The Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich has been referred to as the ‘Sistine Chapel of the UK’ and following a major conservation project the Painted Hall reopened to visitors in 2019. To accompany the reopening ORNC commissioned a set of handling objects to be housed in two ‘treasure’ chests.

The thirteen handling objects reflected motifs from the painted ceiling and ranged from objects to hold to objects to wear. They are listed below with brief descriptions of processes and materials:

Armillary sphere – hand crafted brass

Crown – hand crafted brass with acrylic gems, artificial ermine and a satin inner

Sword – hand crafted brass

Athena’s shield – cast resin with a specialist nitrate painted finish

Athena’s helmet – cast resin with a specialist nitrate painted finish

Copernican model – hand crafted brass with cnc etched sun face

Hourglass – oak casement and bespoke hourglass

Mirror – hand crafted brass with an acrylic mirror

Leo, zodiac plaque – cast resin with a painted finish

Masks – bespoke handles, CAD designed and 3D printed face-masks

Three hand made hats, four robes and three shirts in different sizes

The brief emphasised the need for ruggedness and longevity of use and specified the incorporation of a mechanism to enable the objects to be displayed when the chests were open and securely stored when closed. The design solution was an easily operated, hand cranked scissor lift system raising and lowering a display platform.

Painted Hall images by kind permission of the Old Royal Naval College