In the Works at Winterthur……..

A series of articles about the current WUDPAC projects and activities taking place in the Winterthur Museum Research Building

In a previous article about one 2nd-year WUPAC student’s work on an ethnographic mask the variety of types and materials encompassed by the title of “objects” conservation was discussed. Mention must also be made of the variation in size encompassed by this same title. This is dichotomy of larger than life to smaller than imaginable is present within most disciplines of conservation such as murals several stories high to portrait miniatures; however, Kate Wight has chosen for one of her 2nd-year projects in objects conservation something that will truly test her patients and skills for working with items on the small side of the objects spectrum.

The tiny object in question is a nearly complete glass tea service which fits on a glass service tray that is roughly the size of a silver dollar coin. Made of Bohemian lamp-worked glass this object dates to c. 1820. Presumably an item of such size would have been either a child’s toy or a merchant’s sample. Not only is working with something so small and so delicate a task in and of itself the level of difficulty increases even more when it exists only in pieces the size of a dime or smaller. With the exception of the small service tray all of the pieces of the tea service are broken into what most would consider undistinguishable bits.

With the examination report and treatment proposal written by a previous WUDPAC student Wight has focused on the treatment of this object. The initial task in this process has been to which vessel and in what order all of these tiny pieces belong. In some cases the pieces are so small that Wight has to use a microscope to determine their mending order. Once all of the pieces had been fitted together and Wight was sure they were in their original orientation she used a conservation grade adhesive to mend together all of the pieces. After mending the lost pieces were compensated for using Japanese tissue paper fills. The paper fills allow for complete reversibility while at the same time providing the thinness and transparency necessary to imitate the original appearance. The completion of this project will leave Wight with an excellent portfolio item, plus some valuable small item experience, and the WUPAC study collection will have a recognizable tea set from what once was a small pile of tiny glass fragments.