Conservation of the Lacquer Artifacts Excavated from Suchon-ri, Gongju, Korea

In November 2011, various artifacts were excavated from the No. 8 stone-lined tomb in Suchon-ri, Gongju by the Chungnam Institute of History and Culture. These included artifacts with lacquered mainframe and silvery metal ornament. These were recovered together with soil and underwent conservation treatment. In this paper, we discuss the scientific analysis and conservation treatment of the lacquered artifacts excavated from the Suchon-ri site. Among our findings is that the artifacts have three layers of lacquer coating and the metal parts are primarily composed of Ag. As the artifacts were recovered with soil from the site, the soil was removed from underneath and inside the artifacts. The inside of the lacquerware was reinforced with rayon paper using 3% funori, and the metal was treated with acrylic resin after removing the acrylic resin previously used to recover the artifact, followed by cleaning. The metal was also internally reinforced with gauze. Finally, the interior reinforcement was made using PVA and resin in pulp and attached with funori to preserve the shape of the lacquerware, and the exposed rayon was finished with acrylic paint. The main advantages of this study are its review of conservation treatment strategies for lacquer artifacts whose numbers have recently increased, and the application of new conservation treatment methods.