Plowden & Smith, in partnership with Norfolk Museums Service, has been shortlisted for the 2019 Museums + Heritage Restoration or Conservation Project of the Year award. This prestigious industry award nomination comes as a result of complex conservation work carried out on a seventeenth century carved oak statue of Samson, one of the city of Norwich’s most iconic landmarks.
This lengthy project, began back in 2013 when Norfolk Museums Service approached Plowden & Smith to reveal the original finely carved appearance of Samson, by removing a thick shell of accumulated paint layers, and conserving the oak carcass to make Samson structurally sound for public display.
Samson would go on to spend four years in the Plowden & Smith studio, during which time he was worked on by a number of specialists, including wood and decorative arts conservators.
With this award nomination, Plowden & Smith and Norfolk Museums Service join a shortlist that includes English Heritage, the Old Royal Naval College and St Albans Museum; and projects that include the Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens.
Samson in the Plowden & Smith studio before treatment
Samson’s finely carved detail was revealed through painstaking paint removal
The Museums + Heritage Awards
Now in its seventeenth year, the Museums + Heritage Awards celebrates innovative and ground-breaking initiatives from museums, galleries and heritage visitor attractions across the UK and overseas.
The Awards shine a spotlight on the diversity of the museums sector, with nominations going to both national museums and one-room volunteer-run museums, iconic buildings and monuments to the great outdoors, all of which have an equal opportunity of winning one of fourteen awards
The Museums + Heritage Awards are judged by a panel of the sector’s leading lights who are united in their quest to seek out the very best of the best.
The winners of all fourteen categories will be announced at a ceremony in May.