Dress, late 19th century
Unknown maker, France
Silk, 76 × 40 × 4 in. (193 × 101.6 × 10.2 cm)
Private collection

The silk in this dress is “shattered”—irreversibly damaged by metal salts added to the silk that have recrystallized, shredding it from within. The salts were added to “weight” the silk, or lend it fullness, in order to compensate for the weight loss occurring from sericin removal, or degumming, as the silk was processed. Shattering is a conservation dilemma: while research into treatment strategies is ongoing, there remains no viable course of treatment except for careful storage and handling. Because of the further material loss that inevitably results, dresses such as this are very rarely displayed.