The Blake Society at St James’s Piccadilly
Programme
2002

Tuesday 22nd January 2002
Annual General Meeting.
(City of Westminster Archives Centre, 10 St. Ann’s Street, London SW1P 2DE; 7.30pm.) Underground station: St. James’s Park (District & Circle Lines)
Railway station: Victoria
Buses: 11, 24, 211 along Victoria Street; 88 along Great Smith Street; 507 along Horseferry Road.

[Data awaiting incorporation]

Tuesday 19th November 2002
Piers Townshend
“Satan exulting over Eve” & its treatment.
Speaker Piers Townshend is a paper conservator at the Tate Gallery.  His talk centres on the lengthy restoration & stabilising work required by Blake’s large colour print “Satan exulting over Eve” (Tate Britain), but he will also discuss the conservation work done on other Blake prints & drawings including the Huntington Library’s “Hecate”.
He has supplied the following biographical note:
“Did a Zoology & Psychology degree to start with, but after various adventures trained in Paper Conservation at Newcastle.  Have been at Tate since 1980, working on all sorts of paper-based items, from between 1750 & the present.  A lot of the time is spent working on Turner Bequest stuff.  Current enthusiasms include the softening of brittle screen-print inks to allow wet treatment, & also the development of oxygen-free display frames to permit bright light showing of otherwise vulnerable works on paper.  New acquisitions have to be put into a stable condition; this sometimes means taking sellotape off the back of a Victor Pasmore print, & sometimes taking varnish off the front of a William Blake print.”
This is the last Blake Society meeting of 2002.  Our programme of talks will recommence in January 2003.
(City of Westminster Archives Centre, 4 St Ann’s Street, London SW1P 2DE; 7.30pm.)