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Transforming a Pennsylvania German Chest by Mark Bockrath An overall view of the Mahantongo Valley chest of drawers--an outstanding example of Pennsylvania German craftsmanship--after treatment. Chest, Mahantongo Valley, Pa., 1834, pine, 64.1517. An important Mahantongo Valley chest of drawers--a centerpiece of the Pennsylvania German Bedroom at Winterthur--was treated recently in a cross-disciplinary project. Furniture conservators Mike Podmanizky and Paul Koenig, paintings conservator Mark Bockrath, and furniture curator Wendy Cooper collaborated to bring this stunning example of Pennsylvania German craftsmanship to an appearance much closer to the way it looked when it was made in 1834. Traditionally, such a piece would have been worked on by furniture conservators and curators; however, since the Mahantongo Valley chest features painted surfaces, the paintings conservator worked with them. The chest belongs to an important group of furniture made by Pennsylvania Germans living in an isolated area north of Harrisburg from the 1820s until about 1840. Although the furniture is frequently referred to as Mahantongo Valley, the pieces more accurately reflect the work of craftsmen in the adjacent Schwaben Creek Valley. This group of furniture is distinguished by its distinctive painted decoration that includes banding and bird-and-flower motifs on drawer fronts; stars and quartered fans on paneled sides; and eight-petaled stamped rosettes along stiles, drawer dividers, and rails. These designs are frequently painted on red or green grounds. The Winterthur example includes such banding, birds, rosettes, fans, and stars in bright red, yellow, and black on a green background. The piece is dated 1834 on a painted panel at the center front edge of the top, and it retains its original green-painted turned drawer pulls. The chest of drawers had suffered extensive damage to the paint surface that included paint flake losses, abrasions, and deep gouges into the wood substrate. The paint color on the top and along the bottom rails was whitened and opaque. Damage to the painted designs on the drawer fronts was severe enough to disrupt some motifs. Breakage to wood from the edges of drawers had been repaired in a conspicuous manner. Also, the turned feet of painted black walnut were replacements that had been inserted into the yellow pine stiles in round mortises; not the usual construction of these pieces, in which the feet are integral with the stiles. In addition, the replacement feet were small and delicate, ending in round bulbs that had no precedent in other Mahantongo Valley chests. Finally, one drawer front was missing its escutcheon plate. To compensate for the most disfiguring damage to the paint surface, the deep gouges in the carcass of the chest were filled, and major losses were inpainted. Detail of upper drawers of chest after conservation. An effort was made to distinguish the inpainting of damage from compensation for wear on the piece from normal use. Accordingly, disfiguring scratches and gouges were inpainted, but most of the wear on the edges of the drawer fronts and around and on the pulls was left intact. Such wear from handling is to be expected of any utilitarian object, but damage from blows to the object or extensive loss of paint are not always present, even in a much-used piece. A thin coat of varnish was applied locally over the whitened paint to bring back its color; then the top was cleaned and polished with wax to restore its finish. New tulip poplar feet were turned for the chest, based on other examples in the Winterthur collection. The previous replacement feet were retained as a record. A new escutcheon plate was created out of epoxy that was cast in a rubber mold made from an existing plate and colored with bronze powders. It was installed using pins placed in old mounting holes. The brightly colored birds and flowers now make a bold statement against their mellow green backgrounds. The chest is now slightly higher with its new feet and no longer appears to be top-heavy and tottering on spindly supports. With its full complement of brasses, the chest looks more complete than it has in years, and remains a striking testament to the ingenuity and artistry of the folk craftsmen of the Mahantongo Valley. Detail of restored foot before removal (left); detail of replacement foot before painting (right). Side of chest after conservation. The project has been a two-fold success: the Mahantongo Valley chest has been painstakingly restored, and the collaboration between painting and furniture experts signals an evolution in the ways museum professionals work together across disciplines and materials, bringing all of their combined expertise to bear on preserving these exceptional objects from our past.   Mark Bockrath is paintings conservator at Winterthur and a 1981 graduate of the WUDPAC program.   This article first appeared in the Summer 2000 issue of Winterthur Magazine.