About Us
Primum Non Nocere is a sole proprietorship operated by Peter Humphrey. Mr. Humphrey is a self-taught and gifted restorer. He is a graduate of Princeton University and also has an MBA from Columbia University. He started by cleaning a few of his own paintings, then cleaned murals and paintings at The Tuxedo Club. Neighbors asked him to work on their canvases, and he has given them excellent results while having the satisfaction of bringing paintings back to their lost beauty.
"Primum Non Nocere" is Latin for First Do No Harm, the core concept in the Hippocratic oath for physicians. It is a good motto for a conservator.
This studio is not equipped for advanced conservation tasks, such as x-ray imaging.
What might you expect to pay? $80 is billed for the first hour, $70 for the second hour, and $60 for subsequent hours, plus materials. Time required is governed by the size of the canvas as well as the degree of cleaning. A canvas that suffers from years of accumulated oil and dirt, could clean up fast using a mild solvent. Darkened varnish, on the other hand, requires slow work with powerful solvents that are applied with cotton swabs followed by washing with solvent neutralizer so as to remove varnish without removing the original paint. Additional time is required for mending and reinforcement of torn areas. "Inpainting" to fill areas of missing paint requires careful matching of paints to achieve an invisible and seamless repair. Most customers have paid between $100 and $500, well below what the established conservation studios charge.
"Primum Non Nocere" is Latin for First Do No Harm, the core concept in the Hippocratic oath for physicians. It is a good motto for a conservator.
This studio is not equipped for advanced conservation tasks, such as x-ray imaging.
What might you expect to pay? $80 is billed for the first hour, $70 for the second hour, and $60 for subsequent hours, plus materials. Time required is governed by the size of the canvas as well as the degree of cleaning. A canvas that suffers from years of accumulated oil and dirt, could clean up fast using a mild solvent. Darkened varnish, on the other hand, requires slow work with powerful solvents that are applied with cotton swabs followed by washing with solvent neutralizer so as to remove varnish without removing the original paint. Additional time is required for mending and reinforcement of torn areas. "Inpainting" to fill areas of missing paint requires careful matching of paints to achieve an invisible and seamless repair. Most customers have paid between $100 and $500, well below what the established conservation studios charge.