This week in objects conservation: another large architectural object has entered the conservation lab! Currently disassembled, these 44 wooden pieces make up our seventeenth century Jain Shrine. First, we started with assessing the condition of each piece, then some parts were temporarily moved back to storage to enable enough working space in the lab for treatments to be carried out. We have started treatment cleaning the central upper most panel and are seeing some very promising results! In the second photo you can see in the upper right corner, that the elephant has been cleaned to expose its bright blue paint as well as bright red and gold trim. It has taken over 4 hours to remove the thick dirt filled coating from this small elephant! The treatment for all 44 pieces of this Jain Shrine is likely to take quite a while, but once finished we will have exposed all the beautiful colors that make up this spectacular object that haven’t been seen for decades! We hope you are as excited as we are to see all the details and colors that will be uncovered by this treatment!

Jain Shrine, early 17^th Century, Patan/Gujarat/India, carved wood painted and gilded, The William T. and Louise Taft Semple Collection, 1962.459