Benedictine Abbey of St. Michael’s in Farnborough | Stolen framed prayers | Crypt of Emperor NAPOLEON III

Stolen framed prayers for the Crypt of Emperor NAPOLEON III

 Benedictine Abbey of St. Michael’s in Farnborough

 Stolen framed prayers

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Master wood-carver Patrick Damiaens from Maaseik (Belgium) has been chosen to make three unique wooden prayer frames for Farnborough Abbey in England.

By Denzil Walton for Flanders today  04-03-2015

A little over a year ago – between the 16^th and 20^th February, 2014 – the Benedictine Abbey of St. Michael’s in Farnborough, Hampshire, England received some visitors.

There was nothing unusual in this. Every year, thousands of people visit this magnificent 19^th century abbey when it opens its doors to the public every Saturday afternoon.

Unfortunately, these particular visitors didn’t queue up at the abbey shop and pay their £3 for the one-hour guided tour. They broke into the abbey under cover of darkness, entered the crypt and stole historic framed prayers in French and Latin from the tomb of Prince Louis, son of Napoleon III (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte).

Benedictine Abbey of St. Michael’s in Farnborough

Prince Imperial

Prince Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte (16 March 1856 – 1 June 1879) was the only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France. He died aged 23 while fighting for the British Army under Lord Chelmsford in the Zulu War in South Africa. He met a horrendous death, suffering 18 assegai spear wounds and a mutilated face.

When his body was retrieved from the battlefield a number of handwritten prayers were found in his wallet. These were returned to his mother, the Empress Eugénie, who had them engraved and mounted on specially commissioned wooden prayer frames. These were placed in the family’s crypt in Farnborough Abbey. Until their theft, they were used regularly by monks during mass.

Replacements necessary 

Despite all the efforts of local police and an international appeal amongst antique dealers, the prayer frames were not retrieved, so thoughts turned to their replacement.

“The prayer frames had been carved by an unknown wood-carver in incredible detail. Finding someone to make exact replicas was always going to be a difficult task,” said Abbott David Cuthbert Brogan. “However, after making some initial enquiries we came upon the internet site of Patrick Damiaens from Belgium. After seeing pictures of what he is capable of carving, and in particular the highly-detailed and delicate floral designs of which Patrick is such a master, we knew we had found someone capable of equalling, or maybe even exceeding, the work of the original craftsman.”

One of the stolen framed Prayers, Crypt Napoleon III

 

A challenge to rise to

Following discussions over capabilities, timing and costs, the job was given to Damiaens. “It was a great honour to be asked to carve replicas of these beautiful prayer frames,” he remarks. “I was also very excited about the challenge involved, as the level of intricacy and detail in the originals is exceptional. For much of the time I will be carving under a powerful magnifying glass!”

It’s a challenge he is keen to meet, explaining that he is always looking for jobs that push his techniques to the limit and force him to develop new skills. He will spend some time in museums in Paris acquainting himself more fully with original carvings done in the very ornate Napoleon III style. This includes detailed acanthus leaves, small satyrs and the emblems of the emperor. 

Napoleon III

Made from French walnut

The original prayer frames were made of walnut, as will the replacements. “Walnut is ideal for this type of job, thanks to its very fine grain,” Damiaens explains. He has already started working with his preferred furniture maker and has selected some ideal cuts of French walnut. The furniture-maker will make the frames and pass them onto Damiaens to carve. The largest of the three frames measures sixty by eighty centimetres.

Damiaens will be working from photographs of the originals. From these he will make his own technical illustrations, which will form the basis of his carvings. When the prayer frames are completed, he hopes to travel to Farnborough for their official unveiling in 2016.

 

https://www.patrickdamiaens.info

The Castle of LEMBECK | Restoration of a wooden chandelier | Wooden Chandelier Rococo Style | Restoration of Listed Buildings | Wooden Chandelier

The Restoration of a carved and gilded Wooden 6-arm Chandelier






The Castle of LEMBECK , Westphalia Germany

 Schloss Lembeck

HISTORY 

In 1017 Henry II gave large areas of land to Paderborn cathedral and in that way imposed on the Lords of Lembeck an oath of allegiance to the cathedral.

In 1190 the Lords of Lembeck built a defensive tower (called “Motte”), on marshy terrain approximately in the area of today’s north wing of the main castle. 
These foundations can still be traced within the fabric of the castle. Over the following 450 years the tower was gradually extended into a fortified medieval castle. The site of this castle is roughly where the Schlaun’sche hall is now situated. 

In 1526, Bertha of Lembeck, daughter of John of Lembeck, married Bernhard von Westerholt from neighbouring Vest Recklinghausen.

During the 16^th and 17^th centuries the region suffered greatly from the ravages of the Spanish-Dutch war (which lasted 80 years). 
This war (in Germany the 30 years during war) left the Westerholt family with such large debts that in 1631 they had to sell their possessions to the Dutch branch of the Westerholt-Hackfurt family. The Thirty Years War ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia signed in Munster. 

The Lord of the castle in the late 17^th century, Conrad Dietrich von Westholt-Hackfurt, died in 1702. He assumed that the horrors of this war would be a lesson to humanity and that they would never be repeated. 
Inspired by this hope of lasting peace, in the second half of the 17^th century he built the baroque moated castle in its present open form, while at the same time extending it considerably. Instead of fortified walls the visitor now has the benefit of wide views into the surrounding landscape.

