Originally founded in 1943 as the Association of British Picture Restorers (ABPR), the Association changed its name to the British Association of Paintings Conservator-Restorers (BAPCR) in 2002. Today we are a broad and open organisation, welcoming members both nationally and internationally. However, it is a deeply regrettable and undeniable fact that the founding aims, and views held by some members and patrons in the early decades of the ABPR, were in stark contrast to our values today, and we wish to acknowledge that the BAPCR unequivocally rejects the views found in early ABPR material.
Since 2020 the BAPCR Council has initiated and supported the archiving of historic Association documents, which date back to the earliest years of the then ABPR. Direct access to this material, enabled by the recent professional cataloguing, has allowed us to learn more about the deliberately exclusionary founding aims of the early ABPR, and about the xenophobic and antisemitic views clearly documented among some of its early members and patrons. It has also enabled us to chart the evolution of our Association’s history from these hostile founding aims to the emergence of the inclusive organisation that the BAPCR represents today, and to highlight key moments within the history of paintings conservation in the UK, such as the emergence of professional training programmes and the Greenwich lining conference.
The following timeline is based on primary material held in our archives, such as meeting minutes, combined with written histories compiled by previous members. For further information about how to access our archives, click here.
1940s – The Founding of the Association of British Picture Restorers (ABPR)
The first minuted meeting of the ABPR as an official body was held on the 7th of January 1944. Archive documents however show that an earlier meeting of The Committee of Picture Restorers, held in 1938, was the precursor to the formation of the ABPR. These earliest documents show that the early APBR was explicitly discriminatory and there is evidence of both xenophobic and antisemitic views amongst founding members.
In the build-up to the Second World War, and in response to refugee restorers who were fleeing from Germany and Austria, The Committee of Picture Restorers met on the 27th of June 1938 to rally London picture restorers to ‘take collective action to safeguard the interests of established British firms’ (The Committee of Picture Restorers 1939). A committee was formed, consisting of W.J.H. Drown, C.L. Hahn, C.G. Hider, W. Morrill and chaired by W. Freeman.
The report of The Committee of Picture Restorers details two meetings in the summer of 1938, in which the solicitor James W. Baldon was appointed to act as legal advisor ‘to make representations to the Home Office with a view to preventing further competition from refugee restorers’, and members agreed to share the expenses (The Committee of Picture Restorers 1939). It is clear from the archive that the primary founding aim of The Committee of Picture Restorers was to prevent picture restorers who were not British-born from ‘endeavouring to establish themselves in this Country’. The archive documents do not detail how many representations to the Home Secretary were made, however we know that in at least one case the Committee was successful, as the report records: ’’the Home Secretary stated that he had refused authorisation for the foreign restorer mentioned to proceed to the United Kingdom for the purpose of establishing herself here’ (The Committee of Picture Restorers 1939).
The Committee raised sufficient funds to continue this activity as their main purpose: ‘At the present time any further action can probably be limited to bringing to the notice of the Home Secretary any further instances of foreign restorers alleged to be setting up practice here’. Members envisaged that ‘when peaceful conditions are restored to the Country it is hoped that further meetings of the members will be arranged to discuss questions affecting the interests of the profession’ (The Committee of Picture Restorers 1939).
A group of members of the Committee met in July 1943 to discuss the formation of an Association of British Picture Restorers. This meeting also established the structure of the ABPR: Founder Members included William Freeman (the first President), William Vallance (Vice President), Miss Renee (the Association Secretary), Norman Hulme, Ralph Warner, Horace Buttery, William Drown, and Cyril Cooke.
The minutes from this formative meeting of the ABPR again evidence the exclusionary aims of the group, with members expressing concern that the foreign restorer Hans Beran was carrying out work for the Earl of Manvers; it was agreed that the Home Secretary should be contacted to question Beran’s right to work (6th July 1943, ABPR 1943). Recent research has also shown that one of the Founder Members, Marita Perigoe was a fervent Nazi and an active fascist spy, who expressed the belief that small but influential organisations such as the ABPR could be used to encourage antisemitism and promote fascism (Blewett 2024:21-33).
