Care of cloaks at Auckland museum

Tu Tangata, Issue 25, 1 August 1985, Page 46

Care of cloaks at Auckland museum

By Gerry Barton

Since the establishment of a conservation department at Auckland Museum in November 1981 a considerable amount of conservation and restoration work has been carried out on Maori taonga. Among the objects treated have been cloaks of all types.

Care of cloaks can be divided into two categories: cleaning and mounting considerations for cloaks which are to go on display in the public galleries; and cleaning and storage considerations for those cloaks which, although accessible to the public, are kept in storage away from the open areas at the Museum. There are over 300 cloaks in storage as well as several dozen on display. The oldest in the collection dates back to the early years of the 19th century and their condition ranges from strong and clean garments to others which, through age and inadequate storage before passing into the Museum’s care, are dirt stained and fragile.

Care of displayed cloaks Cloaks to go on display undergo a standard procedure before being placed in their display case. First a condition report is made whereby the condition of all parts of the cloak kaupapa or flax body, feathers, taaniko and any other materials used in its creation are carefully examined and the details written down in a file made for that particular cloak. Photographs, including close-up shots of particular areas of deterioration, are taken at this time. Once the condition of a cloak has been ascertained possible treatments can be considered before one is decided upon which will allow the cloak to be displayed to its best potential.

The level of cleaning any particular cloak will undergo depends on factors such as what materials it is made from, how dirty and dusty it is, and what experience the conservator has in dealing with old textiles. Considerable care has to be taken with old textiles and careful, considered cleaning requires a knowledge of the numerous techniques available to a conservator. Also a healthy respect for the frailties of the cloak and of the mechanical and chemical stress limits to which one can subject an old textile is required by a conservator contemplating the cleaning of cloaks.

The general cleaning programme is: 1. Vacuum cleaning through mesh. This is standard practice and is carried out by laying over the cloak a plastic coated wire mesh screen with mesh dimensions of about 2-3 m and vacuuming through it. The mesh per-

mits dirt and dust to be sucked from the cloak but does not disturb loose feathers, flax fibres, dog hide and hair, or fraying taaniko or wool decorations all of which are held in place by the weight of the mesh. This is all the cleaning some cloaks will require and an ex-

ample of this level of cleaning can be seen with the feather cloaks on display in the Maori Court. 2. For other cloaks, however, vacuum cleaning is just the first stage, and washing will be required if the cloak is to look its best and at the same time sufficiently dirt-free to be unattractive as a home for insects.

Textiles when wet lose about 45% of the strength contained within their fibres. When one considers the effects time and use have on the cloaks is ob-

vious that many of the cloaks in the Museum collection are already weak and ready to fall apart if excessive stress is placed upon their fibres. To eliminates this stress all cloaks to be washed are laid on a framed screen printing mesh and then lowered into the washing tray. The mesh provides the strength and support the old fibres now lack and washing can proceed safely.

However, before a cloak gets washed several factors have to be considered. These are:a) if decorated with coloured wool, is it colour fast? This is determined by wetting a small unobtrusive area of each of the colours with the washing solution. Blotting paper or paper towels are placed over and under the wetted area and left for 20-30 minutes. If colour has bled on to the paper it means that the cloak cannot be washed as the colours of the wool are likely to stain the flax body of the garment. b) Is the taaniko weave colour-fast? The above procedure is repeated on the taaniko. c) If a feather decorated cloak, can the feathers be washed? Research on past feather cleaning techniques has to be carried out. Then tests are made on the feathers on the cloak that is under consideration to decide if washing is advisable. d) If a dogskin cloak, the effects of water on hide have to be examined and things such as stress on knots from twisting and shrinking considered. This also applies to feather decorated cloaks.

If after assessment of these factors, we decide to wash the cloak a choice of washing agent then has to be made. Commercially available washing agents, even the ones formulated for woollen garments, are regarded as too harsh for museum textiles and consequently we make our own. There are a number of excellent specialist books and journal articles on the cleaning of vaulable and old textiles and it is to these I turn in order to find a detergent suitable for the particular type of cloak under treatment. In a number of treatments a formulation using Lissapol N, sodium polymetaphosphate and carboxymethyl cellulose has been used effectively. In another where a dogskin cloak was washed the long hair required a different washing agent which included saponin, a soap derived from the banks of certain trees. No feather decorated cloaks have yet been washed at Auckland Museum but when the occasion arises a specially formulated detergent will also be made for them. Once the detergent selection has been made the actual washing can commence. We have no specialised tanks for this but always make temporary ones using lengths of 6in x 2in timber as a frame and line it with a couple of layers of thick polythene sheet, resting

