Current Solutions A4 - WordPress.com...Current Solutions for Mutual Issues: postprints from the Book and Paper Group’s sessions 1 Introduction Victoria Stevens, Chair of the Co-operative

1Current Solutions for Mutual Issues: postprints from the Book and Paper Group’s sessions

Current Solutions for Mutual Issues:postprints from the Book and Paper Group’s sessions at the Icon Positive Futures conference

April 10 –12 2013, Glasgow

Acknowledgements

The Book and Paper Group Committee would like to thank thefollowing for their work on the compilation, design and editing ofthese post prints:

Mary FrenchMalcolm GillespieAnna JohnsonEsther SelsdonVictoria Stevens

Our thanks also go to all the authors, without whose help and co-operation the publication would not have been possible.

Current Solutions for Mutual Issues: postprints from the Book and Paper Group’s sessions


Introduction

Victoria Stevens, Chair of the Co-operative Training Register 2

Chapter 1: Collaborative Conservation

Nicole Gilroy and Outrageous fortune: conservation 3Julie Sommerfeldt and the Bodleian’s First Folio

Lucy Crombie The conservation of a seventeenth-century 13Carta Ejecutoria de Hidalguia

Carol Weiss Forward-looking tradition: mounting a 18calligraphy as a Chinese hanging scroll

Anna Hoffmann Think big?! A look into the possibilities and 23limitations of large-scale treatments in paper conservation

Sonja Schwoll An unusual treatment solution: the author 34led by example

Abigail Bainbridge Poster submission on Current Projects, 39the West Dean blog

Chapter 2: Moving Issues, Storage Solutions

Susan Catcher Rack and roll: an investigation into storage options 44

Chapter 3: Joint Adhesives Session

Liz Ralph Adhesives for parchment repair: an exploration 50

Francis Lukezic The repair of an Alaskan Inupiaq sealskin mat 53with Lascaux 360 HV and 498 HV

Ian Moor The history, application and stability of adhesives 56 used in the mounting and presentation of photographs and criteria for their conservation treatment

Zenzie Tinker Working with adhesives: different routes 63to the same destination

Contents

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After several months of intricate negotiation, planningand attention to detail, the Book and Paper Groupfielded a broad-based programme of presentations atIcon’s 2013 conference Positive Futures in anUncertain World, all of which were designed to holdinterest for every area of the Group’s diversemembership demographic. The variety, quality andquantity of abstracts we received proved the vitalityand interest we have for sharing the collectiveknowledge that is such a key feature of our vibrantand inclusive group.

The overriding principle of the Group’s presence atPF2013 was co-operation and collaboration. We builtthe programme under the title Current Solutions forMutual Issues and our aim was to look at theinnovative ways group members and colleagues inother disciplines approach the challenges that we allmeet in our professional practice. Within this, wechose to divide the two sessions into four distinctareas: the Clare Hampson Showcase, CollaborativeConservation, Moving Issues and Storage Solutionsalongside the Joint Adhesives Session, a poster-based session organised by the Book and PaperGroup in close collaboration with the Ethnography,Photographic Materials, Textiles and Science Groups.We are pleased to be able to bring you acomprehensive selection of the papers presented inGlasgow in this postprint publication.

The Joint Adhesives session epitomised the ethos ofboth the session theme and the Book and Paper

Group committee’s ongoing work to benefit groupmembers, which continues to be focused on our Co-operative Training Register (CTR) scheme. Theconcept of a cross-disciplinary session on adhesiveuse and applications for the similar materials thatseveral groups’ members encounter first came aboutthrough discussions between myself and mycolleagues in the Textile Group following the Bookand Paper Group’s successful CTR courses onadhesives in 2012. As both groups work with cellulose-and protein-based materials, it was clear that wefaced common issues surrounding our use ofadhesives and that we could learn a great deal fromeach others’ practice in this area. Thinking laterally, itwas also clear that, in the Venn diagram that is Icon,there were other groups who could provide valuableinput into such a discussion. And so the JointAdhesives Session grew. This collaboration andsharing of knowledge is the essential benefit of themutuality of our dynamic and vibrant conservationcommunity under Icon and it was good to see thisworking so well in practice in the form of this session.

