Daniel Crouch Rare Books selects RCL LED spotlights.
12.09.2011
Friday night saw the opening of Daniel Crouch Rare Books (www.crouchrarebooks.com), located on Bury Street, St James’s – London’s famous art dealing district. Daniel Crouch specialises in works from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries with a particular interest in antique atlases, maps and sea charts. The gallery – split between two rooms – hosts a number of exceptional pieces, including an example of the first printed map dating from 1475.
Daniel had seen RCL spotlights in a number of commercial galleries over the years so, when he came to open his own gallery with business partner Nick Trimming, he sought us out.
“I’d seen RCL’s spotlights on various dealers' stands over the years, including Masterpiece, and was impressed by their technology. I wanted to move to LED fixtures as I believe they’re the future. We’re a carbon neutral company and the energy saving aspects of LEDs appealed to us.”
LED technology has been around for a number of years but it is only recently that it has become a commercially viable alternative to traditional light sources. Projects using LEDs have tended to be in retail and hospitality environments and even then, they have often only been used for ambient lighting rather than accent or pinspotting.
The museum and gallery world has been hesitant to make the change. Lighting is critical when it comes to displaying art and the light source has a huge effect on how the artwork appears. It might be assumed that natural light would be the best type of light for viewing art; after all, most artists are trained in art schools flooded with natural light. However, natural light actually causes problems for art and especially for paintings and works on paper. The ultraviolet and infrared contained within sunlight can easily damage the pieces and cause them to fade. Traditionally incandescent sources, and more recently, halogen lights have been used. They are particularly popular for lighting oil paintings as they bring out rich colours such as red, orange and yellow.
But things are changing: 2011 has seen LED systems specified on a number of large, high profile projects. Both London’s National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery have recently made the jump to LED technology, which offers a number of advantages over traditional lighting methods. For a start, the ultraviolet and infrared elements that are so harmful to artwork are largely absent. Another key benefit of LED technology is long life. LEDs are expected to last 40,000 hours – ten times the life of a halogen lamp. This was another aspect that attracted Daniel.
“I got fed up with halogens. It seemed like I was replacing them every day. With RCL’s technology allowing me to focus the lights from the ground, and with the extended life of LEDs, I can throw my ladder away!”
For Daniel, RCL spotlights with LED technology seemed the logical choice. The ability to aim and adjust the brightness of the spotlights individually using a simple handheld remote control meant that the lighting could be changed quickly without the need to work at height. RCL’s spotlights are activated using the remote control’s built-in laser and can then be moved to the desired position and the dimming adjusted to the preferred level.
A total of 34 DR2 spotlights fitted with RCL’s LED head are in use at Daniel Crouch Fine Art. The LED head was designed around the need for a very smooth beam with long life, energy savings and a very high quality white light. The head is available in 8°, 11° and 24° beams and the power consumption is up to 66% less than the halogen equivalent. Unlike the products of some other manufacturers, the head is fully dimmable and cooled by a cold drawn natural convection heat sink. Cree LEDs were selected due to their high efficiency and excellent colour rendering.
RCL have supplied spotlights to a number of commercial galleries including, Philip Mould, Carlton Hobbs, Richard Green and Tomasso Brothers Fine Art. In addition, they supplied over 700 fixtures to exhibitors at this year’s Masterpiece art fair, a five-day event that brought together over 150 of the best known dealers in the art and antiques, including Daniel Crouch Rare Books. Most significant of all, perhaps, is the fact that Christies use RCL products in both their London auction houses with nearly 1,000 lights installed.
