Objects Specialty Group Postprints Volume Fourteen 2007 Objects Specialty Group Postprints Volume Fourteen 2007 Compiled by Virginia Greene, Patricia Griffin and Christine DelRe Proceedings of the Objects Specialty Group Session April 19 and 20, 2007 35th Annual Meeting Richmond, Virginia The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works This publication entitled Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Volume Fourteen, 2007 is produced by the Objects Specialty Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works. Cover photograph by Franko Khoury. © 2008 by The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works. The papers presented in this publication have been edited for clarity and content but have not undergone a formal process of peer review. This publication is primarily intended for the members of the Objects Specialty Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works. Additional copies of this publication are available for purchase by contacting AIC. American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works 1156 15th Street, NW • Suite 320 • Washington DC, 20005 (202) 452-9545 • fax (202) 452-9328 • [email protected] http://aic.stanford.edu AIC Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Vol. 14, 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword …………………………………………………………………………………………1 Object Lessons: The Politics of Preservation and Museum Building in the Early 20th Century …………………………………………………………………………………………..3 Sanchita Balachandran From Delicious to Not Quite Right: Subtleties in Discerning the Authenticity of African Art ……………………………………………………………………………………4 Stephen Mellor Thermoluminescence Dating for European Sculpture: A Consumer’s Guide …………….32 Jane Bassett Only Time Will Tell: Examination and Analysis of an Early German Watch …………….47 Meg Loew Craft Refining the Database for White Marbles: Isotope Analysis of 18th Century Marble Busts by Jean-Antoine Houdon ………………………………………………………65 Katherine A. Holbrow From Fake to Fabulous: Redeeming Fakes at the Walters Art Museum …………………..90 Terry Drayman-Weisser Altered States: Henri Matisse’s Sculpture Aurora …………………………………………110 Ann Boulton “Discovering” a Medieval Candlestick in the Collection of the Walters Art Museum …..130 Julie A. Lauffenburger Faking Pre-Columbian Artifacts …………………………………………………………….146 Catherine Sease Fabricating the Body: The Anatomical Machines of the Prince of Sansevero ……………161 Lucia Dacome and Renata Peters 3D Scanning of Deer Stones on the Mongolian Steppe ……………………………………..178 Harriet F. (Rae) Beaubien and Basiliki Vicky Karas A New Method for Cleaning Marble ……………………………………………………… 197 Kory Berrett, Virginia Naude and Richard Wolbers Treatment of a WPA Era Topographical Map of the State of Louisiana …………………212 Shelley Reisman Paine, James Bernstein, Richard Wolbers and Mary Zimmerman AIC Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Vol. 14, 2007 FOREWORD The 14th volume of Postprints produced by the Objects Specialty Group includes papers presented on April 19th in the morning ADG session and at the all-day OSG session on April 20th at the 2007 AIC annual meeting in Richmond, Virginia. The first ever Archaeological Discussion Group special half-day session was organized by Howard Wellman and included eight papers on the theme of Illicit Trade of Archeological Objects. The following day fourteen papers were given at the Objects session primarily on the general meeting theme of Fakes, Forgeries and Fabrications, although several papers outside the theme were also presented. Perhaps due to the fact that most of the speakers invited to participate in the ADG session were not conservators, this group did not submit written versions of their papers for the Postprints with the exception of Sanchita Balachandran who submitted an abstract about the removal of Chinese wall painting to the Fogg Art Museum in 1924. It is unfortunate that this first ADG session will have no better written record. Twelve of the papers presented the following day at the OSG session are included in this volume. Of the two missing Carol Grissom preferred to submit her paper, A Plaster Gladiator, Battered but Still Beautiful, to a professional journal read by curators. The paper, A Progress Report on the Oceanic Galleries Reinstallation Project at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, by Amy Jones, Beth Edelstein and Linsly Boyer was not submitted due to time constraints. The enthusiastic response to the topic of fakes and forgeries, evinced both by the number of unsolicited proposals received and by comments of meeting participants indicate that this topic could and should be presented on a regular cycle at AIC meetings, perhaps once every five years or so. Although the papers in the OSG session covered a lot of ground including the consideration