The Book and Paper Group hopes that you enjoy thepostprints from PF2013 and that, whether you wereable to attend the conference in person or not, youtoo can benefit from the knowledge and willingnessto collaborate across the conservation community thatwas demonstrated in these sessions.

Victoria Stevens ACR


Introduction

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Abstract

This paper tells the story surrounding the BodleianLibrary’s copy of Mr. William Shakespeares comedies,histories, & tragedies, known as the First Folio. Itdescribes two public fundraising campaigns, 106years apart, both of which focused on conserving thebook in the fullest sense of the word. The role ofconservation, whether by conservators and book-binders or by librarians and book collectors, in thestory of the Bodleian’s First Folio, is crucial: thedamage to the pages of the book tells us anenormous amount about the plays that are printed onthem and demonstrates which plays were popularwith the seventeenth-century reader (Romeo andJuliet) and which were ignored (King John). The paperdiscusses the role of the conservator as an enabler ofscholarship and as an advocate for fundraising andwidening access as well as a repairer of books andpaper.

Keywords:

book conservation, Shakespeare, digitisation,fundraising, access, minimal intervention

Introduction

The story of the Bodleian Library’s copy of Mr. WilliamShakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies (1623)is both a great detective story and an astonishing lost-and-found tale. It is also a study of the history ofconservation in the widest sense of the word, at theBodleian and elsewhere. Although the remit of theBook Conservation team was to carry out minimalrepairs – a familiar enough role for book conservators– this project turned out to be remarkable as much forthe repairs that we did not do as for those that we did.This attitude echoes the approach the Library tookwith respect to this particular book long before theconcept of minimal intervention became part ofconservation’s vocabulary: the Library exercisednotable restraint in not having this volume repaired ata period when repairing a book with this level ofdamage would have been routine.


Outrageous fortune: conservation and the Bodleian’s First Folio

Chapter 1: Collaborative Conservation

Nicole Gilroy ACR, Julie Sommerfeldt, Arthur Green, Andrew Honey ACR, Sabina Pugh ACR

The Bodleian’s copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare. TheBodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, Arch. G c.7,binding (above), title page and left flyleaf (below)

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This paper describes the role of the Bodleian BookConservation team in the Sprint for Shakespearefundraising campaign launched in Summer 2012 toenable digitisation of the Bodleian’s copy of the FirstFolio (as it will be called throughout this paper).1,2 Theproject mirrored an earlier campaign in 1905 to buyback the book from private ownership.3 Bothcampaigns were innovative in their appeal to thepublic for modest donations, their emphasis on theimportance of the story surrounding the book’s return,and in their appreciation of the significance ofphysical damage as evidence of its history. The storyof the 2012 campaign can only be fully understoodwhen set in the context of a much longer story, and sowe will now set the scene.

The First Folio at the Bodleian

The Bodleian Library was founded in 1602 by SirThomas Bodley and is the principal library of OxfordUniversity, housing a vast collection of rare books andmanuscripts as well as modern academic holdings.4 In1612 an agreement was reaffirmed between SirThomas Bodley and the London Stationers’ Companyrequiring that a copy of every new book published inEngland and registered at Stationers’ Hall be sent tothe Bodleian Library. This agreement has evolved intothe legal deposit rights currently shared by theBodleian and five other libraries throughout the BritishIsles under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003.5

In 1623 a copy of the First Folio came to the libraryunbound in sheets. It is not known whether it cameunder the Stationers’ Company agreement or byother means.6 Records of binding in the BodleianLibrary’s daybook of 1621–1624 show that on 17 February 1624, the First Folio was one of nine titlessent out to Oxford binder, William Wildgoose.7 Thesignature of Wildgoose acknowledges their receipt,and beside each title is the letter ‘R’ signifying its return.

Once bound, the First Folio was chained in place inthe library, and an early twentieth-century photographrecords the exact spot where it was shelved, fore-edge outwards. The First Folio essentially madeShakespeare accessible to Bodleian readers for thefirst time and the fragile and tattered pages, wornaway entirely in places, stand as testimony to theextremely heavy use it first received. This heavy usecan be explained by both its subject matter and itsposition within the library.

