Objects Specialty Group Postprints Volume Thirteen 2006 Objects Specialty Group Postprints Volume Thirteen 2006 Compiled by Virginia Greene, Patricia Griffin and Christine DeRe Proceedings of the Objects Specialty Group Session June 19, 2006 34th Annual Meeting Providence, Rhode Island The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works This publication entitled Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Volume Thirteen, 2006 is produced by the Objects Specialty Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works. Cover photograph by Joe Rogers, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. © 2007 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://www.aic-faic.org TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword ………………………………………………………………………………………...1 Scott E. Fulton and Susan M. Rossi-Wilcox, “Send Them Out or Keep Them Here – The Dilemma of Loaning Harvard’s Glass Flowers”…………………………………………………2 Joe Rogers and Dale Benson, “48 Pieces: Reassembly of and Ancient Greek Marble Lion Using an Internal Armature with Reversible Mechanical Components”………………….…….17 Michael Belman, Abigail Mack and Shelley Sturman, “The 2003-2005 Treatment of Alexander Calder’s Last and Largest Mobile: Untitled (1976)”………………………………...45 Steven W. Dykstra, Donald Saff and Lee W. Badger, “Restoring the M.R. 1750 Public Clock: History, Analysis, Experimentation and Re-Creation” ………………………………………… 66 Gerri Ann Strickler, “Preserving the Mountain”………………………………………………...85 Julia B. Lawson, “ Conservation and Resurrection of Seven Clay Coffins from Nippur” …….100 Ellen Carrlee, “Conservation and Exhibit of an Archaeological Fish Trap” …………………..117 Howard Wellman, “Don’t Rock the Boat: Reconstruction and Mounting of a Waterlogged Dugout Canoe” …………………………………………………………………………………130 Tina March, Lisa Bruno, Hiroko Kariya, Ellen Pearlstein and Helen Stockman, “Conservation of Assyrian Reliefs at the Brooklyn Museum” ..….……………….…………...143 Clara Deck, “Conservation of Big Stuff at the Henry Ford – Past, Present and Future” ..….…168 From the Poster Session: Anya McDavis-Conway, Jakki Godfrey, Bruno P. Pouliot and Richard Wolbers, “Hair Consolidation and Treatment of an Insect-Damaged Dancing Hat from Sierra Leone”……….184 FOREWORD This is the 13th volume of Postprints published by the Objects Specialty Group (OSG). Collected here in print form are ten lectures and a poster presented at the OSG Session of the American Institute for Conservation Annual Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 19th, 2006. The theme for the session - Mounts, Armatures, and Structural Repairs - provided a forum for objects conservators to address the difficulties of repairing and safely supporting broken and fragile artifacts in any number of materials, sizes, and situations. The range of subjects and problems presented at the meeting was remarkable. At one end of the spectrum, Scott Fulton presented mounting strategies for housing the tremendously fragile glass filaments composing Harvard University’s collection of glass flowers. At the other, Tina March and Lisa Bruno discussed mounts and repairs on a series of massive gypsum Assyrian relief sculptures weighing several tons apiece. Solutions for armatures, like mounts, were equally varied and innovative. Joe Rogers and Dale Benson described the complex engineering and construction hidden within a fragmented marble lion from ancient Greece, while Julia Lawson, Ellen Carrlee, and Howard Wellman addressed difficult and unconventional problems raised by reconstructing and stabilizing large, but compromised, archaeological objects. Conservation treatments also ran the spectrum from the monumental to the microscopic: Michael Belman used innovative industrial materials to repair a giant Alexander Calder mobile, while in a poster by Anya McDavis-Conway et alia, consolidation of hair fibers was approached at the molecular level. Functioning objects raise other ethical and practical problems. Steve Dykstra’s solution to repairing the mechanisms in an 18th-century clock could only be documented using audio recordings and short films, while Gerri Strickler’s stabilization of an experimental, site-specific figural sculpture required a multi-phased, multi-pronged approach. In the final presentation, Clara Deck’s report on conservation of large industrial equipment drew together many of the issues raised throughout the day. On behalf of the OSG, I extend my thanks to all participants in the 2006 session. The hard work of speakers, authors, and session organizers made this contribution to the profession an outstanding success, as did the support and feedback by conference attendees and OSG members. In particular, however, my deepest thanks are offered to Virginia Greene, Pat Griffin and Chris DelRe, Postprints editors, who together shepherded the text into press. They captured this sharing of knowledge for posterity - without that final effort all record of the achievement would be lost. Thank you. Katie Holbrow, OSG Program Chair 2006 1 Fulton and Rossi-Wilcox AIC Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Volume 13, 2006 SEND THEM OUT OR KEEP THEM HERE? - THE DILEMMA OF LOANING HARVARD’S GLASS FLOWERS Scott E. Fulton and Susan M. Rossi-Wilcox Abstract The year 2000 marked a milestone in the history of the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants at Harvard University. This was the year that a selection of these intricate constructions, popularly known as The Glass Flowers, made a historic return trip to France, the first since their celebrated showing at the Paris Exposition of 1900. This paper will present an overview of the history of the Glass Flowers and their creators; the materials, techniques and methods of fabrication; and a brief discussion of the conservation of the collection, before broaching the topic of traveling these objects. Aside from the inherent conservation challenges and unique packing problems presented by the fragile models, there were unavoidable issues of compromise and decision-making between collections manager, curator and conservator. This paper touches on one international venue, the 2000 French National Millennium exhibition La Beauté in Avignon, the problems faced in packing and transporting a select group of the Glass Flowers, the lessons learned, and the subsequent successful outcome. The Creators and the Collection Around 1886 George Goodale, the director of the Botanic Garden of Harvard College, realized a need for an alternative to exhibiting perishable plants in the natural history museums being planned for Harvard University (Fig. 1). It was at this time that Goodale became familiar with the well known glasswork of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, a father and son lampworking team of Dresden, and their precise reproductions of invertebrates. Inspired by what glass could bring to a collection of botanic models for his department, he invited the Blaschkas to take on a small commission. The first group of models arrived in Boston later that year. Ultimately, the commission continued for 50 years, with the last models received at Harvard University in 1936. Currently about three-quarters of over 4300 individual models are on permanent exhibition in the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and the remaining portion is in storage awaiting various degrees of conservation treatment. Initially, when Harvard’s museum collections were used for teaching, the models served to supplement plant dissection in the botany labs. Today the Botanical Museum collections are no longer used for teaching, especially as the emphasis in teaching botany has changed from the classification of organisms to one weighted in favor of genetics and molecular analysis. The function of the Glass Flowers as a collection also necessarily changed from being thought of as a set of teaching tools that were potentially 2 Fulton and Rossi-Wilcox AIC Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Volume 13, 2006 replaceable, to becoming a world renowned tourist attraction possessing intrinsic value as irreplaceable art objects. In effect, they became emblematic treasures of the Botanical Museum and, in the context of an international exhibition such as La Beauté , they served as ambassadors for Harvard University (Piechota 2006). Figure 1. Centaurea cyanus, Bachelor Button with moth #761 (1913). Materials and Techniques of Fabrication With little information on the Blaschkas’ working methods available in the archival record, the major portion of our understanding of their techniques comes from consulting with present day flame-workers and glass specialists. Not surprisingly, the models were created from a combination of organic and inorganic materials. Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka used their knowledge of jewelry making to produce a copper wire understructure. Like a necklace, sections of glass tubing were fashioned into the likeness of stems and branches that were strung like beads on a central armature. The leaves and flower parts typically have a wire that is fused to the base with frit or glue