Peter Van Geersdaele
British Museum conservator who made a plaster cast of the Sutton Hoo Anglo-saxon burial ship
PETER VAN GEERSDAELE, who has died aged 85, was the British Museum conservator who directed the making of a plaster cast of the Sutton Hoo ship from which a fibreglass replica could be made.
The Anglo-saxon clinker-built boat with all its treasure, thought to be the grave of King Raedwald of East Anglia, had been excavated in 1939 as war approached and its contents carefully stored in a London Underground tunnel for the duration.
The vessel itself, more than 80ft long and consisting of an impression in the sand with lines of rusty rivets, no wood having survived, was filled with bracken which rotted over the years to be covered by sandy soil.
Postwar, the British Museum had its hands full dealing with bomb damage, and although some of the Sutton Hoo grave goods were conserved (notably the helmet and shield) and put on display, no real progress was made towards full publication, apart from a handbook.
In the early 1960s, the Museum became embarrassed by a growing impression in the archaeological world that they were not actively working on publication and so a workforce was established under Rupert Brucemitford. In 1967 he and his team removed the infilling from the impression of the ship, which had sustained some damage but was still largely intact.
Bruce-mitford realised that it was crucial to record any evidence of a keel, and to see whether anything lay under the boat. However, to destroy during excavation the only surviving remains of an Anglo-saxon boat in Britain might be regarded as vandalism, although the alternative of preserving the shape in the ground seemed inconceivable. So it was decided that a mould should be taken of the vessel, as it lay in the ground, from which a fibreglass model could be made. Van Geersdaele, a conservator in Bruce-mitford’s department, was consulted.
Subsequently, with colleagues including the brilliant Nigel Williams, Van Geersdaele set about making a plaster of Paris mould of the impression at Sutton Hoo – by now with television cameras breathing down their necks. The mould was made over a period of three weeks in pieces approximately 3ft square fitted on the back with loops of metal tubing to act as lifting handles. These were then removed one by one and taken to a British Museum warehouse. Here they were re-assembled and used to make a fibreglass copy of the impression of the ship in the sand.
Though essential for documentation, the replica was not a pretty sight and never became an exhibit at the British Museum. It was subsequently transferred to the National Maritime Museum.
Peter Charles Van Geersdaele was born in Fulham on July 3 1933 into a family with roots in the Netherlands. After school, he studied at Hammersmith Technical College, which included work experience in the “cast department” of the Victoria and Albert Museum, before National Service in the RAF, stationed at Binbrook, Lincolnshire.
After his discharge he toyed with becoming a professional footballer and had a trial with Queen’s Park Rangers. But instead in 1954 he joined the “moulders’ shop” at the British Museum, where he was employed making replicas of classical sculpture.
His technical expertise soon came to the notice of the British and Medieval Department, who took him into their conservation section, where he showed particular skill with ceramics and in the restoration of the
14th century wall paintings from St Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster. He was involved in the lifting, and subsequent display, of a 13th century tile kiln from Clarendon Palace, Wiltshire, and made important contributions to other British Museum excavations, such as the Longton Hall porcelain factory and the Broadstairs Anglo-saxon cemetery. He also studied for a conservation diploma from the Institute of Archaeology of London University.
The success of the operation at Sutton Hoo resulted in Van Geersdaele assisting the National Maritime Museum in the recovery of another late Saxon boat from a drainage channel on the Graveney marshes in North Kent in 1970. This time, timbers were well preserved in waterlogged mud and the decision was taken to lift the boat timber by timber and endeavour to conserve it.
The ribs were removed first, but then it was decided to make a mould of the inside of the hull to ensure that a three-dimensional record was available when the time came to reassemble the timbers in the museum. Van Geersdaele again supervised the process.
In 1975, conservation throughout the British Museum was reorganised under a new management who did not recognise his potential. As a result, a year later Van Geersdaele and his wife and younger daughter (their elder daughter having just married) emigrated to Canada, where he accepted the post of assistant chief of archaeological conservation at Parks Canada.
In 1980, however, they returned to Britain where Van Geersdaele was appointed deputy head of conservation at the National Maritime Museum. The family moved to Woodbridge, Suffolk, a stone’s throw from Sutton Hoo. He retired in 1993 and was appointed OBE the same year.
In 2003 he was one of a group of pensioners who protested against a steep hike in council tax by Suffolk County Council, and the following year he was summoned to court for having insisted on paying his tax in 12 monthly instalments, rather than the required 10.
In 1955 Peter Van Geersdaele married Maura Bradley, who survives him with their two daughters.
Peter Van Geersdaele, born July 3 1933, died July 20 2018