The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate current adverse attitudes to composition objects. It examines reasons for their appearance from a technical and an historical perspective. The stimulus for this research lay in the current dwindling stock of objects, most specifically picture frames and the tools used to create their applied compo decoration, the moulds. Objects have often been neglected because they were in poor condition, perpetuating adverse attitudes. These objects will soon disappear altogether if their historic value is not more widely recognised.  The aim of this reassessment is to influence curators and conservators with regard to present and future restoration/conservation policy for compo objects. This evaluation draws out reasons for conservation based on a hierarchy of value. A study of this kind inevitably combines approaches and content from conservation and design history. It recognises the increasing need for the interdependence of these disciplines, and the mutual professional recognition of dialogue between them. Analysis is weighted in favour of historical and documentary research, as opposed to practical or scientific research because the craft-based nature of compo making challenges the usefulness of such analysis. The time span under consideration is deliberately wide, to provide a more complete overview of the development of compo in Britain. Analysis and discussion draws on both objects and strands of research that are deliberately selective to illustrate the more common difficulties faced by curators and conservators in decision making. Chapters One and Two consider the history of materials and the techniques of production. Practical tests based on historical recipes disclosed the relative working properties and the contributions of the main constituents to given formulae. This assisted in the understanding of how compo developed, how its working properties vary and the level of skill required to make it. The small number of recipes recorded reflects a level of secrecy and misinformation within the trade that produced such a huge quantity of objects. Research revealed the surprisingly late introduction of machines specifically for frame-making (in the late 1860s) compared with those developed for carving wood; and also revealed evidence for the continued production of wooden moulds. Patents indicate that it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that machinery was capable of replicating many stages in the production of a basic picture frame. In short, machines only assisted hand-craft techniques. Chapter Three examines trade structure through specialist compo manufacturers like George Jackson & Sons. The evidence indicates that compo probably did make its batch production debut through a firm like Jackson’s in London, in a wide architectural context. However there is no contemporary evidence to link Jackson’s to Adam and it could have been one of many firms who first used composition in this country. The Jackson customer account books in particular indicate that the trade had made the change from carving to compo some years before 1805, at which point the trade seems to have been dominated by the production of frames. Account books also demonstrate that the physical properties of compo permitted and encouraged many divisions in the stages of production. Machine technology augmented the manual processes, adding another level of production to the existing set up. Eventually the small number of dedicated machine manufacturers seem to have put many of the smaller traditional producers out of business. Analysis of production levels indicates that they generally conformed to wider trends throughout the period. However, prices were initially very high, though cheaper than carving, challenging the view that batch produced objects were typically for mass markets at low prices. The stages of production in the manufacturing process were eventually cut to reduce prices, compromising quality even before the introduction of machines. The final chapter examines the way compo was marketed, deriving largely from retail literature. Early evidence indicates that it was both imitative and innovative, giving valued enrichment to objects up to the middle of the nineteenth century, only beginning to detract when quality began to decline. The research indicates the importance of the complex nature of production not hitherto appreciated; it is not a simplistic model of change from high quality carving to poor quality compo. It is only possible to understand this via an in depth study of the production process, which is further confirmed by retailing literature. Compo, hitherto dismissed by scholars, curators and often conservators as cheap imitation, lies at the heart of developments in the decorative arts that led to machine production in the nineteenth century. It is crucial to preserve examples of compo work and log their variety before this important phase in decorative art history crumbles before us. This study provides a basis from which decisions about the preservation of compo objects can be reached.

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