all this on two table tops. In this way we can tailormake the washing baths to the size of the cloaks and when washing is over dismantle the bath and pack it away again until it is needed. The temporary bath is filled with a measured amount of lukewarm water to a depth of about 25mm or 1 inch, the detergent is mixed and the cloak on its support lowered into the water. How long it remains there depends on the time it takes for obvious stains and discolourations to disappear but after a maximum of IV2 to 2 hours the cloak will be taken out whether or not the stains have completely disappeared. The cloak will be periodically gently pressed with a sponge and tamped in order to move the washing solution through the fibres of the garment. Because of the proximity of the Museum courtyard to the conservation department the wet soapy cloaks on

their support screens are usually taken outside and rinsed. Rinsing the soap out of the cloak takes about 15 to 20 minutes. The support frame is angled against a wall and water from a hose used to wash the soap out starting at the collar of the cloak and moving systematically down the cloak time and time again. After this distilled water is washed over the cloak for several minutes to leave the cloak as clean as possible. Then it is left in the sun to dry.

As well as cleaning some cloaks require re-shaping to a limited degree. Those cloaks that need such treatment are invariably those who have been hung on the wall by two, three, or four nails or hooks along the upper edge. With the weight of the cloak dangling from these points the garment slowly but surely sags out of shape. Eventually instead of the original straight collar profile the upper edge becomes a row of peaks, the point of each being the place where the support nail penetrates the cloak. Not only the collar is affected by this for the whole cloak will sag and fold in comformity with the stresses created by the weight of the cloak. To re-shape the cloak the cloak is pinned to a piece of soft particle board with a small amount of pressure exerted by the pins towards putting the kaupapa back into its correct alignment. The affected areas of cloak are then lightly and carefully steamed so that the flax fibres soften with the moisture and relax against the pins. A day later the pins are moved so that the fibres are again under a slight tension and steaming is repeated. This sequence of small re-alignments followed by steaming is carried out until the shape of the kaupapa is back to normal. The process can take up to a couple of weeks as what has to be altered are the results of poor display which may have been going on for decades.

Display of cloaks All cloaks going on display are given a support of a backing textile and mounted using Velcro fastening tape. The first cloaks to be backed were supported by fine screen printing textile sewn with thousands of stitches to the inside of the cloak. The great number of stitches means that the weight of the cloak is taken away from a few crucial points and instead is distributed more equably over the whole fabric of the cloak. For the cloaks backed more recently we have switched from the screen printing material to using a polyester textile especially manufactured for textile conservation work and this fabric will be used for all cloak backing from now on. I fix Velcro to a strip of calico and then hand sew this to the cloak. Anyone who has tried pushing a sewing needle through Velcro will appreciate the sense of this method.

All that is now required is the Museum display department to fix the other half of the Velcro fastening tape to their design mounts and panels and the cloak is on display in a safe, clean and well supported manner.

An important part of this final display is to exhibit the cloaks in subdued light. One of the worst agents of fibre and colour deterioration is photochemical activity caused by bright light.

Cloaks in storage The emphasis in caring for cloaks not on public display is on well supported storage in an insect free environment. Cleaning of cloaks at best is limited to vacuum cleaning through a mesh. This is because of the lack of time, given all the other priorities the collection includes. The cloaks are folded to fit over padded coat hangers and protected from dust by polythene sheeting. Every month the storage cupboards are sprayed with an ordinary fly and insect aerosol which ensures the collection stays free of silverfish and moths.

Plans are underway to house the cloak collection in a new storage system, similar to ones used in some N.Z. museums already. Wide shallow drawers in specially built cabinets will each contain a cloak which can be laid out flat. This means no folding or hanging but instead complete support for the garment. Also, in order to inspect a cloak it will no longer need to be handled at all as to look at it the drawer simply has to be pulled out, the lid removed and the dust covers protecting the cloak folded back.

Conclusion

Care of cloaks at Auckland Museum is based on carefully considered conservation principles. Although it can be

said that all the cloaks could do with a thorough clean (some have over 100 years dirt and grime on them) we only clean what can reasonably be dealt with given the pressure of time and re-

strict our cleaning techniques to those that we are familiar with. Solvent cleaning with dry cleaning fluids is not carried out at the Museum and some types of staining are left on the cloaks rather than experiment with cleaning solutions on such valuable taonga. The types of cloaks we clean are also limited by the well-known problem of the disingegrating black-dyed flax fibres which has yet to be solved. How one washes these extremely delicate and still deteriorating garments and doesn’t add further damage to the cloak is an issue not yet solved.

As a final remark I would emphasise that washing cloaks is a specialised job and not to be lightly undertaken. Rather than suggest that people attempt to do it themselves I rather strongly advise them to leave it to conservators who are aware of the many pitfalls which accompany the care of old textiles. A cloak ruined in the wash cannot be passed on to later generations, it is better to leave it perhaps dirtier than one would really wish it to be until the garment can be correctly cleaned without damage.