English plays and ephemera were not the kind ofbooks that Sir Thomas Bodley wanted in the libraryand, in a 1612 letter to Bodley’s first librarian, ThomasJames, he states, ‘… the more I think upon it, the

more it doth distaste me that such kind of booksshould be vouchsafed a room in so noble a Library’.8

Half of the plays in the First Folio, including JuliusCaesar, Macbeth, The Tempest and As You Like It, hadnot previously been in print, and those already in printin quarto format were entirely absent from theBodleian Library in accordance with Sir ThomasBodley’s wishes.

During the seventeenth century in the BodleianLibrary, access to books belonging to the Faculties ofLaw, Medicine and Theology was directly supervised.Arts books, however, were housed in Arts End (anearly-seventeenth-century addition to the library)where access was freely available to all readers. TheFirst Folio was shelved just opposite the only break ina long line of seating. At that time in the Library, theFirst Folio was not only a rare example of what wasoften dismissed as ‘light literature’ but was physicallyvery accessible. These factors combined couldpartially account for its popularity within the Librarywith Bodleian readers looking for distraction.

Much is revealed about the reading habits of thesemid-seventeenth-century audiences and thecontemporary reception of Shakespeare’s plays, bystudying the damage to the pages of the First Folio.The extensive wear and tear to the pages of tragediessuch as Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and Macbethtestify to their being the most read plays in thevolume. Histories such as King John and Richard II, bycomparison, are almost pristine. The most thumbedand worn page in the volume faces the now famousbalcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.

As far as we know, the volume remained in use withinthe library for the next 40 years. The Second Folio(1632) contained only minor changes from the firstand does not appear in any of the Library’scatalogues. The concept of first editions ascollectable items was not yet part of the culturalzeitgeist and after the new and improved Third Folio(with the inclusion of new material) arrived in 1664, theFirst Folio was regarded as out of date. The Librarywas struggling for space and had already needed tobuild an extension to house the bequest of thousandsof books from John Selden. An entry in the Bodleianaccounting records for 1663 –1664 states that £24 wasreceived from an Oxford bookseller, Richard Davis, for‘superfluous Library Books sold by order of theCurators’. It is assumed that the First Folio wasamongst these, and it does not appear in Librarycatalogues after this date.

Our story now jumps ahead to January 23, 1905 whenMr Gladwin Turbutt (1883–1914), an Oxford


Outrageous fortune: conservation and the Bodleian’s First Folio Nicole Gilroy, Julie Sommerfeldt, Arthur Green, Andrew Honey, Sabina Pugh

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undergraduate student at Magdalen College, broughta worn and battered copy of the First Folio to theBodleian for advice on its value. Strickland Gibson,Assistant Librarian at the Bodleian, examined thebinding and the pattern of oblique hatching blind-tooled on the tail edge of both boards and spineimmediately told him he was looking at aseventeenth-century Oxford binding.9 He hadpublished Early Oxford Bindings just two years beforeand had registered that a First Folio had existedwithin a group of titles sent for binding by theBodleian but that it was no longer in the Library.10 Thisknowledge allowed Gibson to piece together certainfeatures of the Turbutt First Folio and to identify itwithout doubt as the missing Bodleian copy. Thedistinctive mark on the upper fore-edge of the leftboard showed that the book had come from achained library but the definitive feature proved to bethe printed waste used as pastedowns. Identified as aDutch incunable, it matched other pastedowns in thegroup sent by the Bodleian to be bound by WilliamWildgoose in 1624.11

The whereabouts of the First Folio after 1664 areunknown. After the presumed sale to Richard Davis, itappears to have made its way to London where it wasprobably purchased during the early eighteenthcentury by Gladwin’s great-great-grandfather, RichardTurbutt (1681–1758) of Ogsden Hall, Derbyshire.Interest in Shakespeare was growing and Richard wasan avid book collector with a specific interest in thestage. He made regular visits to London, buyingapproximately one thousand volumes of plays

between 1724 and 1740.12 Unfortunately, although hisaccounts make frequent mention of books purchased,they rarely name individual volumes. The First Folioremained in the library at Ogsden Hall until GladwinTurbutt brought it back to the Bodleian in 1905. TheTurbutts were considering the possibility of sellingtheir copy as they realised it was of value and wereconcerned about death duties payable on the estate.