This moated castle, located on two islands, is typical of the style of castle building in Westphalia. The buildings on the first island (Vorburg) were used for administrative and agricultural purposes until 1887. On the second island the main castle (Hauptburg) is situated, occupied by the Lords of the time. A southern wing of the main castle was planned but not built. 

The natural stone cantilevered from the masonry are still visible and are pointers to this building plan. Over the past three centuries, the moat waters and the open views of the beautiful park and surrounding countryside have given this castle its distinctive charm.

In 1708, Maria Josefa von Westerholt married Droste Ferdinand Dietrich Freiherr von Merveldt of Westerwinkel. During the 18^th century the Westphalian architect Johann Conrad Schlaun (1695 -1773) added to the exterior and in 1717 designed the Schlaun’sche Hall, a small jewel of baroque architecture. In 1726, on the instruction of the widow of the late Conrad Dietrich Adolph, he also built St Michael’s Chapel, located two kilometres west of Lembeck village. 

In 1887 the north wing of the Vorburg, with its two towers, was destroyed by fire. The remains of one of these towers still indicates the location of the former north western boundary walls.

Schloss Lembeck still belongs to the Merveldt family who were ennobled to Reichsgraf in 1726. For the past three hundred years, generations of owners, deeply rooted in the Westphalian tradition, have preserved the castle’s original baroque style. Schloss Lembeck owes its present authenticity to their careful maintenance of this historic building. 

The Castle of Lembeck
http://www.schlosshotel-lembeck.de

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The Castle of Lembeck

A Wooden 6-Arm Chandelier

 Restoration of the wooden, gilded chandelier in the Schlaun'sche Hall

The Schlaun'sche Hall

This rococo gold-plated wooden chandelier has been hanging in the Schlaun'sche Hall in Castle Lembeck for many generations now. The chandelier was carved from limewood and composed of many individual parts, mainly consisting of the twisted part, the ornaments and the carvings. 
It stems from the rococo era. 
 

The pictures put at our disposal by the Countess von Merveldt, show the state the chandelier was in around the turn of the century (1920) and what it looked like before its restoration earlier this year (2012).

It proved to be quite a daunting task to find out what the missing ornaments or parts thereof looked like or might have looked like.

Wooden chandelier 1920

and the chandelier in 2012, before restoration

The electric wires are clearly visible

The central spool in the center of the wooden chandelier

Acanthus Leaf broken of parts

These are several pictures of the restoration process 

Patrick Damiaens,  when restoring the wooden chandelier arms

In order to give the chandelier the necessary strength and stability, iron pins were incorporated into the pendant and the arms with candleholders at the end. With regard to the pendant, the iron pin goes straight through the ornaments, which is pretty straight forward. 

The arms, though, are a different matter altogether.

The arms are made up of 2 identical limewood halves with a notch in the middle for the little iron pin. After gluing them together, the ornaments were sculpted and made to fit.

This is where the ornamental woodcarver comes in. He takes into account the original piece as best he can and tries to bring out the chandelier’s character during the restoration of it.

The chandelier’s main body consists of a pendant with 3 different levels of ornaments and arms with candleholders attached to it. The top level is composed of a wooden chock with 8 volute ornaments incorporated into it. Of the 8 original ornaments (see picture of 1920), only three have managed to survive the ravage of time fairly well. These are ornaments with acanthus leaves and volutes on either side.

Wooden chandelier, 8 console volute-like ornaments

8 console volute-like ornaments

 

The middle of the chandelier consists of 3 arms with one candleholder each. One of these arms was completely missing and had to be made completely from scratch.

The bottom of the chandelier consists of a large ring, to which 6 arms are attached. 

In this section of the chandelier, a few key ornaments were missing as well: an ornament with flowers (little roses), volutes and an ornamental hook (agrafe). Only 2 pieces remained, of which only 1 was still in its original condition: in limewood with a relief height of 6,5 cm. 

It’s extremely important not to make the ornament stick out, by which I mean that one has to try and respect the original piece, so that there is hardly any difference noticeable between the copy and the original. 

I know perfectly well how difficult this is for me. I always try to deliver the best quality possible and sometimes this means that my personal view and opinion come second to that of the original woodcarver. 

One of the candleholders (in the form of a twisted acanthus leaf) had disappeared. During a previous restoration, presumably in the middle of the sixties, a new candleholder was fashioned. This candleholder, however, was only twisted and didn’t have any carvings, wasn’t gold-plated and was disappointingly simple. Because this candleholder lacked any presence, it had to be redone.

A large number of candleholders was burnt due to the fact that the candles were left burning for too long. The burnt holders had to be completely replaced.

The chandelier was fitted with electric candles, which was also thought to have taken place in the middle of the sixties. The candleholders, or what was left of them, were filled with plaster to secure the fittings. 

The wiring went up to a central point in the ceiling via the 6 chandelier arms (see picture of 1960). We were assigned to restore the candleholders back to their original state.

A total of 136 limewood parts were created to replace missing parts or restore existing parts. 

carvings and ornaments of the wooden chandelier

Wooden chandelier, 1920

In the picture of around 1920 you can see that there are 6 strings going up via the chandelier arms to a central point in the ceiling, each holding 7 twisted ornaments. 

Unfortunately these strings were completely lost.

The restorer has tried to reconstruct these strings to make them look as close to the original as possible.

The restoration is finished. The chandelier is ready to be gold-plated again.

The Rococo style wooden chandelier

Restoration of historic interiors

Restoration and Reconstruction

of

Architectural Wood Carvings  

https://www.patrickdamiaens.info