MCI Project Summaries 2008 - Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery
MCI 5957 A Statuette after Clark Mills’s Andrew Jackson on Horseback (ca.
1860) made by Cornelius and Baker
MCI Staff: Carol A. Grissom
Treatment of this early American cast-zinc statuette consisted principally of partial
removal of black overpaint on the figure’s proper right arm and the horse’s rump, inpainting,
waxing, and the design and installation of a new mounting system. Prior to treatment, the
statuette was examined in some detail in comparison to a similar statuette owned by the
Smithsonian American Art Museum (No. 1983.101.5). This revealed that apart from differences
in the bases, the two statues were made using the same molds, since the same mold-based flaws
appear on both copies. Moreover, comparison showed many small differences in assembly and
finishing. This copy, for example, has delineated seams on Jackson’s pant legs and jacket
sleeves, which the other copy lacks. The statuette was also X-rayed, which revealed original
metal armatures in the horse’s legs and metal rods used to attach the horse’s legs, as well as a
modern metal bolt used to repair the horse’s tail. While the SAAM copy appears to have only its
original “bronze” paint, this copy has been repainted a number of times with “bronze” paint, and
a sticky coating seems to have been applied more recently. A sample of this coating was
analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.
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