When I read the previous review of Harrison's performance I could feel the pain of the owner of the paintings as well as that of Mr. Harrison. Over the years having had a number of paintings restored by Mr. Harrison and visiting his shop in the process; I have been able to obtain a sense of the establishment's ideology. Mr Harrison views each piece of artwork or document as a sacred trust.
Leroy admits to having made errors. After all he is human, and art restoration is of the same ilk as that of medicine. Unfortunately, Mr. Harrison has not been able to bury his mistakes.
Who would you rather take your painting to, an individual who has had years of experience and made mistakes along the way, or someone with lesser experience and fewer errors. Don't know about you, but once I have made a mistake, I am usually less prone to repeat it.
I took a painting by a Chinese artist to him for a rework. It is a newer painting, but there were components that were not anotomically correct and it really bothered me. Leroy resisted correcting the problems. Some ethical bent about altering another artist's work. We compromised and he corrected the gross error, and I have had to live with the other problem.
Well, all this is for naught... LeRoy at age 79 has moved on, and he sold his business to his apprentice, Teresa Brunston.
Painfull dissapoinment
Mr. Harrison of Harrison's of London restored 4 of my Victorian portraits. Unfortunately the very poor quality of his restoration caused significant amount of permanent and visually distorting damages to 3 of the portraits and caused a substantial loss of their value.
4 conservators evaluated the paintings and reached the same devastating conclusion. The paintings have been damaged beyond any possibility for repair now or ever in the future. The harsh solvents used by Harrison's of London made the original paint layer too soft and sensitive to even very mild solvents. Any attempt to remove the protective varnish and the poor touch up paint in order to perform any type of repairs will also remove the original paint. There are numerous iron impressions, creases and wrinkles visible on the face of the paintings, one has a 10" scar right across the face and a badly repainted nose, the fur collars worn by two of the persons portayed have been totally wiped off. One painting was placed on the wrong side of the stretcher frame causing bulging and creasing on the painting.
Harrisons of London did not want to refund the money I paid for the restoration voluntarely, so the matter was taken to court. Although I won, it's a bitter sweet victory because my paintings are lost forever.
