Simon at the mount cutting machine

All the mounts for the Palladio 500 exhibition and many other RIBA Palladio drawings have been cut by Simon, the preservation conservator at the V&A. The measurements are plotted into a computer linked up to the mount cutting machine. The machine cuts the aperture of the 2200 microns, 100% cotton cream museum board and is then fitted to the backboard using a gummed linen starch based tape. Simon will then hinge the inlaid or float mounted object directly into the mount so that the object is ready for framing. To make the framing and storage of the drawings more manageable the RIBA have five standard sizes.

There was only one hiccup during the process of mounting, the breakdown of the machine. Like all machines when something breaks you have to wait for the particular part to arrive. This produced a mild panic as the breakdown happened in July with a few Palladio mounts still to do and framing due to start at the beginning of August. Thankfully it was only a few weeks till we were up and running again.

Simon is on 76 mounts out of a total of 350, not a bad start!