A stitch in time

A lace-making box donated to the museum in 1946 with little information required some forensic work to discover its provenance and help with restoration.

An important role of any museum is the conservation of objects in the collection.

The conservation of material cultural objects is painstaking, exacting and expensive. Any conservation project is!

The Whanganui Regional Museum has a lace-making box, made in India in the 18th century. It was donated to the museum in 1946, but beyond the donor's name, there is no provenance, or attached history, of why or how the box came to Whanganui. It was probably already in poor condition.

Workboxes became popular in the 18th century and examples like this were made in India and China for the large numbers of Europeans who visited or lived in Asia.The workbox is made mostly of sandalwood and of several other native Indian woods. It has decorative inlays (marquetry) of bone, pewter and ebony. Marquetry is notorious for peeling and lifting off base surfaces. This can be caused by day-to-day use and handling, moisture, fluctuating temperatures and warping of the base material. By the turn of the 21st century the lace-making box had serious deterioration issues. There was significant loss of bone, pewter and ebony inserts and surface lifting and cracking. Time for action!

A conservation project was undertaken by Katja Sillanpaa, a conservation intern at Te Manawa Museum in Palmerston North. From Finland, Katja was in New Zealand for two months, specifically to work on inlays, and the box was the perfect project to test and develop her skills.

The project involved restoring all the missing pieces of pewter, bone and ebony to protect fragile edges and stop more pieces from falling off. The aim was to avoid air, dirt and moisture from finding their way beneath the inlaid surfaces, which would cause more damage. The missing pieces were replaced with the same materials when possible, or water-soluble modelling clay which is easily removed if necessary.

The repairs concentrated on regluing the separating layers and the bubbled exterior surfaces. Tests done on the original glues found that they were made from animal products. To be consistent in the use of materials in the restoration, a combination of glues made from rabbit skin and fish were used.

The glued pieces were clamped with heated perspex, used because it is transparent and the conservator could make sure that all the tiny bits were in their right places when the glue dried.

Once the areas of loss had been filled they were painted to match. Again, for consistency, this involved testing to see what types of dyes were originally used.

Finally, the workbox was cleaned, millimetre by millimetre, with a cotton swab, a solution of tri-ammonium-citrate, the occasional dollop of saliva and a dentist's aspirator vacuum. Saliva is an excellent cleaning solution because of its slightly acidic nature. It is deemed a valuable and valid chemical in the conservator's toolkit.

The restored lace-making box went on exhibition for two months to show off the work and the process. It was then returned to its specially built padded storage box and placed into a dark, cool storage room. It is taken out occasionally for use in exhibitions or for researchers, for a limited time. Heat and light exposure, especially for prolonged periods, cause damage to objects; this is why museums rotate their collection objects and refresh their exhibitions. Libby Sharpe is curator at the Whanganui Regional Museum