MARY: Minor old knocks and damages to the back of the canvas board at the edges and corners. Board flat and even. Finescale brittle age craquelure throughout, flat and stable. A little abrasion apparent in delicate half tones and glazes. Scattered minor retouchings to small losses and a few open cracks, including a patch to the right of the neck. Further small retouched losses to a scratch and a circular loss in the purple drapery. A little futher strenghtening overpaint including to the right of the chest, drapery bottom left, on the neck and a larger brushstroke down the nose.

Degraded old yellowed patchy lower varnish, partially removed in the face, chest and drapery but left as ingrained dark material in the troughs of paint and canvas weave in these areas. Upper varnish layer with a patchy surface gloss. A few wipemarks and white mould growth in cracks. Rubs to varnish at edges in a few places. A layer of surface dirt and accretions including a few fly spots.

JOHN: Edges and corners of the millboard knocked and distorted, visible at the face as slightly bent back corners and knocks at the edges with associated minor loss of paint and ground, and a larger crack to the right of the bottom edge and a small area of stable but raised cracks to the top right of this. A very lumpy surface, slightly gritty possibly due to there being a gritty, coarse ground. Apart from the cracks associated with the board, the paint layers are stable. There are a few patches of drying cracks in the background and black drapery lower right quadrant. Thick brown touches of overpaint to scattered minor losses, drying cracks and marks in the background. A little abrasion in delicate browns and half tones of the face. A campaign of brushy touches of overpaint to the hair and face (see uv images), likely to suppress abrasion and some of the old ingrained dirt and varnish. A thick old varnish layer, yellowed, partialoly removed in the lighter passages but visible in these areas as ingrained dirt and varnish in the troughs of the paint. Upper varnish layer has a sligthly uneven surface gloss, a little yellowed with a few milky/matt patches/splashes. Surface dirt and scattered surface accretions.