The 1906 Bodleian fundraising campaign

The Bodleian wanted the volume back despitealready owning one copy of the First Folio, received in1821 as part of the bequest of the Shakespeareanscholar Edmund Malone (1741–1812).13 The Malonecopy was in very good condition: it could be handledand read safely and had been neatly bound in theeighteenth century. The ‘Turbutt First Folio’ was verydifferent: its handling evidence was that of an earlyaudience rather than that of later textual scholars andthe evidence of this use had survived largely withoutinterference. It had its original Oxford binding,commissioned by the Library itself, with all thepaperwork to prove it. Most importantly of all,perhaps, it was a prodigal son returned home and thestory of its survival was almost as significant as whatwas contained between the boards. The academicstudy of the plays and the textual history of thevolume’s production are of course critically importantto Shakespearean scholarship but it was the story ofthe book itself that captured the imagination of thepublic then as well as now.


Evidence identifying the copy as bound by Wildgoose for the Bodleian (clockwise from left): diagram of edge-hatchingpatterns from Pearson (2000), courtesy of Oxford Bibliographic Society; blind-tooled hatching on tail edge; printed wastefrom incunable, seen here as left board-sheet; the Bodleian’s First Folio (third from top) with three other volumes bound inthe same batch. The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, Arch. G c.7, BB 12 Th., C 18.11 Th., C 2.3 Th.


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Word spread in the bookselling world that the copymight be on the market, and media interest in thestory was immediate. The publicity led to ananonymous American buyer offering the thenunprecedented sum of £3000 for the volume. TheTurbutt family generously stalled, giving the Bodleiantime to match the offer, and, of necessity and in greathaste, the first public fundraising campaign in thelibrary’s history was born.

Edward Nicholson, the Bodleian’s Librarian, wrote animpassioned open letter to The Times newspaper. Init he stated unequivocally, ‘For the Bodleian to pay£3,000 or even £1,000 for any printed book is simplyimpossible’. The letter appealed to ‘Oxford Men’ forcontributions to raise the money to buy back the FirstFolio, stating, ‘unless it can be recovered, there will bean indelible blot on our scutcheon’.14

The campaign to save the First Folio for the Bodleiantouched the hearts and minds of the public. Lettersand cards from contributors survive in the Libraryattesting to donations large and small, not just fromOxford graduates, but from men and women from allwalks of life. Over 80 subscribers pledged money, onaverage around one guinea, which is approximately£60 today, and, at the last minute, the Bodleian wasable to match the offer and buy it back.15

Subsequently, it was revealed that the rival bidder wasHenry Clay Folger, who then owned 23 copies of theFirst Folio and would subsequently buy over 50 more.His collection now forms the basis of the FolgerShakespeare Library in Washington D.C.

The 2012 Bodleian campaign

1. Origins of the project

In 2010, Dr Emma Smith of Oxford University’s EnglishFaculty gave a talk to Oxford Alumni called ‘ATreasure lost … and regained’, telling the remarkablestory of the Bodleian’s First Folio.16 Dr Smith was keento widen knowledge of this copy and longed for herstudents to be able to study it. The book, however,was not in a fit state to be handled. The pages wereworn through in many places and could only beturned safely using a spatula. The left board waspartially detached and simply opening the bookrisked causing significant damage.

The First Folio is a high profile Library Treasure and,no doubt, money could be raised for its repair andconservation. The significance of this copy does notlie in the texts contained within the volume: despiteits iconic status there are 228 copies of the First Foliosurviving, four of them in Oxford. The importance of

the Turbutt First Folio lies in the evidence of the wearto the leaves left by early readers of Shakespeare andof its original binding, it is possibly the only survivingcopy that has not been rebound. To repair thisdamaged textblock fully would be an enormousundertaking, which would probably entail resizing,and possibly relining, some of the most heavily wornleaves as well as carrying out a full reback to reattachthe boards. Such extensive treatments would destroythe very essence of what the book can tell us.

Dr Smith suggested that digitising the volume andpublishing it on the web would allow full andunrestricted access to readers both in Oxford andfurther afield. Digitising the First Folio is not a newidea. The Folger Shakespeare Library has alreadydigitised two of their copies and made them availableonline.17 This project would be different: we would bedigitising damage as much as text and making theunique physical evidence presented by this copyavailable for research by a much wider audience thanhad hitherto been permitted.

