Father Charles Brandt shares his experience restoring Audubon’s Birds of America at local museum.
The COMOX VALLEY ECHO Tuesday, January 20, 2004 Restoring Audubon’s art
Comox Museum presents fascinating slide show and talk on local man’s restoration of rare book.
Learn about the restoration of the first volume of John James Audubon’s ‘Birds of America ‘ in a
special slide show and talk by well known conservator and naturalist Father Charles Brandt.
The event sponsored by the Comox Archives & Museum is on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m. a t the Filberg Gallery in Comox, below the Comox Library and adjacent to the Museum. (This is a slight change in venue from that previously announced).
John James Audubon published the double elephant folio edition of ‘Birds of America· between 1827 and 1838. This spectacular creation was the result of his travels across the continent studying, drawing, and painting the birds in their natural environment, in life-size and life-like poses. Only 134 sets of the four-volume folios are known to exist, five of them in Canada. In 1852 the Legislative Library at Fredericton NB purchased one of the sets. Father Brandt treated the 109 prints of Volume I in 1978-79 while working at the Atlantic Conservation Centre in Moncton NB. His restoration work has been recently featured in the summer 2003 issue of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book
Artists Guild newsletter.
Father Brandt has worked as a bookbinder and paper conservator for almost 40 years. He came to Vancouver Island in 1965 from New Mallory Abbey to join the hermit foundation on the Tsolum River. In 1967, he was ordained to the Catholic Priesthood by Bishop Remi J. De Roo in Canadian Martyrs
Church. Courtenay with a mandate of Hermit-priest. Previously, he had been a navigator in the U.S. Air Force, and received a Bachelor of Divinity degree and Bachelor of Science degree, studying ornithology at Cornell University. He has travelled to the U.S. and Europe to further his knowledge of bookbinding, and to learn paper and art conservation. ln 1980, he became chief conservator of the Provincial Archives of
Manitoba in Winnipeg. He now Lives on the banks of the Oyster River near Black Creek. In his talk he will also discuss types of paper and bring along a mould and deckle for making paper.
The Comox Archives & Museum is pleased to present this event of interest to artists, naturalists, historians and to CAMS members alike. Refreshments will be served. There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion. Admission is by donation, and all are welcome. In addition, the museum next door will be featuring a temporary exhibit of bird artwork, including drawings and paintings by Hamilton
Mack Laing, as well as bird photographs by Dr. Brad McPhee. The museum will be open the evening of January 28 from 6 – 9 p.m. for viewing. Parking is available at the Comox Mall across the street.