Handsome Dan Before and After

Handsome Dan Before & After 08/13/2012

by Camille Myers Breeze In this before and after blog, we revisit one of our favorite personalities from 2012, Handsome Dan.

Handsome Dan before conservation.

On April 9, Cara Jordan wrote about a hooked rug we received depicting the famous Yale football mascot, in Handsome Dan to Get a Facelift. Since then, Handsome Dan has been conserved and return to his owner on the North Shore of Boston.

The binding showed severe deterioration and past repairs.

Patches were placed behind areas of weakness are repairs made with hand stitching.

Handsome Dan is now safely hanging on its owner's wall thanks to a new Velcro hanging system consisting of a hand-stitched Velcro header and a custom Velcro slat manufactured by Small Corp. in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Previous repairs were left in place to preserve the history of the rug, and additional stabilization will ensure structural stability. The most visible change is a new blue binding that provides cosmetic improvement without having to remove any of the original binding. Most importantly, all of our repairs can be reversed in the future without causing any harm to the hooked rug.

Handsome Dan after conservation, hanging from a Velcro slat.

We're not ashamed to admit we've become devotees of the dog, and couldn't believe our eyes when we found this image of the taxidermied remains of Handsome Dan II in a blog by Avenue K9. We've also heard through the grapevine that Handsome Dan I, who resides in a case in the Yale University Gym, was recently conserved by their preparator, master taxidermist Michael Anderson.

Thanks to Courtney, Cara, Gabrielle, and Michelle for contributing to this fun project!