How did you determine which side of the nut to apply the physical number?
When deciding where to mark an object, you need to consider the following:
- How would an object be displayed?
- What is the condition/material of the object?
- How large is the object?
- Does the institution/museum have a convention for this type of object.
An object’s number should be marked discreetly on an object so that it shouldn’t need removing if the object goes on display. In the case of these nuts, we marked on the flatter side as this is the side more likely to be hidden from view if they were to go out on exhibition.
You need to consider the surface of the object as you want the mark to remain on the object. This means it shouldn’t be applied to damaged surfaces, such as paint, if possible. You also need to avoid areas where there is a possibility of friction or damage occurring. With the palm nuts, this wasn’t a huge consideration. The material an object is made from can also affect what marking method. With the palm nuts we used the paraloid method.
The size of the object can influence if you mark at all. If an object is too small and/or the accession number is too long, then marking it may not always be beneficial. Some of the palm nuts only just have legible writing as some were fairly small. If they had been much further, we would have placed them in individual bags with labels and taken accurate measurements (which we did anyway in this case).
For some objects, there are conventions about where you mark them, however, these can vary from place to place. These palm nuts don’t have a convention, but shirts, for example, have the convention of being marked inside the collar.
