Flag conservation

Flag conservation
Textile conservator, Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservation at work

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Conservation and Mounting for the Exhibition of an 18th Century Silk Officer's Sash

What do you do when you are asked to perform the seemingly impossible? You bring in the troops.

Much of conservation and museum work is about team work. Spicer Art Conservation, LLC recently completed a project that encompassed the conservation and mounting of 28 military artifacts. (you might be reading more about these artifacts in upcoming future blogs, and if you missed it, check out our recent blog that discussed just the hats that were treated in the project: "Conserving, Storing, and Mounting Hats").


18th century red silk officer's sash, conservation, historic garments, textile conservator Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservaton, Military artifacts, collectibles, antiques, display, restoration, repair, preservationSprang weave closeup of an 18th century red silk officer's sash, conservation, historic garments, textile conservator Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservation, Military artifacts, collectibles, antiques, display, restoration, repair, preservation

Left: The Silk Sash as it appeared before treatment.

Above: A close up of the weave structure of the Silk Sash. Sprang weave is unique, and while the sash may appear to be a knitted textile, upon close examination, it is not.






For this particular artifact, the curators from the owning institution desired that the Silk sprang-weave Officer's Sash would be mounted as it was worn by the officer. The difference between this request, and other more traditional mannequin based mounts, is that the sash was to be mounted alone, without any other artifact. Instead the sash would be displayed on a singular, custom designed and fabricated, three-dimensional mount that appeared to float in midair.

design of mount for 18th century red silk officer's sash, conservation, historic garments, textile conservator Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservaton, Military artifacts, collectibles, antiques, display
The sketch that showed the original display idea of the curators.

We were given a sketch of the concept (see above) and the rest was ours to design and execute. Luckily, we were working with the very talented staff of Brigid Mountmaking on this project. A member of their group, Deanna Hovey, came to the studio and we soon worked out an idea. The mount would meet the needs of the curator's display concept, and at the same time, would provide full support of the long sash. The mount would then be fabricated by Deanna and brought back to Spicer Art Conservation later for covering with show fabric, and a final fitting of the sash.

Textile conservator, Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservation, LLC and Mountmaker, Deanna Hovey of Brigid Mountmaking, discuss the design of the mount of an 18th century red silk officer's sash, conservation, historic garments, textile conservator, Military artifacts, collectibles, antiques, display, restoration, repair, preservation
Deanna Hovey (left) of Brigid Mount Makers and Gwen Spicer (right) of
Spicer Art Conservation, LLC work to design a mount to provide support
for the 18th century sash, and to meet the display needs of the exhibit curators.

A custom made mount to exhibit an 18th century red silk officer's sash, conservation, historic officer's sash, textile conservator Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservation, Military artifacts, collectibles, antiques, exhibit and display, restoration, preservation
Once Brigid Mountmaking fabricated the mount, it returned to
Spicer Art Conservation. The team worked to carefully mount the Silk Sash.
Above the photo shows how the sash is supported by first being folded
around one side of the "yin and yang" mount halves. The sash then is
supported at the rear (bottom of photograph above, and detail in photo below)
with another piece that holds it securely in place. The mount is supported
on ethafoam blocks to provide easy manipulation of the mount.

Custom mount for display and exhibit of an 18th century red silk officer's sash, conservation, mount making for historic garments, textile conservator Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservation, Military artifacts, collectibles, antiques, display, restoration, repair, preservation
The rear of the display mount has a fully supportive contoured
back support which holds the sash securely in place with overall
pressure between the soft surfaces. The long rod that sticks out
of the back will secure the mount on to the display deck.

The fully supportive custom made 3D mount for an 18th century red silk officer's sash, conservation, historic garments, textile conservator Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservation, Military artifacts, collectibles, antiques, display and exhibit, restoration, repair, preservation
The bottom of the mount shows the hardware and metal securing
components. Notice that all metal pieces are perfectly toned
to match the color of the show fabric. 

The sash was fully supported because of the method it was placed within and wrapped around the custom mount. But as that the actual duration of the exhibit was not fully known, additional anchoring stitches were placed at the waist. This was a safety feature to ensure that the effects of gravity would be lessened. Of course the stitches were carefully placed so as not to penetrate the yarns of the sash, rather they anchor loops of the stitches to the mount.

The after conservation treatment photograph of an 18th century red silk officer's sash, the sash was custom mounted and conserved, mount fabricated by Brigid Mountmakers, historic garments professionally and expertly conserved by textile conservator Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservaton, Military artifacts, collectibles, antiques, display, restoration, repair, preservation
The finished treatment. The Silk Sash is securely mounted in a free-hanging display.

The display of this sash was a different approach than the way other silk officer's sashes that have been prepared for exhibit at Spicer Art Conservation, LLC. These sashes are amazingly stretchy (thanks to the sprang-weave) and much like this one, appeared on American officer's waists as early as the Revolutionary War. In fact, we have treated officer's sashes from the War of 1812 and the American Civil War. If you would like to know more about officer's sashes, check out our blog post that discusses them in depth, particularly the characteristics of sashes from different eras and conflicts: "How do you know? Dating a War of 1812 Sash".

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Gwen Spicer is a textile conservator in private practice.  Spicer Art Conservation specializes in textile conservation, object conservation, and the conservation of works on paper.  Gwen's innovative treatment and mounting of flags and textiles is unrivaled.   To contact her, please visit her website.  

Look for Gwen's book, "Magnetic Mounting for Art Conservators and Museums",  to be released in 2018.


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