RE-DESIGNING SILVERWEAR DISPLAY
COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT
Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover DE
This past summer of 2021 I had the opportunity to intern in collections management at the Biggs Museum of American Art. My main project was to redesign and rehouse the silverware collection that wason display in pull-out drawers. My main goals were to provide safe mounts for the silver and make them aesthetically pleasing as they were going to be displayed in drawers. Another goal was to make sure the silver would not shift with the movement of the drawers.
DISPLAY DRAWERS: BEFORE
Before rehousing, the silverware mounts were made with blue board wrapped in felt and the silverware was arrached to the felt using polyester srips. My main task was to not only provide a safe mount for the silver, but also make the display look neat. Many pieces of silver shifted with the movement of the drawers due to the maleability of the polyester strips.
Silverware trays
Before rehousing
THE TRAYS
The silver is displayed in trays inside pull-out drawers under a locked glass window for the visitors to observe through. There are two trays per drawer that lay at the top of the drawer, leaving an empty space underneath.
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To help protect the silver, a sheet of silvercloth was added at the bottom of the drawer. A diagram of the drawer is shown below.
DRAWER DIAGRAM
Tray Dimensions:
Length: 20.6 in
Width : 9.4 in
Depth: 1.2 in
Silverware trays
Display Ideas
Silverware trays
Display Ideas
DISPLAY DRAWERS: AFTER
For the rehoused metals, I decided to use volara as the base of the display. I resued the blue board as the first layer of the tray followed by the volara on top. Black volara was chosen to contrast the silver. To hold the flatware in place, soft ethafoam was used with slits cut into them. To keep smaller objects in place, I utilized u-shaped polyolefin-wrapped metal wire. The polyolefin covered the metal to safely rest against the silver. For certain objects, volara cavities were made to keep them in place. The new display helped with the movement of the drawers as well as protecting the silver.
