Tram Lights

I recently treated a tremendous set of 2 union jack Tram lights- these were  made to be mounted to the sides of the No.17 double decker tram during Peace celebrations in 1919 and for the Royal Visit in 1920.

They were each fabricated in large rectangular wooden board formats. Their front surface used  wooden frame profiles designed and nailed  to the base  in a Union Jack painted lay-out using conforming red, white and blue paint . Corresponding red, white and blue bayonet mounted lightbulbs were inserted through holes in the base boards and their  connected wire circuitry protruded through the rear to allow for what would have been a spectacular illuminated effect from each tram side.

All the paint previously applied and adhered to each lightbulb  surface was seriously fragile, embrittled and peeling away from the underlying glass. Both the painted surface the wood  and glass bulbs was significantly dirty with ingrained and loose dirt.

This paint surface needed to be cleaned and stabilised concurrently amounting to an arduous and  difficult treatment  consisting of  research into types of appropriate consolidants that resulted in no or little  change to the paint surface  in terms of colour , texture or  gloss.

Easier said than done and all in a tight timeline too!