The first official meeting of the ABPR was held on 7th January 1944 at 1 Duke Street, St. James’s, SW1. The first advertisement for this newly formed association in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, shows plainly the early aims of the organisation, with membership reserved for ‘British-born subjects’, and all members barred from employing anyone ‘other than a British-born subject’ (The Burlington Magazine 1944). In a subsequent meeting in May 1944, it was noted that complaints to the Home Secretary had been made about the right to work of the restorers Mr H Happ and Mr Azcel (ABPR MIN/COU 1 May 1944).
In 1943, the ABPR had invited well-known connoisseurs including Sir Alec Martin, Colin Agnew and Dudley Tooth to become Trustees, with Sir Kenneth Clark, John Rothenstein and Sir Robert Witt among the Patrons. However, not all those who were approached were willing to be associated with the early ABPR’s discriminatory agenda. Samuel Courtauld, Earl Crawford and Viscount Lee of Fareham all objected to ‘Rule 4’ in the first iteration of the Rule Book of the APBR, confining membership to those of British birth, and the archive documents their withdrawals of patronage by December 1944 (ABPR MIN/EGM 18 Dec 1944).
Minutes from meetings throughout 1944 and 1945 chart a debate over ‘Rule 4’, which was amended through the intervention of Sir Kenneth Clark to open membership to ‘British subjects’ (ABPR MIN/EGM 8 Feb 1945). By July 1945 the APBR advertisement in the The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs stated the association’s intention as: ‘to protect the Public in all matters related to Works of Art, and to further the advance of research in the restoration and preservation of Old and Modern Masters; also to train Assistants to follow in the traditions of the Profession’ (The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 1945). Explicit reference to nationality is no longer present, although the reference to members and member’s employees being ‘British subjects’ remained within the wording of the association’s Rule Book until the 1970s.[1]
The first ABPR meetings were held at the Overseas Club, London and the entrance fee for meetings was ten guineas. By late 1945 meetings had moved to 43/44 Albemarle Street, London, the new premises of W. Freeman and Sons, Painting Restorer by appointment to the late Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth II. Discussions around that time took place on standardising the system of admitting apprentices as Associate Members.
In the early years of the ABPR, membership of the Association was achieved after a ten year apprenticeship as a junior assistant before being tested for full membership of the Association. In 1946 this was reduced, and apprentices could apply to become an Associate Member after five years. Apprentices paid a premium to the master restorer for their training, and were paid wages set at 10s.0d per week initially, up to £7.10s. in the tenth year (ABPR MIN/EGM 17 Jan 1946). Restorers with at least seven years’ full-time experience were invited to apply for full membership, subject to an examination of their work and an assessment of their knowledge and professional attitude by members of the Council.
In 1948, it was agreed to set up ‘The Founder Members’ Memorial Fund,’ later known as the Benevolent Fund, which still exists to this day (ABPR MIN/EGM 10 June 1948).
1950s
In 1951, the Council welcomed Mr Drescher as a Member, having been naturalised six years previously.[2] Naturalisation continued to be a necessary precursor to membership in the case of foreign-born applicants. The case of Henry Happ was discussed in a meeting in 1953, and the Council reminded that in 1938 the Committee’s solicitor had been instructed to write to the Home Office ‘regarding this restorer’s licence to practise in this Country’ (ABPR MIN/COU 13 Oct 1953). In 1958, it was reported that there had been surprise and disapproval amongst members that, according to recent Press notices, ‘a Pole’ had been appointed as the Chief Conservator to a new Conservation Department at the Tate Gallery (ABPR MIN/EGM 8 Oct 1958). A letter was drafted to the Gallery’s Director questioning Mr Stefan Slabczynki’s qualifications and methods, but in the end not sent since Slabczynski had actually been appointed in 1955.
1951 also saw the first discussions in the Minutes about the status of ‘reliners’ and their possible admission, but only as Associate Members. It was noted that ‘the poorer work sometimes received from Reliners was due to inferior materials’ in particular inferior quality linen canvas (ABPR MIN/EGM 23 May 1951). In 1958 the annual subscription was increased from six to seven guineas and the first foreign visit to Holland took place. By the late 1950s, general meetings started to have a subject for discussion as well as Association business. Typical subjects were ‘Varnishes and the resultant bloom’, ‘Panels and transferring’, and ‘Media for restoration’.
