Front, Before Treatment
Condition Before Treatment
Overall, the coat was in poor condition. It was covered in surface grime as well as moth casings and frass. Additionally, there are extensive losses to the fur and large tears were present near the bottom. The skin had become distorted from prolonged flat storage and was unsafe to handle. The wool elements had significant losses, and the beading was covered in grime.
Child’s Overcoat
Dolgan (tiajono) peoples, Siberia
ca. 1900
Penn Museum
Reindeer and wolverine skin with fulled wool and glass beads
This is a traditional child’s winter overcoat comprised primarily of reindeer skin, fur intact. The coat has long sleeves, and when worn, would likely hit slightly above the wearer’s ankles. It has a hood with ties and is decorated with a red, fulled wool, glass beading, and red and blue fulled wool tassels. Two separate strips of wolverine fur are stitched along the interior of the hood opening to create a fur edging that extends beyond the hood as well as a fur lining.
All of the flat seams are sewn using sinew, while the beading appears to have been completed using both a natural fiber thread and sinew.
Cleaning tests
This coat is decorated with beautiful beadwork. However, the beading is dirty and displays signs of alkaline deterioration, such as pitting and crizzling. In the video on the left, I take surface pH measurements using pH strips. The strips demonstrated that the glass is in fact exhibiting alkaline deterioration, thus cleaning is essential to slow the beads’ deterioration.
The beads vacuumed along with the rest of the coat. Here I also do tests using a polyurethane sponge, Vellux, and water:ethanol mixtures and pure ethanol on cotton swabs. The pure ethanol was most effective and will be used for the cleaning of all the beads.
Extensive Testing
This coat underwent extensive analysis to provide context for its manufacture but also influence treatment decisions. Analysis included X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to detect pesticide residues and mordants in the wool components, pH testing of the beads, collagen shrinkage testing, Fourier transform infrared-spectroscopy of residues and stains, and peptide-mass fingerprinting using MALDI-TOF for species identification of the skin components. The main skin was concluded to be reindeer, while the hood lining was concluded to be wolverine.
The technical analysis of this coat is summarized in Materia Journal of Technical Art History.
Condition After Treatment
The coat is now in fair aesthetic and structural condition. All components of the coat were cleaned. The body was humidified and reshaped, and all tears were mended. Loose beading was stabilized, and an internal support was created to prevent further creasing to the body of the coat.
Front, After Treatment
Images courtesy and copyright of the Evan Krape and the Penn Museum