A06_06

Geochronology ¹⁴C applied to organic coatings of musical instruments and other modern Heritage objects

Durier M¹,  Hatté C^2,3, Vaiedelich S¹

¹Équipe Conservation-Recherche, Musée de la Musique – CNRS : UAR3224, Centre de recherche sur la conservation, Paris, France, ²Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement - CEA, CNRS, UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France, ³Institute of Physics – CSE, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland

Musical instruments present a complex materiality as an object of art and (musical) uses. Their constitutive parts underwent successive undocumented interventions for playing purposes, alterations and restorations. The varnish, traditionally preserved through time, is also a testimony of the material history of the instrument with undatable interventions using conventional museum techniques such as stylistic studies, dendrochronology, etc.

An innovative study based on advanced technology in ¹⁴C geochronology, combining historical documentation and material characterization analyses, has been applied to modern musical instruments and other modern Heritage objects (16th-19thc.). The organic coatings were micro-sampled (from 0.2 to 5.4 mg) layer by layer using micro-scalpels in order to separately date the original layers and later interventions.

Here, we present some case studies to illustrate the information highlighted on the making period, the making processes and the use(s) of the Heritage objects. For example, the case study of a qin (no. 276, CNAM, Paris) unraveled the storage of the wooden support, the presence of malachite in the underlaying black lacquer and the making period has been clarified thanks to the ¹⁴C dating of the upper red lacquer. The impact of restoration products from 20th-c. museum interventions has also been evaluated on early 18th-c. horse-drawn carriages (no. TR1868, RMAH, Brussels and CMV64.002, MNVT, Compiègne).

This study shows that the more curate historical and material descriptions, the more suitable the protocol adaptations and interpretation of the ¹⁴C results will be in order to build a 'history of use' of the musical instrument and other Heritage objects.