J-M. Terrier Conservation and Restoration, Paris, 2015.

Some of the organic pigments used in the making and conservation of Bhuddist manuscrit miniatures and Thangkas.

The Jean-Michel Terrier Conservation Studio specialises in the conservation of South Asian and South-East Asian Bhuddist artefacts.
Located in the heart of Paris, they work with private collectors on artefacts made of paper, textile, and wood – such as Thangkas and devotional effigies and manuscripts.

Manuscript cover, central Tibet, 16th century.

Bhuddist miniature image re-integration. 

A Buddhist Tibetan manuscript fragment on Lokta paper, dated to the 12th-13th century.

The owner of the piece wanted the fragmented miniature restored to make the lower half legible but ‘weathered’.

To recreate the area of loss I studied existing examples of these miniatures and the iconography of Prajñāpāramitā to produce facsimiles.

I infilled and repaired structural damage using contemporary Lokta paper fragments before in-painting the lost image. The new edge of the image was then distressed to reinforce the idea that it was the fragmented left half of a manuscript page which would have been flanked by the corresponding sutras.

Undertaking this treatment clearly reinforced the distinctions between conservation and restoration, particularly in the use of contemporary fragments and pigments for the repairs and reconstruction of the support to extend the existing image to seem nearly complete.

Whilst technically reversible many of the steps taken to restore the image were not necessary to it’s stabilisation or preservation, going far beyond ethical conservation practice and into restoration.