By Sarah
This week we have been working hard to clean and refresh one of the object cases in the Redoubt. During the closed season we all carry out maintenance and cleaning of the building itself and the collections it houses.
We are working our way through the cases and this week we cleaned one of our favourites, a case of Royal Sussex Regimental uniforms ranging from an 18th Century Officer's coatee to a late 19th Century Colour Sergeants tunic.
Firstly we had to remove all the uniforms from the case and inspect them for any pests or mould.
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| Kasey checking the uniforms |
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| Cleaning the uniforms |
The case also had two framed paintings hung on the wall so we covered these with black bin-liners to protect them whilst we worked in the case.
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| Bin liner covering a painting |
The floor of the case had got really dirty and scratched so our amazing volunteer Mary-Ann got inside and hoovered up all the dust and dirt.
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| Mary-Ann hovering the case - not an easy task! |
Next up we needed to paint the floor of the case with a new layer of grey paint as the base of the mannequins over time have scratched the floor leaving a pattern of white marks.
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| Mary-Ann dressed for painting! |
Our main discovery in this case was a very curious contraption...
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| we were amazed to find this was the mannequin underneath! |
We found this make-shift 'mannequin' underneath one of the oldest uniforms in the case, the 18th Century coatee. We didn't know why or how this was actually made as it was not suitable for displaying a uniform!
However, when trying to find a new mannequin for the coatee we realised why... the coatee is so tiny that it does not fit any of the Redoubt's mannequins. Someone previously must have realised the same thing and made their own!
We have now ordered a new (smaller!) mannequin for the coatee and this will be returned to the case very soon.
We think you'll agree the case looks really rather smart now
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