Conservation in Action: Musical Elephant Automaton

This year one of Waddesdon’s greatest treasures, a remarkable elephant automaton by Hubert Martinet, has undergone a programme of conservation work.

This is the first time in living memory that the automaton has undergone conservation level surface-cleaning, in addition to its once-a-decade mechanical overhaul, and it gave us the opportunity to investigate the materials and their history, the mechanism and even the musical box.

About the elephant

The elephant was owned by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild and displayed at Waddesdon by at least 1889. The base contains a musical box and when wound the elephant swings its trunk, eyes roll and the figures revolve. According to local newspaper reports when the Shah of Persia stayed at Waddesdon in 1889, he was so enchanted with the elephant that he asked for it to be played over and over again. He preferred this ‘magnificent toy […] to all the paintings, enamels, armour and Palissy ware’.

However, the elephants history goes much further back and stretches across Europe……

Find out more about the elephant and its history

Conservation

Conservators Jonathan Betts and Paul Tear worked in phases to dismantle and clean the elephant. The object is composed of two main parts – the elephant body and howdah, and the base on which it stands. Phase one was cleaning the elephants decorative surfaces (using warm water and non-ionic detergent), removing areas of oxidation, and then lacquering vulnerable surfaces. Paul Tear was assisted in the cleaning of these surfaces by students from West Dean College and Waddesdon Manor’s in-house conservation team. At the same time Jonathan Betts a specialist in horology, dismantled the clockwork mechanism and it was cleaned, repaired and oiled. The modern protective acrylic case was renewed. The second phase repeated these steps for the base and the musical box, including the figures, creatures, plants, painted panels, paste flowers and glass domes.

While the base was being dismantled, we inspected the musical cylinder and discovered that it shows traces of former pins that were removed and sanded down, indicating that the tunes have been changed. This alteration probably took place in the 19^th century so that the Elephant now plays five tunes.