Beechworth Chinese Banner from the Burke Museum in Beechworth, Victoria

The banner, which is owned by the Burke Museum in Beechworth, Victoria was a gift to the Chinese community in Beechworth in recognition of their support of the hospital and benevolent asylum from the Carnival Committee, representing the institutions of Beechworth in 1873.

It is a unique example of a Chinese Banner from this period as it features both Chinese and English text. The Chinese text has been translated and essentially says the same as the English text. The banner reads “Presented to the Chinese of Beechworth by the committees of the public institutions of that town in commemoration of the carnival 1873”. The treatment of the banner was funded by the Copland Foundation Grant.

The front of the banner is made from silk with elaborate silk and metal thread embroidery that depicts many of the 8 auspicious Chinese symbols for luck and good fortune. The back is made from cotton and features a painted mythical scene. The banner would have originally had a silk tab on each side and the left hand one is now missing and the top border has been cut down.

Conservation Treatment:
The banner had experienced extensive light damage. This had resulted not only in the colours becoming very faded but also in extensive weakening and loss of the silk embroidery threads and silk backing fabric. The threads were loose and detached in many places leaving it looking like messy spaghetti and the silk fabric was extremely brittle with large areas of loss.

Due to the extent of the damage a full lining was required. The backing was released from the frontand a new silk lining dyed to match the original as closely as possible. The new lining was placed underneath the damaged original and the very meticulous and time consuming process of carefully hand stitching down all the areas of damage with a very fine polyester thread was undertaken. This process took many hundreds of hours.

The large hole in the backing, the fringing and the top border and side tab were also repaired. Once all of the different components were treated they were re-stitched together. For display, the banner was attached using Velcro to a fabric covered archival back board. The Banner has returned to the Burke Museum in Beechworth where it is displayed in a purpose made display drawer.

The work was undertaken over a 24 month period at Artlab by Textile Conservators Mary-Anne Gooden, Anna Austin and Kristin Phillips with invaluable assistance from volunteer Barbara Flaum.

The Burke Museum and its Friends' association received the prestigious Indigo Shire Open Heritage Award for their conservation project of the Chinese Ceremonial Banner on 20 May 2016. Please visit this link to read more: http://www.artlabaustralia.com.au/news_details.php?event_id=255

Beechworth Chinese Banner
Silk, cotton with silk and metal thread embroidery
Burke Museum Beechworth, Victoria
Image and story permission granted by: Linda Peacock, Collections Manager,
Burke Museum, Beechworth, Victoria