National Museums Liverpool Blog - Gemma

The conservation of the Chinese junk from Swatow is now complete. Being such an interesting project, I will briefly share the treatment processes which have transformed a dirty, unstable model, back to its original beauty.

Firstly the hull and wooden components required cleaning. The model was vacuumed to remove any loose dirt on the deck and inside the bulkheads. After testing to find the safest, and most effective cleaning materials, the hull was cleaning using detergent in deionised water, which made a huge difference to the models appearance, as the shine of the wood oil can now be appreciated. The painted surfaces on the model were carefully cleaned using saliva, which is a surprisingly effective cleaning material.

The sails were the most complicated area of the model to treat. The materials being so fragile, and already greatly damaged meant that careful consideration needed to be taken to make sure they were strong enough to be put back onto the masts. So after much thinking, testing, and asking for advice, the treatment was as follows:

The sails were vacuumed, using a Museum vac (small specialist vacuum for museum objects), and a small paint brush to carefully dislodge the dirt away from the surface. I decided to only use dry cleaning methods, as water could cause the plant materials to swell. Erasers are a good way to remove dirt from paper like materials, but it would have been dangerous to the caning to rub the surface. Therefore I used a scalpel to slice up the end of an eraser to make a flexible brush, which was much gentler on the sails surface and removed the dirt well.

Then for the repairs. Japanese paper, roughly the same thickness of the plant material, was painted using acrylic paint to match the colour of the sails. This was then adhered to the edges of the breaks using wheat starch paste. To replicate the missing caning, strips of the Japanese paper were cut and painted to match. These were then attached to the original and woven in the same way on both sides, an extremely tricky job! These repairs not only improved the sails visually, but strengthened them enough to be put back onto the model. Once the rigging was repaired, the treatment was completed and the junk can once again be appreciated as a fascinating ship model.

Ship models have been made for centuries, representing changes in style and function of ships and boats, all around the world, making them such interesting objects! My current project in ship and historic model conservation illustrates this point well, as it is a model of a Chinese junk. A “junk” is a ship from China, and as you can see they are most unlike the European ships we are used to seeing. This project represents a challenge as the historical context of objects is an important consideration when conserving objects, and I had no knowledge about junks prior to starting the project.

 Firstly some interesting information I found out about junks of this particular type. The style and shape of the junk shows that it is a vessel from Swatow in the south of China. It is unknown when the model was made, as junks remained mostly unchanged throughout the centuries. Whilst they may look crude in comparison to their European counter parts, Chinese junks were perfected for their purpose and therefore did not need modification. Most junks were highly decorated, painted with pictures and symbols. A common decoration can be seen on the model, of eyes either side of the hull, called the oculus. This can differentiate between types of junk, as when the eyeball is set low in the white of the eye it suggests a fishing vessel, and when looking straight ahead a trading vessel, to see distant peril.

At first glance I thought that the crusty substance between the wooden planks was some sort of build-up of dirt, but after research I realised that this represented caulking;  which is where the Chinese mix lime , hemp and wood oil (known as chunam), and use this mixture to fill the gaps between the planks to prevent any water getting in. Wood identification revealed that the hull of the model was made from a type of native pine, and the masts from a hard wood. The wood is coated with t’ung oil, which is a hard yellow wood oil which was used to make the real life junks waterproof.

Another special characteristic of junks is the sails. What makes them unusual is the battens of bamboo which run horizontally along the sail cloth, usually mat. These battens keep the keep the sail flat, and give the sail great strength. The model of junk that I’m working on has very rare sails made from plant material and caning with rattan, unlike any other junks in the collection. Unfortunately these sails are in very poor condition, with holes and breakages that mean they are too fragile to be hung from the masts on the model. Therefore they present quite a challenge to conserve them successfully.

To be continued…

My name is Gemma and I am a conservation intern at the National Museums Liverpool. I am here on a year long internship in Ship and Historic Model Conservation, funded by ICON (Institute of Conservation) and the Heritage Lottery Fund. As I am now nearly half way through my internship, I have had many interesting and exciting projects to work on which I would like to share, so I will put regular updates on the blog.

Unsurprisingly, model conservation is a very specialist branch of conservation and so far I have learnt many new conservation treatments and crafts skills to conserve and repair models, as well as getting the chance to make some of my own boat models. Historic models, far from being similar objects, can be made from a huge range of materials, which makes each project fascinating and exciting to uncover the models history!

One of my recent projects was the conservation of a ship model of a fishing boat from Rye, the “Water Lily” (Accession number: L1963.17.4). It is a beautifully made model, complete with a planked deck, fittings, fully rigged and with silk sails.  It was in relatively good condition, but it was a little dirty and some of the green paint on the hull had flaked off. I began the treatment by vacuuming the surface using a Museum vac over mesh; gently brushing the sails to dislodge dirt. To remove the dried on dirt a small amount of detergent in deionised water was effective, applied with a cotton wool swab. I decided not to wet clean the sails, as this can have repercussions with shrinkage etc, so I used a smoke sponge (vulcanized natural rubber) to gently lift the dirt off the surface. Then all that was left to do was retouch the losses in paint using acrylic paint, which can be easily detectable and removed.

The model is not required for display at the moment, but it has been carefully wrapped to be placed back into storage, where it will remain clean and happy for many years to come.