ABSTRACT
Collaborations are an essential part of the conservation community’s vitality, occurring as intra-institutional casual conversations to inter-institutional formal consultations. In 2011, the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) acquired a Thomas Hope (1769–1831) gilded settee, and in 2014 The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) acquired a Hope gilded bench. A chance curatorial research inquiry revealed that both institutions were installing new British Galleries in 2020. The resulting cross-institutional collaboration between the curatorial and conservation staff was born, with each institution bringing different resources to the shared goal of period-appropriate upholstery. Curators provided historical documents, comparable objects and Hope’s drawings, while conservators provided textile and upholstery skills. The CMA’s settee’s original red wool fragments facilitated weave structure and dye colourant analysis, with the The Met’s extant red wool fibres connecting the two objects historically. The conservators’ analysis guided the reproduction textile processes; outside specialists provided scientific analysis and textile fabrication expertise. Unexpectedly, each curator chose a different reproduction showcover dye class. Most upholstery conservation literature centres on treatment collaborations. In contrast, this case study focuses on the decision-making processes themselves and collaborations that informed the treatment plans, enriching both institutions’ knowledge and skill sets, and resulting in highly successful and complementary presentations.