1960s
During the 1960s the Association reflected the growth of the profession and opened its doors to new members. Picture liners were invited to attend meetings in 1968, becoming Associate Members soon afterwards, and eligible for full membership in 1975 (ABPR MIN/EGM 20 March 1975). Young people coming into the profession were welcomed in 1966 when Associate Membership was extended to full-time students. The ABPR Council was also consulted on the matter of training by the Standing Commission on Museums and Galleries in order to establish a picture restoration course at the Royal College of Art and other training courses at the National Gallery and Tate Galleries. In the minutes of the 9th January 1969 Meeting, the wording of ‘Rule 4’ in the APBR Rule Book: ‘no Member shall employ any persons other than a British subject’, was challenged. In the March 1969 meeting it was recommended that it ‘be rescinded, but that Members themselves should, as stated in the Rule, be British Subjects’ (ABPR MIN/EGM 6 March 1969).
1970s
In the early 1970s the number of members from the museum sector was growing rapidly and the Association developed to meet the need. The meeting minutes from this time also reflect the growing desire for the association to be more international in its outlook.
In 1972, 14 Mason’s Yard, St. James’s, became the new address of the ABPR and subscriptions were raised to £10 for Full Membership and £5.25 for Associate Membership. Focused discussions and programmed talks became an integral part of meetings during the 1970s. In 1973, The Chairman Mr. Ellison informed members that ‘he had been invited to join a coordinating committee for a lining conference to be held at Greenwich[…] the Chairman felt it was a good opportunity for members of the Association to participate. Mr Robinson then read a paper he had prepared for the conference about wax composition lining in current commercial use’ (ABPR MIN/EGM 22 March 1973). The Greenwich lining conference, which is still considered of pivotal importance to conservators today, is well recorded in the Association minutes around this time as having been ‘a great success’ (ABPR MIN/EGM 23 Sept 1975).
1973 saw the first in a long series of discussions that the membership Rules would need to be changed as a result of Britain joining the Common Market, and significantly, ‘members felt that this would probably mean that the name of the Association would have to be altered too’ (ABPR MIN/COU 25 Jan 1973). This is the first time that a potential name change is mentioned in the minutes; however, the Association name was not changed until much later in 2002. In 1976 a revision of the Association Rule Book was started, which was completed in 1978. Further information may be held in the Development and Working Group papers held in the Archive, making this a valuable resource for future research. In 1978, it was decided that the Association no longer needed a system of trusteeship, and it was proposed and agreed that trustees be asked to retire and invited to become patrons (ABPR MIN/COU 20 April 1978).
As academic training courses were being implemented at Cambridge and at The Courtauld Institute of Art, the need for practical experience and the numbers being trained were discussed, and a letter to the Minister for Arts was proposed, expressing views on training and the output/need ratio (ABPR MIN/COU 22 May 1975; ABPR MIN/COU 22 Oct 1975). The late 1970s saw the start of an increasing involvement with other conservation organisations with the ABPR joining ICOM as an institutional member in 1978, and being represented at committee meetings of the IIC/UKG (later the UKIC) from the same year.
From 1976, general meetings were held at the Chelsea Arts Club, and for the first time, a summary of the talks was circulated. In 1979 the ABPR held the first meetings for manufacturers and specialist stockists to demonstrate equipment. These meetings were very popular and were repeated several times. Typical discussion topics during this period included ‘Treatment of Panel Paintings’ and ‘Materials and Methods of Retouching’, with activities for members including visits to the V&A conservation department, Castle Howard and Rowney’s factory, and a study trip to Brussels.
1980s
Throughout the 1980s a regular pattern of meetings was established. Each year there were up to five talks or meetings held at various venues including the Chelsea Arts Club and the Polish Hearth Club, as well as visits to continental cities during the Spring, and visits to collections within the UK. Visits during this time included Amsterdam, Vienna, Venice, Rome and Munich. Within the UK, trips to the Hamilton Kerr Institute and conservation studios at the National Gallery, Glasgow City Art Gallery, V&A and the National Maritime Museum were organised. Talks were held on a wide variety of topics such as European lining techniques and panel and canvas repairs, and open studio visits were offered by members.
