards of Hampton Court, Frame points out a number of sundials. "I asked a Historic Royal Palaces curator if there was any documentation pertaining to the sundials, expecting there'd be records of recent conservation work," she comments. The curator told Frame she did indeed have some documentation, and produced a copy of a handwritten letter from William III, with instructions for the purchase of the sundials and their installation at Hampton Court. The sundials are one small part of a collection that comprises more than 5,000 objects that are on display in several hundred rooms and are visited by millions of people each year. It is the damage that can result from the dust, moisture and dirt brought unwittingly into the palaces by visitors that is a prime concern for Frame and her colleagues. More than 90 percent of the items on display are the property of the Queen. While Frame hasn't met the monarch – and doesn't expect to – she does have regular meetings with the Royal Collection Trust surveyors, the experts who advise the Queen on her collections. "Essentially," explains Frame, "everything here is in trust to Historic Royal Palaces to preserve." Frame is very aware of the fact that every action triggers a reaction, whether it's the wear and tear caused by people walking on floors and carpets or damage caused by oils deposited on doors and walls as a result of people's touching them. The kilos of dust that visitors shed collectively from shoes and clothing constitute one of her biggest challenges. In outlining the complexities of dealing with the dust, she explains that, after consulting with experts, she and her staff have determined that one of the best ways to remove dust from paintings, giltwood and other delicate surfaces is with a small brush made from the tummy hair of a certain breed of German goat. "We need to minimize the erosion that results from cleaning," she explains. "Many of the objects are hundreds of years old and need to be dusted daily. We have to select the method that will be the safest." Minimizing the damage from cleaning also extends to sturdier objects like brass doorknobs. "We could polish them every day, but we'd have no brass knobs left after a few hundred years, so we just do a light wiping, degreasing and waxing. We try to avoid polishing as much as possible." Five days a week, four staff members generally spend up to four hours each day gently wiping down the thousands of doorknobs. While the measures Frame and her staff employ may seem extreme, it's this attention to detail and long-term vision that landed the Canadian one of the world's top conservation positions. Prior to caring for royal treasures, Frame was head of conservation for Heritage Toronto, and as such was responsible for 70,000 artefacts in 17 buildings. Standing on a marble landing of the Queen's Staircase at Hampton Court, Frame seems like the doyenne of a great house as she explains that her next challenge will be to stabilize the trompe l'oeil murals that cover the ceiling above the staircase. • • • • • THE PATH THAT LED Frame to her office at Hampton Court began at the University of British Columbia, where she took fine arts and art history. Later, she spent a year studying French at the Sorbonne in Paris. While there, she took an art history course at the Louvre, where she visited the painting restoration studios. It was then that she realized she might be able to have a career that allowed her to make use of her background in art. "So I then went on this mad campaign to find out how I could get to the point where I could be sitting in a place like the Louvre, working on pieces of art." • • • • • WHAT REALLY STOOD OUT about Frame when she was interviewed for the job, says Dr. Edward Impey, curator of Historic Royal Palaces and Frame's boss, was her determination. "She's incredibly determined and very good at putting her point of view forwards," Impey explains. "She is one of those people who we say leads from the front." |
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Impey says Frame's role involves a large measure of diplomacy. Not only does she need to preserve the collections and inspire 430 people to adopt new procedures, but she also has to deal with many layers of bureaucracy. This, Frame admits, turned out to be more complicated than she'd imagined. "I didn't appreciate the complexities that result from there being so many parties with an interest in a collection of national importance," she admits. |
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Photography: Graham Lee
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