of fakes in the especially difficult areas of African and Pre-Columbian art as well as in the decorative arts and sculpture and medieval and Renaissance art, there is clearly room for much more. Highlights included Jane Bassett’s practical assessment of the use of thermoluminescence dating for European sculpture during the past 22 years at the Getty Museum as well as Katie Holbrow’s report on her study of the quarry provenance of Houdon’s marble busts. The important role of connoisseurship in detecting forgeries was emphasized in several papers. The range of materials covered was broad: bronze, terracotta, marble, wax, silver and gold, enamel, wood and plaster yet many other materials were not addressed. It became clear that there is a large gray area populated with objects that are not intentional fakes yet can’t be considered authentic either. This whetted the appetite of some participants for further opportunities to address fakes and forgeries. Room was made in the program, however, for papers outside the theme. Annual meetings should allow a forum for presentation of current studies or projects regardless of theme. Conservators who are excited about their current work should be encouraged to present it in a timely fashion before the enthusiasm wanes. Thus, papers are included here on a new method of cleaning for marble, the treatment of a large topographical map and the documentation of endangered stela in Mongolia with computer models. Many thanks to Howard Wellman for his good work organizing a terrific ADG session that should 1 AIC Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Vol. 14, 2007 be a model for the future. Helen Ingalls was invaluable for moral support. Sadly, this is Virginia Greene’s last volume as Postprints editor. She has been ably assisted by Pat Griffin and Chris Del Re and therefore leaves us in good hands. The OSG owes an enormous debt to Ginny for all her time and talents. She will be missed. Ann Boulton, OSG Program Chair 2007 2 AIC Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Vol. 14, 2007 OBJECT LESSONS: THE POLITICS OF PRESERVATION AND MUSEUM BUILDING IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY Sanchita Balachandran Abstract The preservation of cultural property is never a neutral activity. The question of who is to possess, care for and interpret artifacts is highly politically charged, particularly when cultural property is acquired or removed under imperial or colonial rule. This paper examines how preservation was used as a justification for the removal of not only movable artifacts but also pieces of immovable archaeological sites, and was therefore an essential tool in building museum collections. This study focuses on a collection of twelve wall painting fragments from the site of Dunhuang, China, which were removed by art historian Langdon Warner in 1924 for the Fogg Art Museum (now the Harvard University Art Museums.) The removal process resulted in significant damage to some of the painting fragments as well as to the site, calling into question what is preserved— an intact ancient artifact or an ancient artifact scarred by and embedded with its modern collection history? How do pedagogical institutions such as museums grapple with unsuccessful examples of preservation? This article also describes the early conservation efforts of the Fogg’s Department of Technical Research, and considers the contradictions in the conservation practices of Rutherford John Gettens and George Leslie Stout. Drawing from the Harvard collection as an example, this paper discusses the contradictions of early preservation ethics in China, and comments on the legacies of such policies for museums with these entangled objects as well as the sites from which they were originally removed. Published in the International Journal of Cultural Property, Volume 14, Issue 01, February 2007, pp 1-32. 3 Mellor AIC Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Volume 14, 2007 FROM DELICIOUS TO NOT QUITE RIGHT: SUBTLETIES IN DISCERNING THE AUTHENTICITY OF AFRICAN ART Stephen Mellor Abstract The nature of African art – its intended use, its intrinsic value within its culture of manufacture, its interpretation as ‘genuine’ by Western definitions, its route from maker, through runner and dealer, to collector, the impact of colonialism – can make declarations of authenticity complex. “Made and used within a traditional cultural group” and “void of the intent to deceive” are long- standing parameters for authenticity. However, nuances in form and condition that reflect cultural dynamics and collection history need to be considered, as well. This paper discusses the formation of collections that can be referenced for provenance and pedigree information, reviews, by example, the limitations of traditional definitions of authenticity, and presents