AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

This poster aims to take a closer look at the materials and techniques used in the creation of Tibetan furniture. This understudied area of East Asian furniture production has been the focus of only one English-language conservation publication despite pieces being held in many collections throughout the United States. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s group of Tibetan furniture forms includes approximately 30 pieces of furniture in large part drawn from the Hayward Family Collection. The Hayward Family seeded significant works throughout other major collecting institutions.

As part of the EU Horizon 2020 GREENART project (https://www.greenart-project.eu/), several pieces of furniture were selected for technical study, with a particular focus on their original paint stratigraphies and later-applied coatings. The poster will share preliminary findings from these pieces with an emphasis on the elaborately painted and gilded surfaces. The primary case study presented will be Altar Table with Dragons and Auspicious Symbols (https://collections.lacma.org/node/214797) which includes several colorants, metallic flakes and leaf, and raised grounds. Samples were collected from this group of objects. Several analytical techniques (e.g. SEM/EDS, FTIR, XRF and Raman) were used to help characterization of the pigments and organic binders.

Many of the objects in the LACMA collection exhibit tacky, darkened coatings which both obscure original surfaces and make storage difficult. It is hoped that this poster can serve as a jumping-off point for conversation around Tibetan furniture with the end goal of promoting greater understanding between both conservators and those with traditional source community knowledge. This study will provide a foundation for the eventual design and implementation of sympathetic, nuanced conservation interventions.