An evening in the gallery

Went to the War Memorial Symposioum this evening in the Lady Lever Gallery and couldn't resist snapping this ornate French timepiece.

We heard four really interesting talks about the restoration and conservation of the Port Sunlight War Memorial. The bronze statues have been cleaned and re-patinated to a finish close to their original colour - as we heard tonight this is an interventionist and slightly controversial method. The colour will darken over a month or so, and I can see in my recent photos that this has already started to happen - I will blip it again when the fencing has been taken down.

The statues by Sir Willian Goscombe John represent defence of the home, and were criticised when the memorial was completed in 1921 as being too sentimental. However, we learned that this style of sculpture belongs to the Edwardian New Sculpture movement which brought more movement and facial expressions into public sculpture. The statues of the children, modelled on Lord Lever's grandchildren, represent hope for the future.

Work will now start on the restoration of the stonework and the whole project, which has cost around £150,000, will be finshed for Remembrance Sunday.