The project to digitise the volume clearly required theexpertise of various departments workingcollaboratively. The Sprint for Shakespeare team thatwas consequently formed was made up of academicsincluding Dr Smith and her English Faculty colleagues,representatives from the Rare Books department atthe Bodleian, the Imaging Studio, the Library’s digitalpublishing section (BDLSS), Communications andPublishing, Oxford University Development Office andConservation and Collection Care.

Oxford University’s Development Office began to planthe fundraising and the combined cost of photographyand the necessary input from the Conservation teamwas estimated at just under £20,000. The fundraiserssuggested an internet-only campaign with theadvantages of minimal set-up and administrativecosts. The launch was planned to coincide with theLondon 2012 Olympic Games and Cultural Olympiadand the name Sprint for Shakespeare was coined.18

The Development Office secured the support of high-profile Shakespeare lovers Steven Fry, Peter Hall andVanessa Redgrave, whose statements to the presskick-started the campaign.

The aim was to encourage individual donations of£25. This was considered to be an affordable sum formany and would approximate to the cost of digitisingone page of the First Folio. Supporters would havetheir name and dedication published on the projectwebsite and would be entered into a prize draw for aspecially commissioned letterpress keepsake, printedin the Bodleian’s Hand-Printing Workshop.19



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Clive Hurst, the Bodleian’s Head of Rare Books, waswell aware of the extreme fragility of the leaves andvoiced the need for some urgent stabilisationtreatment before photography, as well as handlingassistance during the process. The Book Conservationteam was asked to assess the volume and to see whatcould be done to safeguard it during photography.

The stabilisation work needed to be completedbefore the volume could be photographed, and wasallocated a two-week window prior to thephotographic studio booking. These two weeks werean ideal opportunity for visitors and media to see thebook and so the conservation workshop quicklybecame the public face of the project, hosting visitors,journalists, television crews and photo shoots. The

Book Conservation team blogged daily on theprogress of the conservation work and some of thevisitors contributed guest blog posts adding theirexpertise and opinion to the mix.20

2. Why did the book need to be stabilised?

The textblock of the First Folio is extremelyvulnerable. There is significant evidence to suggestthat the damage occurred early in the book’s historyand that handling during the Turbutt years, and afterits return to the Library, was minimal.21 This evidentialdamage is of great importance and it was critical thatwe did not interfere with it.

The paper itself is rather thin, and has evidence ofvery heavy wear in places, leading to tattered edgesand corners, often with small areas of paper foldedover at the edge of the damage. At some point someof the text-leaves have been carefully repaired withcut patches of a heavy white paper; this probablyhappened shortly after its acquisition by RichardTurbutt.22 There are few actual tears and comparisonof 1906 photographs of the most heavily damagedleaf in its current condition suggests that the damagehas not worsened since its return to the library.23

The First Folio survives in its 1624 blind-tooled in-board binding of brown calf over pulp boards.24

This is possibly the only copy of the First Folio tosurvive in an original, unrestored binding. The bindingis worn and has a textblock break in the middle butthe main danger to the structure is that the five alum-tawed sewing supports are all completely broken atthe left joint and the covering leather at this joint istorn at head and tail. The 1906 photographs showthat most of the damage has been present since then,even scratches and scrapes on the surface of theboards are not new. However, the tear in the joint hasworsened despite extremely restricted handling. Thismeans that the strain of opening the board is placedentirely on the remaining worn and damaged leatherand the risk of further tearing or even boarddetachment during the handling necessary forphotography was significant.

Notwithstanding the evidential value of the damageto the binding and textblock, the proposeddigitisation called for some involvement from theBook Conservation team. The Bodleian’sphotographic studio uses a Grazer book cradle, whichis configured to support the book in the requiredposition, and uses a finely adjustable vacuum bar tohold the leaf being photographed flat and at thecorrect angle. The studio has devised a method tominimise handling of the book during photographyand to take the necessary shots in the most efficient


Damage to the leaves of the textblock: this page faces thefamous balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet and is the mostheavily worn leaf in the book. The Bodleian Libraries,University of Oxford, Arch. G c.7, Tragedies p. 69

The condition of the binding: left, in 1905 as published inThe Turbutt Shakespeare and in 2012 on the right. TheBodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, Arch. G c.7, leftboard


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way. This involves the camera being set up to take allof the recto shots consecutively and thenrepositioning the book to take all of the verso shots.Even with this highly specialised cradle and handlingby an experienced book photographer, the volumemust be gone through page by page twice duringdigitisation, representing a significant risk.

