This clamshell lid slat style saddle crate teaches a lesson in what to keep around and how to reuse materials in simple but elegant ways. It also brings to light that museum standards do not have to be expensive or complicated. You can see the principle of how to design and construct from the object and handlers needs outwards to desired standards. It shows how to keep simplicity of finish in mind - remembering that simple is not always easy and can often support to complex solutions.
This crate was designed for an historic saddle to travel by an art handler shuttle truck returning to loaning institution and serve as possible storage container.
Left: Opened hinge and bottom edge details showing eased edges at all pass-by points.
Right: Closed lid and side showing use of materials, eased corners, and embedded hardware.
The construction was built from found/reused lumber, that meet current PEFC international shipping and archival standards, and cardboard or compressed paper corner guards. All of these components were remainders from previous crates and packaging kept in clean and organized piles around the museum. No special or exotic hardware was purchased to assemble the framework or the hinged lid, it all came out of common fixings bins on hand. It was built in a just day to accommodate standard pallet-jack lifting and to provide standard 4 rise of base off of floor. The crate was made to with-stand common truck securing/strapping forces around framework, plus be stable for lifting.
This crate was sized to provide up to 4 clearance for the object on all six directional sides within crate, seated on fully foam lined base and a shape matched and object support stand. It was not sealed or gasketed, as it was traveling only overland by ground; object and lender did not dictate moisture/humidity seal. The design could be modified to accommodate this requirement.
Special features include completely removable object support base with artifact on.
Support base shaped and padded to stabilize object without tie downs: cotton twill tape tie downs were added once the mounted object was loaded into the crate to secure stirrups, withers and girth straps and other moveable parts from rubbing and chaffing in transit; all secured with one loose end slip lots marked for simple release.
Lid and three sides swing up and away from object to open crate, with the release of only four screws.
All release screws and hinge bolts were embedded into outer casing to protect from damage, these were also brightly marked.
Built of commonly found materials to museum standards.
Finished dimensions:
Exterior:36 w x 28 d x 40 h: including 3-1/2 h feet of 2 x 4 PEFC lumber stacked, single wall corrugated walls, compressed fiber-board corner covers
Interior:31 w x 24 d x 30 h: comprised of 3/4 plywood base deck, 1-1/2 x 2-1/2
PEFC lumber, 1/8 ethafoam lining on saddle mount stand and base tray.
The only element missing was handles on the sides for hand-lifting as needed.
Pictured loading Crate: Stefan Ruff- Designer/carpenter, Mike Juen- Registrar
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