J.CAC VOLUME 22 (1997)
Chapman à jamais – Le traitement de conservation d’une inscription de 1759
On June 6, 1988, in the town of Saint-François, Île d’Orléans, near Quebec City, a fire devastated the historic church which had been built in 1734. Before beginning reconstruction, an architectural survey and an archaeological study were done. Thanks to raking light from the sun and the opportune visit of an architect, an inscription was discovered, engraved in a small section of stucco that had survived the fire: “David Chapman August the 26th 1759 Belonging to his Majestys Ship Neptune.” After preliminary consolidation of the stucco, which had been weakened by the fire, the stacco technique was used to separate the inscription area from the rest of the wall. Following subsequent consolidation in the conservation laboratory, a protective case was constructed that would permit safe display of the inscription. This article presents the different stages of the project from the removal on site, the consolidation in the laboratory, the details of the construction of the case, to the return of the inscription to the reconstructed church on October 5, 1995.
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