I haven't received any museum-L messages for two whole days.  That is
unprecedented.  Is the service down or is everyone just on vacation.

Lucy

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Steve Henrikson
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 12:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Conservation Horror Stories

Here's my contribution to the esoteric subject of "conservation horror
stories involving chests"--the following occurred at a historical museum
where I volunteered back in the 1980s:

A curator was approached by a member of the public who had an old wooden
chest with important provenance. In hopes of identifying the type of chest,
the curator asked some detailed questions about the hardware. A few days
later, the owner walked into the museum and presented the curator with a
small cardboard box. Inside was all the brass hardware--carefully CUT from
the crest. The owner said that he had gotten the impression that the only
thing of value about the chest was the hardware, so he cut it off and took
the wooden pieces to the dump. Luck would have it that the pieces were still
there when the curator and owner went back for them. The fittings were
reunited with the chest, the saw kerfs filled with colored wax, and the
reassembled chest was donated. 

Steve Henrikson


-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of VivianLea Stevens
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 10:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Conservation Horror Stories

Sure....how about one from my family (which I'm only willing to share
because my Grandmother, who committed the conservation faux pas, is no
longer with us.)

As I was starting my graduate work in American Studies (concentration in
Material Culture), I decided to inquire about the fabled blanket chest that
had gone with my ancestors from England to Holland and then to America.  My
Grandmother, who I was visiting at the time, said, "Oh, that's the chest at
the end of my bed."  "But Grandmother, that's a plain wooden chest, given
the date you've told me, it most likely would have been painted, not
varnished/shellacked as yours is."  "Oh...it used to be painted a dark
hunter green and had initials and a date painted in white beneath the
keyhole.  I just couldn't live with that color so I had it stripped."  

After I stopped hyperventilating, realizing that my Grandmother had RUINED
the one piece of 18th century anything on either side of my family, I said,
"Grandmother, do you realize that was probably the original paint?"  "Oh, it
couldn't be," she said so confidently.  "But at any rate, when they
refinished it, I had them put the information on the bottom of the chest."

Well, I never thought anything about it, twenty years go by, and then the
chest came to me after her death.  I asked the movers to put the chest up on
my bed so I could see the initials and date.  To my extreme horror and
ultimate amusement...instead of seeing the information PENCILLED on the
bottom of the chest, it had been routed into the wood with a large
router!?!?  What could I do but laugh at that point?  At least I have the
chest, with its original hardware and key intact...even if I don't have the
original finish.  <sigh>

Hope this fed the need for a good horror story!?!
Best, VivianLea Stevens 

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