In 1980 the ABPR Council set out a document outlining the ABPR’s attitude to professionalism, and their purpose as an organisation: ‘to get restorers to meet together, discuss problems and keep in touch with “new developments” with the hope that the Association would be important in contributing to raising the standards in restoration. The document also summarised the two tier system for membership which had been initiated in the 1940s, and was by now firmly established. Associate Membership applications were proposed and seconded by council members; for Full Membership, applicants were required to have at least 7 years professional experience before consideration. Full Membership implied ‘ethical standards as well as technical competence. The conservation of the painting must be the ultimate aim of the restorer and responsibility to the painting is above responsibility to one’s paymaster’ (ABPR MIN/COU 12 Jun 1980). Applicants were visited in their place of work by two council members prior to being offered Full Membership.
Since the 1970s, typed sheets covering particular topics discussed in general meetings had been distributed to members, but 1988 saw the launch of the little green A5, bound pamphlets covering special talks, general meeting notes and association news – an early indicator of what The Picture Restorer journal was to become. Also during the late 1980s, a suggestion was put to Council members to ‘change the name of the ABPR to incorporate the word conservation in the title’ (ABPR MIN/COU 31 May 1988), reflecting wider professional research and developments, and a younger increasingly museum-trained membership. Although this addition was agreed by the council, the change does not appear to have been implemented.
1990s
During the 1990s the Association began to take the form that we know today. The Picture Restorer journal was launched in 1992 under the editorship of Simon Padfield (1992-2008) and assistant editorship of Jean Hudson (1992-2002) and Jan Robinson (2002-2008), and general meetings were first held at The Art Workers’ Guild, London from 1994.
From the early 1990s, ABPR members were represented on various conservation bodies, such as the Conservation Forum, UKIC, The Conservation Unit and the Conservation Register, and took part in professional status meetings in Europe. The future direction of ABPR was at a turning point with discussions focussed on whether ABPR would be ‘an organisation for the whole of the restoration profession or simply for the private restorer’ (ABPR MIN/COU/WK 18 March 1994); absorbed into broader conservation organisations such as UKIC, or remain independent. The UKIC’s authority, its proposed accreditation model and its government representation of the profession posed serious challenges to the ABPR. The need to expand the membership and to increase museum representation was acknowledged, together with a recognition of ‘a certain antipathy towards ABPR by the younger restorers’ (ABPR MIN/COU 26 Nov 1992). As wider discussions about accreditation within the conservation field were taking place, the decision was made to rename the ABPR’s Full Members to more clearly reflect the fact that they had passed the ABPR’s own assessment process: from 1992, Members in this category became known as Fellows, ‘a term more universally recognised as a qualification’ (ABPR MIN/COU 26 Nov 1992). Updating the Rule Book was discussed in 1995, as well as changing the ABPR’s name; however, at that time, the ‘majority of the Council’ remained ‘in favour of the present name’ (ABPR MIN/COU 7 March 1995).
The British Association of Paintings Conservator-Restorers – BAPCR
2002 was a landmark year for the Association. Under the chairmanship of Simon Howell, in a move that reflected the wider aspect of the profession, the membership voted to change the Association name to The British Association of Paintings Conservator-Restorers, or BAPCR (ABPR MIN/EGM 14 March 2002). This name evolved from discussions at an EGM in January 2000, which included suggestions of APRC (Association of Paintings Conservators and Restorers) and ABPRC (Association of British Paintings Conservators and Restorers) (ABPR MIN/EGM 27 January 2000). In a letter dated 31st May 2000, Robert Shepherd, seconded by twelve members, asked to table a formal proposal to be put to the membership at the EGM of 28th June 2000, to change the name to the British Association of Paintings Conservators and Restorers (ABPR GOV/1).
