The treatment and examination of this Javanese shadow puppet (or wayang kulit), originally from Java, Indonesia, part of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology collection was a major project during my second year at WUDPAC. The tradition of Javanese puppet theatre first started as early as the 10th century and can be performed for many different important social or domestic events to ensure good fortune or ward off calamity. In the type of puppet theatre that this puppet would have been used, shadows of the puppets are cast on a white fabric screen set in a wooden frame, and a lamp is used to give constant bright light to create the shadows. 

The puppets are made in a very orderly fashion, with a separate artist responsible for each step. including preparing the hide substrate from a water buffalo, preparing the horn used for the handles, tracing designs on the hide and cutting out patterns, gilding the hide, and finally painting it.

The shadow puppet treated here is constructed of five pieces of hide joined with bone pins and has three horn handles with which to manipulate the puppet. The male figure is decorated with gold leaf and colored paint over a white ground. Many different colors are used, however the predominant ones are black, pink, and red.  The strip between the feet is painted red and has an inscription incised in it, which includes '1916' and a possible name.

The painted surfaces are in very poor condition, with extensive loss and flaking of both the paint and the gilding, most especially in the pink and red areas. The surface is covered in a fine layer of dust and dirt. The main horn handle is broken in two places, one of which is completely separated.  

The treatment of the shadow puppet needed to address several key condition issues, including minimizing further paint loss by stabilizing the cracking and lifting paint, cleaning the painted surface, and repairing the breaks in the horn handle. After testing solvents, adhesives, and cleaning methods, the treatment proceeded as follows. First, a small area of paint was relaxed with ethanol, then a solution of 7% Butvar B-98 in ethanol with fumed silica was fed under the lifting paint, and after the solvent partially evaporated the lifting paint was set down with a bamboo skewer through a sheet of silicone release Mylar. Once at least five days had passed, excess adhesive was removed and the paint was cleaned using cotton swabs covered with a layer of Teflon tape and dampened with ethanol. Due to time constraints, the treatment stopped at this point, to be picked up by one of the next year's second year objects majors.

A technical examination was also completed during the treatment.  Analysis used for this study included cross-sectional microscopy, X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Pigments found on the shadow puppet include vermilion, orpiment, chrome yellow, indigo, carbon black, and barium sulfate.  Samples of the paint indicate that the binder was protein-based, possibly egg white or egg yolk, however difficulty determining these results may indicate that the paint was underbound overall, leading to a paint that does not adhere well to the hide substrate. Gold leaf, not bronze powder paint, was used, indicating this puppet had some significance when it was made.  The pigments, binders, and gold leaf all suggest an earliest date of construction from the mid to late 19th century, which means the purported date of construction of  1916, seen in the incised red paint between the legs, is definitely possible.