Wood survives through structure and intervention
Grain, joins, paint, insect channels and fills must be read with the object record rather than diagnosed from appearance.
A material note becomes reliable when the complete object, exact museum vocabulary, visible condition and technical evidence remain in separate but connected fields.
Use the labelled material
Copy whether the institution names wood generally or identifies a species through analysis. Dark color does not prove ebony, and pale wood does not establish a local or imported source. Treatments, coatings, burial conditions and lighting change appearance. Species, provenance and woodworking claims require technical evidence attached to the exact object rather than resemblance to a familiar example.
Find the construction units
Look for separate limbs, boards, pegs, dowels, tenons, lids or inserted details while keeping modern mounts distinct. Describe visible boundaries and alignment before calling them ancient joins. Paint and fill can conceal construction; losses can expose it. Sight can generate a join map, but radiography, conservation examination and publication are needed to establish internal structure or assembly sequence.
Follow grain cautiously
Visible linear texture may indicate grain direction, tool marks, cracks, paint brushwork or imaging artifacts. Record where the lines run and whether they continue across a suspected join. Do not infer species, carving speed or workshop habit from one gallery view. Reflections and aged coating can strengthen lines that appear less prominent in controlled institutional photography.
Separate wood from painted layer
A painted wooden object contains at least a support and one or more surface layers, sometimes with ground, gilding or later restoration. Describe where color follows form, flakes, bridges a crack or differs at an edge. Do not identify binders or pigments visually. Pair the museum material field with conservation sources when explaining how the surface was built.
Record cracks without diagnosis
Long splits may follow grain, construction stress, environmental change or older damage, but gallery observation cannot establish the mechanism or whether movement is active. Note location, direction and any visible fill without using alarming language. Museums monitor objects under controlled conditions; visitors should never touch, illuminate or compare cracks by leaning across barriers.
Notice vulnerable projections
Fingers, staffs, chair legs, ears and thin boards are susceptible to loss and repair. A complete silhouette may include ancient pieces, restoration or a modern support. Copy label information about reconstruction and keep the whole object visible in your note. Do not complete a missing feature from symmetry unless a responsible source explains the proposal.
Treat holes as ambiguous
Small openings can relate to joinery, attachments, insects, damage, sampling or modern mounting. Record size only from institutional data, not a photograph, and describe position relationally. Avoid diagnosing biological activity or conservation risk. A visible channel is a question for technical documentation, not permission to present a treatment history from appearance alone.
Compare front, side and back
Wooden figures and furniture can be strongly frontal while construction becomes legible at the side or reverse. Use only permitted viewpoints and official object images for inaccessible faces. State when the back comes from a catalogue rather than your gallery observation. The distinction matters because case walls, mounts and lighting shape what a visitor can actually verify.
Use weight and scale indirectly
Do not estimate weight by imagining how a wooden object would feel. Copy dimensions and any published mass, then describe support, thickness and scale visually. Museum mounts distribute loads in ways that are not ancient evidence. A monumental-looking crop may represent a small model, while a life-size figure may appear compact behind a distant barrier.
Write a layered wood record
Identify object, inventory number, labelled material, construction boundaries, surviving surface, visible losses, modern support and inaccessible zones. Add technical interpretation only with a cited institutional or conservation source. This layered entry respects wood as both structure and surface while preventing color, cracks or holes from becoming unsupported species, condition or manufacturing diagnoses.
Never touch, illuminate, scrape, use magnets or cross barriers. Gallery observation describes appearance; material testing belongs to responsible institutions and specialists.