Condition Audits
Historic venues make great film and TV locations, and filming can provide venues with valuable income and publicity.
Spencer & Fry understands the restrictions of the historic properties, as well as the needs of a production crew. Working in partnership with venue staff and location managers, we negotiate ways of making sure the shoot is a rewarding experience for all and doesn’t damage historically important interiors and objects.
Film productions include: Transformers: The Last Knight, Victoria and Abdul, Crooked House Wonder Womanand Phantom Thread.
TV productions include: The Crown(Netflix), Royal Recipes (BBC), Taboo(BBC), Action Team(ITV), and Trust(FX).
Looking after historic collections can be daunting, and sometimes it is difficult to know where to start. We can help identify the risks and prioritise solutions.
Spencer & Fry’s approach to planning collection care includes:
• Auditing the condition of objects in the collection
• Assessing the risks to your collection caused by agents of decay
• Prioritising pragmatic actions that can be implemented over time to improve collection care
• Producing a Collection Management Plan (CMP) for owners of artefacts exempt from inheritance and capital gain taxes
Clients that we have worked with include: Deans Court, Blenheim Palace and Farringford House.
Spencer & Fry can carry out condition audits and risk assessments for organisations applying to the Government Indemnity Scheme (a low-cost alternative to commercial insurance) for coverage of collections to be publically exhibited.
As part of her role at English Heritage, Claire assessed historic objects given in lieu of tax on behalf of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). She therefore has experience and knowledge of conditional exemption and undertakings requested by HMRC.
“Thank you so much Claire. Thank you for your guidance over the last few days, Mary’s also. We all feel we have benefitted enormously from your visit and it was such a pleasure to meet you both.”