Beatles Discs and Butterfly Wings
A Survey of the Customs and Excise National Museum Collection
by Suzanne Kitto, Metals Conservation, NMGM
Introduction
Have you ever wondered what happens to items confiscated by Customs - those illegal, dangerous or endangered items uncovered around the UK? Well, some of them end up in the Customs & Excise National Museum (CENM) based at the Albert Dock, Liverpool.
This Museum is a collaboration between the Customs & Excise (C&E) and the National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside (NMGM) and is based in the Merseyside Maritime Museum. This interesting and rather unusual collection dates back to 1550 and consists not only of the working tools of the Customs & Excise men but also those items confiscated during their line of work. The oldest metal item is a silver seal from the Port of Fowey and it dates from 1560. Every material is represented in the collection and comes in many forms ranging from the mundane to the bizarre to the famous. There are measuring devices, uniforms, weapons (including a fountain pen that fires chili powder), designer goods, exotic corals, stuffed animals, to name but a few. Amongst the more high profile objects belonging to the collection there are a number of Beatles gold discs, a tiger skin that belonged to Gloria Swanson and recently acquired, a number or ivory ornaments used to dress the set of the recent film 'Titanic'.
Development of the C&E collections
A large portion of the material that now makes the present collection came from a small museum originally based in the London Customs House. The Customs & Excise Head Quarters moved to Queens Dock, Liverpool in the late 1980s and transferred a large collection of objects to this new site. As a result of discussions with NMGM a project was initiated to develop a national museum dedicated to Customs & Excise within the same city.
In 1994 the Customs and Excise National Museum opened with an exhibition entitled 'Anything to Declare?' based at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. The idea behind this initial development was to present the modern day role of Customs and Excise to a wide ranging public. The gallery explains the various taxation and duty systems, how they are implemented and enforced, as well as the Customs activities at various ports and airports around the UK and the seizure of illegally imported goods.
By the end of 1995 a second larger gallery opened recounting the history and development of the Customs & Excise, and a proper store area had been allocated for the housing of a reserve collection on site.
Survey of the Collection
It is rare to have the opportunity of being involved with a collection right from the start, as collections are often inherited with poor and incomplete documentation. The establishment of this new collection and store was seen as an opportunity not only for the usual curatorial accession recording but also to incorporate conservation condition and storage evaluations from the outset. This would enable an understanding of the general condition of the collection and any storage and treatment requirements.
From an initial series of meetings a list of survey requirements were drawn up to allow the curator and conservator to record a reasonable level of detail but not to a level that would not become too slow or cumbersome to work with. The databases required were then developed from specifications worked out during the earlier meetings as well as elements drawn from earlier survey databases at NMGM. What became apparent early on, was that the speed of data entry by conservation staff would be severely restricted by the initial accession data entry of the curatorial staff. A method of work was therefore implemented where the curatorial staff worked ahead entering accession information and allocating accession numbers while the conservators would work on an independent database entering their condition, material and storage details.
Within the collection there are also numerous paper archives. These required a number of different fields in their survey compared to the object database and so a third database was created. The curatorial, objects conservation and paper conservation survey databases could then be united on a regular basis using the unique accession number, common to each, to create a fully comprehensive record of the collection.
Difficulties of the survey
Object conservators from a number of disciplines where required to work on the survey, so it was important that grading and terminology of the condition checking remained consistent, even if the conservator was working in a material field they were not completely familiar with. To achieve this a number of methods had to be used. The first was to use drop-down lists for entering data into the fields. These lists would provide specific set choices, with explanations where required, and selection could be restricted to only those listed. This aids the speed of data entry and eliminates typographic errors in the records. These can give such a head ache later on from the need to remove errors and in particular problems in searching through and analyzing the data.
The choice of terminology and grading of the physical condition of the objects was largely taken from a general condition survey system developed by the Victoria & Albert Museum, Conservation Department.
We could not find an official title for this written system, except for the word ‘Arrgh’ and an image of a computer being strangled printed on the cover. It was however produced mainly for use by non-conservation staff to allow them to more accurately assess and note the condition of objects in the collections. The development of this was a result of the realization that the V&A’s Conservators where never going to be able to assess all the objects in their collections in the foreseeable future. As the Curators were often dealing with objects that the Conservation Department did not have time to assess, at least the Curators could help by doing quick condition assessments to common, and consistent, standards.
This survey system is effectively a questionnaire divided into sections by material types and takes the surveyor through the different types of damage and deterioration common to each general group of materials found in museum collections. Each type of damage or deteriorating factor is given a numeric weighting, which combine in the end to determine the overall condition grade.
There are four of these condition grades. These are:
GOOD: Object in its context is in good conservation condition or is stable (likely to be displayed with no or little work).
FAIR: Fair condition, disfigured or damaged but stable, needs no immediate action (needs no work for safe storage).
POOR: Poor condition, and/or restricted use and/or probably unstable. Action desirable (a conservation priority)
UNACCEPTABLE: Completely unacceptable condition, and/or severely weakened, and/or highly unstable and actively deteriorating, and/or affecting other objects; immediate action should be taken (i.e. isolate it)
After initial tests we felt this four category system worked well as it forced the surveyor to determine between the 'fair' and 'poor' condition grading; the danger of the a five point system is that there can be a bias towards the "safe" middle category.
Interpretation of the data
The complete database has enabled the condition of the collection to be assessed as a whole. These have also been easily sub-divided to show the number of objects in each condition grade or the condition of particular groups of objects. The statistics derived have also been very useful for planning which sections have to be contacted regarding treatment of objects in poorer condition, the type of storage and the amount of storage space ideally required. To make the most effective use of the conservation budget the curator and conservator can then select the most important items for treatment and the appropriate storage container and materials.
Storage
At present the store is in a temporary located at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. There are plans to move this collection to another site where a store will hopefully be refitted to permanently accommodate it. This will provide more space for the collection with some room for future growth. Planning for this new storage area has been made much easier by information provided by the database on the overall volumes and packing materials to be required. Where possible items have been packed into labeled acid free boxes or placed in metal draws or shelves with Plastazote foam and acid free tissue. All shelves and drawers have been given a location code, which is recorded in the database. Attached to each shelf/draw is a list of all the objects contained within.
The Future
The collection is growing all the time as not only recent confiscated objects arrive but also as some of the regional Customs & Excise offices close down. These later additions require an immediate response from the museum in order to save many important objects. The museum can receive as little as two weeks notice of the closure of an office, in which time museum staff need to be able to assess which items are to be retained for the main or handling collections or which are left to C&E to deal with.
The conservation and curatorial staff at NMGM also have a role in educating Customs & Excise staff in the handling and care of objects prior to acquisition. Lack of care for the objects has had some sad consequences. For example a Victorian cast iron umbrella stand dating to 1824 was in a complete and very good condition on inspection in Bristol. Sadly by the time an enthusiastic member of Customs & Excise had brought it to Liverpool it was in two pieces and will be extremely hard to conserve to a level of safe structural strength. This kind of problem will hopefully be further tackled by ensuring the museum has the time and facilities to move in it's own handling and transport teams.
The Customs & Excise survey is an on-going project and as such we are learning all the time. We have been able to improve the general storage of these items greatly although there is still much work required. The information we have recorded has already proved very useful in judging the future requirements of the collection and should continue to be an invaluable resource for both curators and conservation alike.
It has been an extremely interesting survey to be involved with and I would like to thank Steve Butler, Steve Newman, and Vivien Chapman for providing me with information for this paper.
Suzanne Kitto
