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The whirligig of time... conservation reels in the Andaman dancers. These Burmese figures have been dancing at Dorney Court for 120 years, to the enjoyment of generations of the Palmer family, and since 1981 to visitors. However exposure to light, which fades and degrades textiles, and handling threatened their survival. This embroidered and appliquéd hanging was made in 1870 by Burmese prisoners of war on the Andaman Islands as a gift in thanks to the Governor, a relation of the Palmer?s of Dorney Court, for their kind treatment. Being such a celebratory subject and with so strong a story the family quite understandably wanted it out, used, and enjoyed. These before and after conservation photographs show evidence of this: tears, missing bits, exploded stuffing, and cobbled repairs. The danger was that it would be loved to death. In comparing the pairs of photographs you can make out some of the ways that conservation has ensured its survival for another generation : tears carefully repaired, missing bits painstakingly reconstructed, stuffing worked back in, dirt and staining removed in a special solvent bath and with a customised low powered vacuum cleaner with a nozzle finer than a drinking straw. Some of the work is less evident, and that?s how it should be : the specially dyed patches of new material where there were holes, the reversible adhesive treatments to secure those very brittle areas where stitching would have shattered original fabric, and the textile support to which the whole hanging is attached and which takes its weight. It was formerly used as a bedspread; hanging it in this way will prevent it from getting handled, but will allow it to be enjoyed, just the same. By reducing the hanging?s exposure to light by covering it with a case cover when the room is not used, and by applying ultra-violet light eliminating film to the window glass, damage by daylight can be controlled. Once again the dancers have a lightness of step and a vibrancy of colour, are secure for another generation, and the story of the Burmese prisoners and the kindly Governor lives on.