This period was characterised by several successful large conferences, workshop meetings and overseas visits – features of the Association which continue to the present day. The 2003 conference organised jointly between the BAPCR and UKIC Paintings Group, Alternatives to Lining, remains influential, with the postprints still being standard reading for trainee conservators. A three-day retouching conference in 2005 – again, jointly organised with what was now ICON’s Paintings Group – resulted in the similarly indispensable publication Mixing and Matching.
The BAPCR today
The BAPCR celebrated 70 years in 2013 with a special conference, The Picture So Far…, celebrating over half a century of developments in the field of professional painting conservation. Another decade on, the BAPCR continues to play an active part in bringing together paintings conservators, across the UK and internationally, through our programme of events and the publication of The Picture Restorer. We hold three well-attended evening talks a year, in the spring, summer and winter on a mix of practical and technical research topics, as well as organising conferences and visits to conservation studios in the UK and abroad.
In 2022 The Picture Restorer celebrated its 30th anniversary with the publication of its sixtieth issue. It remains essential reading for paintings conservators, coming top in our 2022 survey when members were asked which aspect of the BAPCR’s activities they appreciate the most.
Our popular series of talks has in recent years touched on the conservation of artworks ranging from medieval panel painting to the contemporary paintings of Rose Wylie; subjects have included everything from complex panel treatments to conservation history, sustainability, and many more. In a move prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, but now integral to our activities, in summer 2020 we began to host talks online. We now host a mixture of hybrid talks (streaming our Art Workers Guild events via Zoom) and online-only talks. This has widened our horizons, allowing our audience based outside of London – and the UK – to attend more easily, and enabling us to invite international speakers to present remotely.
Recent conferences, each accompanied by a postprints publication, include A Changing Art: Nineteenth Century Painting Practice and Conservation (2016), and Tales of the Unexpected in Paintings Conservation (2020), both held at the Wallace Collection, and most recently Hand in Hand: Collaboration in Art and Conservation (2023), held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. These events showcase the most up-to-date research and treatment methods and typically attract a broad range of speakers, from recent graduates to renowned international experts, sharing their projects with the conservation community.
Visits to a range of private and museum studios in Glasgow, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Kent and London have taken place over the past few years and continue to be popular, while trips to Belgium (2019) and Kyiv (2017) have enabled members to connect with colleagues further afield.
We have, since 2020, offered honesty membership renewal rates to reflect the turbulent economic times faced by our members, free membership to any paintings conservator displaced by war and discounted membership to students enrolled in training courses and to those in financial need. The Benevolent Fund, founded in 1948, provides grants for the relief of Members of the Association, offered at the discretion of the Board of Trustees, consisting of three Fellows of the Association.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all of those Council members and others who have recorded and researched our history over the decades, and have preserved the archive for us to access today. We would also like to thank Gemma Collins, as secretary of the BAPCR for housing the current archive and for her help in providing access for the purpose of this research.
We see this brief History of the BAPCR as a work in progress, with scope for further additions and changes to be made over time. The recent cataloguing of the BAPCR’s archive will make it easier for researchers of the future to access the material we hold, some of which dates back to the 1930s, and which is of value not only to understanding the history of paintings conservation and related professions but to wider histories of past practice and thinking in the UK. For more information about the archive, click here.
References
- The Association of British Picture Restorers. ABPR Minutes (MIN). BAPCR archive. BAPCR, East Sussex
- Blewett, ‘Infiltrated: The Association of British Picture Restorers, the Fifth Column and Marita Perigoe,’ in The Picture Restorer 64, Spring 2024
- The Association of British Picture Restorers, 1943. ‘A meeting of the British Picture Restorers.’ 6th July 1943. BAPCR archive. BAPCR, East Sussex
- The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 84, no. 495, 1944, Front Matter : i–x pp
- The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 87, no. 508, 1945, Front Matter : i–xii pp
- The Committee of Picture Restorers, 1939. ‘Report.’ BAPCR archive. BAPCR, East Sussex
[1] The only Rule Book held in the archive dates from c.1980s. We would be grateful to hear from any members who may have retained any earlier copies of Rule Books.
[2] The term ‘Naturalisation’ in the minutes is used to describe the granting of British citizenship to individuals who were not born in the UK.