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Society of Antiquaries
The Society of Antiquaries Making History: Antiquaries in Britain exhibition celebrates the Society’s work and achievements in the discovery, recording, preservation and interpretation and communication of the past through objects, historic books, drawings, manuscripts and paintings. It was shown at the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College in autumn 2011 and will be shown at Yale Center for British Art, New Haven in spring 2012, including some incredible, priceless objects, such as a contemporary copy of the Magna Carta from 1225.
Crown Fine Arts was actively involved in the entire process from preparing a project plan, performing site surveys and providing guidance about the security and transport of the Society of Antiquaries’ valuable and historically significant collection. The company manufactured transport frames, crates and special dollies for the items and obtained CITES and export licenses, as well as transporting the collection to the US in two shipments.
Heather Rowland, Head of Library and Collections Society of Antiquaries said: “This exhibition was a rare opportunity to introduce some of our most precious artefacts, including several 15th and 16th century panel paintings and early illuminated manuscripts to an American audience for the very first time.
“We used the Crown team on a major tour in England and they were our preferred agent for the US tour because of the knowledge and understanding they had developed of our varied collections.
“The team had also got to know our buildings and knew the limitations of the space they’d be working in, for example we don’t have a dedicated packing space, so the team had to work in a temporary space. They were also aware of some of the practical and logistical issues we have with regard to loading trucks at our premises. The packing and loading was handled very well, carefully and also discreetly and securely.
“They undertook visits to both our sites at Burlington House and Kelmscott Manor and designed bespoke crates and packing solutions for the items. The crates that they designed and built were of such a high specification that the art handlers in the US who unloaded the crates remarked on their quality and standard.
“Naturally we were nervous about transporting some of the fragile items, such as the Bronze Age shield and our panel paintings which are vulnerable to vibration and environmental changes. But the packing and transportation was project managed and executed very well. Having a professional, knowledgeable dedicated team to work with was essential,” said Heather.
“Crown Fine Arts also project managed and handled the logistics ready for the transit to US.
“They handled the packing lists and managed the transit in two shipments to the cargo area of the airport. They managed the balance of the cargo for transit and handled the licencing for export, which is very time consuming and not something that we had the capacity to undertake in house.
“There were many logistical elements that the team were really helpful with, for example, some of our items required conservation treatment prior to transport. The team liaised with the conservators working off site to agree the collection and return the items in preparation for packing,” continued Heather.
Crown Fine Arts UK designed and developed crates and packing with bespoke sections for packing specific items with marked up internal packing to make re packing for subsequent moves during the tour easier.
“The company also undertook the travel arrangements for the couriers from the Society of Antiquaries who were travelling with the items, and crucially for us, arranged it so that we could be present at the airport to watch the building of the cargo pallets. This was really important to us.
Everyone we dealt with was helpful and professional. We were also impressed with the clean, high-tech vehicles which included state of the art cameras, environmental control and tracking. Overall we were very impressed by solutions that were devised to tackle the international loan, as well as the company’s ability to manage the logistics of this complex project,” concluded Heather Rowland.
