Applications of Archeometry in eighteenth century São Paulo furniture

indicative analysis and historical contextualization

Abstract

This article presents the results of applied Physics archeometric measurements on two pieces of furniture from the Museu Paulista collection, a chest-safe and a tanned leather chair, both made around the eighteenth century. The analysis techniques used were ED-XRF and imaging with ultraviolet light fluorescence. The interdisciplinary analyses sought to identify the materials with which the pieces were composed, thus presenting historical information about furniture production in the city of São Paulo in the eighteenth century. The obtained results allowed the identification of some of the materials used in the painting of the chest-safe – white lead and vermilion (or cinnabar) – and in the tanned leather and metal parts of the chair – iron and brass in both parts –, although additional procedures still need to be applied for obtaining results on other materials. To allow the contextualization of the material and economy life of São Paulo, the information obtained from material sources were confronted with broader textual documentation data such as paint commission lists, travel reports and artistic manuals of the time, thus revealing the city’s dynamism and its intricate commercial networks.