CONSERVATION

The Mazarin Chest Project

The Mazarin Chest Project was a major collaborative undertaking involving conservators, curators and scientists from the UK, Japan, Germany and Poland. Its focus was the V&A's Mazarin Chest, an exquisitely decorated piece of Japanese export lacquer made to the very highest of standards in Kyoto in the late 1630s or early 1640s.

The project had two main aims. The first was to develop an integrated approach to the conservation of urushi (lacquer) objects that respected both western conservation ethics, in which concern with the retreatability of objects is paramount, and Japanese conservation values, which seek to preserve the cultural continuity of objects by employing, as far as possible, materials and techniques similar to those used at the time of manufacture. The second was to apply this approach to the stabilisation of the chest, which had been subjected to a variety of western restorations, and whose condition had deteriorated over the centuries as a result of exposure to light and cyclical changes in temperature and relative humidity.

The choice of conservation treatments was informed by scientific research carried out at the V&A, the Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences and through partnerships with leading British and European universities. At the same time art historical research was conducted in order to further understanding of the circumstances of the chest's production and its subsequent history in Europe.

The project spanned four years, including planning, research and conservation. On completion of the main part of the project, the chest travelled to the Kyoto National Museum, the Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, with total visitor numbers of 209,977. In October 2009 , the Mazarin Chest returned to long term display in the Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art at the V&A.

The project was funded by the Getty Foundation, the Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO) and the V&A. The V&A is also grateful to the Japan Foundation and the Tobunken (Independent Administrative Institution, National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo). The latter played an invaluable role in advising on the parameters of the project, in providing training for V&A staff, and in sharing conservation and scientific research findings. The project was launched in 2004/2005 and was completed 2008.

More about the Mazarin Chest Project coming soon...