Page 11 - Periodic Issue 02

C hemistry

at the Museum

By Andrew Oddy, 1961 New College

On graduating in 1965, I headed straight for chemical there had previously been a scandal about damage
industry as my tutor, Lionel Staveley, had advised. How caused by over cleaning during the 1930s.
wrong he was; within a year my chemistry degree and
interest in archaeology led me to the British Museum to In 1975 I moved on to the technology of antiquities. With
work as a conservation scientist, where I remained for this came responsibility for the British Museum’s forensic
36 years! work to determine whether a potential acquisition was
authentic. Big money could be involved if we got it wrong;
My first jobs involved working with excavated bronzes, one Sasanian statue of a horse that was clearly made
Egyptian limestone sculptures and wooden artefacts. recently was on the market for £250,000. The secret is
The chemistry was basic, but still very interesting; one to find a discrepancy between the condition of the object
problem was that some limestone sculptures deteriorate and that of an excavated piece. For instance, finding
in our climate, while others are stable. I found that this is copper nitrate on a corroded bronze indicates the use of
due to a combination of soluble chloride and insoluble nitric acid for artificial aging and is not the result of slow
clay minerals present in the limestone, causing it to slowly deterioration in the ground. Similarly, silver and bronze
disintegrate as the humidity changes. slowly develop inter-crystalline corrosion during burial and
this is difficult to replicate; no inter-crystalline corrosion
Equally interesting was trying to discover why some usually indicates a modern piece.
metal objects corrode in museums. Unseasoned wood,
plastics, paints, and many textiles de-gas when new and Sometimes dealing with antiquities can have
these pollutants often attack antiquities. To prevent this we consequences in the modern world. When lecturing in
developed a simple corrosion test for materials to be used Germany about Greek and Roman silver plate, one of my
to build showcases and storage units. It was seized upon slides caused a sharp intake of breath in the audience.
by the conservation profession and became known as The picture I was showing of a Roman artefact had a
the Oddy Test. I knew that I had ‘arrived’ when, towards large swastika in the design, and it is forbidden to display
retirement, I was asked by a young conservator who that symbol in Germany.
had spied my badge at a conference, ‘Are you the Oddy
Test?’ Inevitably, I eventually became an administrator; not nearly
so much fun although I did have the pleasure of guiding
In 1968, I was part of a team that introduced a new younger staff along the highways and byways of the
cleaning technique for marble statues, and applied it to profession. In retirement I am the conservation advisor
possibly the most famous statues in the museum; the at the local Regimental Museum, but mainly busy in
Elgin Marbles. This was potentially controversial, not due other fields; last September I organised an international
to the location or ‘ownership’ of the Marbles, but because conference on Islamic coinage and am now busy editing
the proceedings!

11
Periodic
The Magazine of the Department of Chemistry