Over the summer I’ve been helping out behind the scenes at the Cole Museum. We’ve been taking an inventory of some of the storage cupboards, and doing a little bit of conservation and cleaning along the way.
This display had been stored unwrapped, and had become rather damaged and dusty. The label says “Canis Familiaris – Cranial Vertebrae”, which is the bones of the head of a dog. There’s also, somewhat inexplicably, a little forelimb of a puppy attached too.
First of all I removed all the parts that could be safely removed from the board without damage. The red part is glued on, and the other pieces are held securely into place with pins. I then used a combination of soft brushes, cotton buds, tweezers and smoke sponge to clean off the worst of the dirt. The loose dust on the backing board was brushed into a museum grade vacuum cleaner.
These are the rest of the pieces, waiting to be cleaned. They’ve gone back into their cupboard again while I find out how to clean the dust off the bones without also removing the paint. The tube contains some tiny fragments that had broken off. This has been numbered, and will be kept with the rest of the display.
I’ve really enjoyed working on this little piece of conservation – although I have a sneaking suspicion that putting it back together again might be a little more difficult than taking it apart!