John Bercow, ex Speaker of the House; Another person telling us to behave graciously, I would just like to say that I have never argued with anyone over the touchy subject of Brexit, only got cross on my blog about it, and of late have accepted the inevitable. I shall miss John Bercow, his successor is so quiet just like a mouse whereas Bercow was flamboyant and opinionated. And obviously this 'alternate Christmas speech' was pulled apart by the right wing papers but the Queen's speech was as always as gracious as ever.
Over the Xmas period I have had to deal with people who did not know of Paul's death. I wrote to the studio in Japan after receiving a card, and they must have told another friend of Paul's, and once more I glimpse a fragment of the person I loved so much. This friend works in America in Boston and was full of praise for Paul, he sent me a long email this morning. Sometimes when I look back at the gentle person I knew and how he felt about the work he had devoted his life to, in the end saying he could not do it anymore I feel I should write some kind of essay for him.
"Paul paved the way for many of us working in Japanese paintings conservation and he wrote eloquently on his subject, editing a special edition of the Paper Conservator – ‘Hyogu – the Japanese tradition in picture conservation’ that was published in 1985 and has since become a standard reference work on the subject. The techniques and materials he wrote about were also an inspiration to conservators of Western paper, who were keen to adapt and adopt them for their work, too."
Paul collected many papers and was indeed an expert on them, there are in his study four great parcels of them, one of his dreams was to make paper, but you have to live by a clean river or stream, we had thought of this once when in Wales. We had visited the mill at Middle Mill just outside Solva and watched the small river flow through the mill, the old mill wheel still in place but now there are just looms for making the rugs there. It was a place I had always loved, very tranquil, approached by lanes from four sides, deep in the heart of Pembrokeshire. But Paul did not fancy Wales so in the end we ended up in Yorkshire.
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| By Dr Duncan Pepper, |
I shall stop for the moment, memories are rushing through my head, but somehow I am energised by the landscapes that float through my brain.
Do you think Paul's parcels would be of interest to a university archive? It's possible that a university department with interests in the field might wish to rdecord and classify them, especially if they could get an academic publication from it.
ReplyDeleteWell he worked at the British Museum for sometime, setting up the Japanese Conservation department there. He also has a large book collection on the subject as well, so when his sons come down I am going to discuss it with them.
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