The Lady Lever Art Gallery houses one of the UK’s finest collections of fine and decorative art. It has the best collection of Wedgwood jasperware anywhere in the world and its collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings is internationally renowned.
The gallery was founded by William Hesketh Lever (1851-1925) and is dedicated to the memory of his wife Elizabeth. Lever wanted to share his collections with the public. At first he used the library for small displays, but he needed a bigger building for his collections. Lever personally selected works of art from his huge collection for the gallery. The gallery still contains the best of his personal art collection.
Recclesia was commissioned to complete several phases of work at the gallery to conserve and repair the leaded glass domes over the main gallery spaces. Our glass conservators carried out a detailed condition survey of the domes and drew up a conservation plan scheduling the remedial work required to each one. The repair work included the removal of several large sections of leaded glass curved over two planes, which were rebuilt using radial moulds in the workshop.
The glass that remained in place was carefully cleaned inside and out by glass conservation specialists from our in-house stained glass conservation studio, and repairs were effected in-situ to stabilise the lead nets, replace missing support metalwork and consolidate the dome structure intersections with the glazing.