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Tagung 2015: Transparente Oberflchen auf Holz

Fachgruppe Mbel und HolzobjekteMit freundlicher Untersttzung

Freitag, 6.11.2015

11:40 Uhr

Zusammenfassung

Historic Finishes on 19th-Century Furniture

Paul van Duin

In the presentation the collaborative research project of the Rijksmuseum, the University of

Amsterdam and the Cultural Heritage Agency will be introduced, followed by the development

of the questionnaire and the search for original finishes in the 19th-century collection of

furniture of the Rijksmuseum.

The questionnaire developed by our research team is a very important contribution to

certify if a transparent finish is original. Only in this manner a representative sample for

further analysis can be taken. The questionnaire acts as a guide to look for evidence of

changes of a piece of furniture, by previous treatments, traces of glue, scratches from

sandpaper, replaced pieces of veneer or ornaments. Inspection is carried out with ordinary

and UV-light and magnifying glass. The team inspects the furniture together and tries to

answer all the detailed questions. It proved a very good, if time-consuming method to gain

good insight into the treatment history of the objects. It also showed us very clearly that

historic finishes hardly ever survived. The survey of the 19th century collection will be

discussed, resulting in the closer examination of several pieces with a possible original finish.

Three pieces, including a silver cabinet and a recently acquired writing desk by J.A.Hillebrandretain their historic finish, which was analyzed with py-GC-MS by Henk van Keulen.

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Left: Writing desk by J.A. Hillebrand, 1840-1845. Right: Silver cabinet by J.A. Hillebrand, 1844

Fotos: Rijksmuseum

Biography

Paul van Duin is head of furniture conservation at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam since 1989.

From 1984-1989 he was employed as furniture conservator by the British Royal Collection.His particular interest is in 17th-century Dutch marquetry furniture. He organised a Master

class on the construction of marquetry doors in the Rijksmuseum in 2010. He is a

coordinator of the Climate4Wood research programme of the Rijksmuseum, the Universities

of Technology of Eindhoven and Delft and the Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE).

He was project manager for the building and furnishing of the Ateliergebouw which houses

the Rijksmuseum conservation departments as well as the research department of the RCE

and the Master Programme in Conservation and Restoration of the University of

Amsterdam.

Kontakt

Paul van Duin

Rijksmuseum

Postbus 74888, 1070 DN Amsterdam

p.van.duin@rijksmuseum.nl

+31 (0) 206747105