Exhibit Sneak Peek

A sneak peek at one of the first objects being treated in our Conservation Lab for the upcoming exhibit Resetting the Table: Food and Our Changing Tastes. 

This colorful coffee pot is constructed from an interesting combination of materials: A body of glazed ceramic ingeniously combined with a copper alloy spout, and a handle and lid decorated with glass beads and held together with a plaster-based material.

When the coffee pot arrived in the Lab, we followed our usual protocol for documenting conservation treatments. The coffee pot was photographed and a conservation report was added to the Museum’s database to establish its condition prior to any cleaning or conservation treatment. The coffee pot before being treated:

Material analysis was then carried out using a portable Bruker Tracer X-ray fluorescence (XRF) device to identify elemental composition. What’s XRF, you ask? It’s a non-destructive method for better understanding the material composition or construction of an object and helps our conservators to identify the safest cleaning and treatment plan. XRF revealed that the copper alloy is brass and contains copper, zinc, and lead; the blue glaze on the ceramic is a leaded glaze containing silica, calcium, lead, and a small amount of cobalt to create the blue color. The fill material was shown to be calcium based with some silica and sulfur.

With this information in hand, a treatment plan can be developed. For the coffee pot, treatment included surface cleaning with a soft brush and vacuum, followed by aqueous (water based) cleaning of the glazed ceramic and glass beads with lightly dampened swabs using deionized water. The interior and bottom of the coffee pot were left untouched to allow for future analysis of residues that might be left from the object’s use. Metal sections were cleaned with acetone and some greasy debris on the ceramic was also reduced with acetone. A small loss was filled with Modostuc, a calcium carbonate-based fill material, and in-painted with acrylic paints. In-painting is used to cover the fill material so it matches the rest of the object’s surface, but is always reversible so it can be removed in the future without damaging the object. The plaster fill material was consolidated with 10% B-72 in acetone along cracked and crumbling areas. 

The coffee pot after treatment:

As a final step, a supportive tray was made to hold the coffee pot, securing it for safe transit when it is moved into our gallery for installation. 

Coffee pot, Syria, before 1900
Collected by C.M. von Roth
20-33-60/D1465

Author: Judy Jungels, Senior Conservator