Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

I love coming to work on a Monday to find out that my job has been done for me. I came in this morning and found a message from the conservation department that they were planning to remove the lid from the outer coffin of our recent Egyptian acquisition. I grabbed my camera and headed off to the lab!

When I got there, they were trying to figure out how to get the lid off without a) destroying it and b) damaging the bottom half. The bottom half is attached to a wooden base because the back wall of the coffin is missing. Turns out the lid is attached to the bottom half only by a few shims and four corner posts. The conservators immediately recognized that the posts were a "modern" addition. When I asked what they meant by modern, they said probably from the 1940s.

Once they figured out how to detach the lid, they lifted it and set it on the table for examination. They noted there were some pieces that had been restored, again probably done in the 1940s. If you look closely, you can see the new pieces on the end. They include the top arched piece and a small plank on the lower right. The paint is much brighter and smoother in those areas.

I thought they were going to do a thorough examination of the lid but it turned out they were more interested in the interior of the coffin. They noted differences in the wood and how the drip marks from the exterior painting didn't match. The next step is to x-ray the coffin to determine the condition and which parts were reconstructed.