This beautifully carved figure was found half buried in the bed of the river Humber. Unfortunately the half exposed to the water had totally rotted away, leaving only the half preserved in the mud. Initial analysis was carried out by the York Archaeological Trust before final restoration by me. It was decided simply to conserve what remained, rather than re-construct what had not, and present the figure more as a relief carving. This involved stabilising the remaining timber, re-modelling missing sections of the face, arm, and other damaged details. The figure was then prepared with layers of traditional rabbit skin gesso, which can be smoothed to give the ‘porcelian demure’ of this classical figure and added lustre to the gold leaf. When people dismiss the work of ships carvers as rather naive, or folk art they should look at work like this.