A risk assessment was carried out by Clive Hurst andthe Book Conservation Supervisor and the principlesof conservation were established: the boardattachment should be protected so that it would notdeteriorate during handling; the leaves should besupported so that no tear or damage would getworse nor fragments be detached and, asphotography represented such a significant handlingrisk, the areas of obscured text should bestraightened so that the digital copy would be ascomplete as possible and future demands for imagingwould be minimised.

Access to the volume has been heavily restricted sinceits return to the library and it is very rare that a readerwould be granted access to it. All handling of thebook, whether by conservators or librarians, is minimaland the initial assessment was no exception. Theexamination was done very cautiously, only openingthe book in three or four places, as the condition ofthe board attachment was of great concern. Thismeant that the full extent of the damage to the papercould only be roughly estimated at the planning stage.

The Book Conservation team was permitted accessto the volume for a ten-working-day period beforethe scheduled photography and a treatment planwas devised to fit safely within that window. Thestrategy was to devise a method of supporting theboard attachment before opening the textblock thento work through the entire volume leaf-by-leaf,straightening out creases and folds that were causingtext to be obscured. The time needed for these twoactivities could be estimated with some confidenceby assuming that approximately ten per cent of theleaves might need some attention. Whilst goingthrough the volume, we would note leaves that wefelt needed further support and once this processwas complete we would assess the feasibility ofcarrying out the suggested number of supportingsplints in the time remaining. The risk of thisapproach was that more leaves would be flaggedthan we would have time to complete.

The Book Conservation team spent a lot of timeexamining the volume and thinking carefully aboutthe details of the stabilisation treatments beforecarrying out any intervention. We also thought hardabout terminology and found that we were reluctantto use the terms ‘repair’ or ‘conservation’ as these ledto expectations of significantly higher intervention

than we considered either possible or desirable. Theterm ‘stabilisation’ was our preferred description, as itreflects the minimal approach and the intention not tochange or improve the presentation beyond what wasabsolutely necessary.

3. Conservation

Before opening the book, we needed to address theissue of the vulnerable board attachment. The teamdecided to apply a laminated Japanese paper patchto bridge the broken left joint and provide support forthe fragile board attachment. The papers used for thelaminate were carefully chosen to create stiffness aswell as flexibility. The patch was positioned across theupper left outer joint, where it could easily slideunderneath the lifting spine leather and fit intoexisting splits in the delaminated board. A templatewas used to check correct size, shape and positioningbefore the patch was secured in place, using wheatstarch paste. Supporting the board attachment wastechnically a simple task but the challenge was tojudge positioning and pressure so that the boardfunction was supported without creating tensionselsewhere in the joint.

The patch was left to dry overnight, held in place withpadded clamps. The next day we reviewed themechanics of the joint, not fully opening the bookuntil the reinforcement of the board attachment wasdeemed successful. It was at this early stage that thetemptation to ‘tidy things up’ became apparent andthe team became aware that each act of interventionwould have a knock-on effect on the functioning ofthe joint, making more and more work necessary.After much discussion, a communal decision wasmade to go no further in the structural or cosmetictreatment of the joint.

Once the board attachment had been protected thevolume could be opened with more confidence andthe team was able to proceed with treatment of thetextblock. The leaves of the volume were assessedone by one and treated where necessary, relaxingareas of obscured text using a 50% mixture of IMS(Industrial Methylated Spirits) and water and notingleaves that required additional treatment. The finalthree leaves had become detached and so thesecould be worked on outside the volume. They wereloosely inserted into the volume at the end of thetreatment but not re-attached: this was in line withour ethos of minimal intervention and wasconsidered to be safe bearing in mind the restrictionson reader access.

Creases and folds were relaxed and straightened ontwenty leaves in the volume as well as the three



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detached leaves but only in places where text wasobscured and stopping once the text was revealed. Inmany places, this meant leaving significant damage

untouched and it was surprisingly difficult to maintainthis level of restraint. One advantage of working infrequently changing pairs was that a kind of naturalself-regulating mechanism was attained, ensuring asmuch consistency in the work as possible. To ensurethat the original guidelines established for theconservation work were strictly maintained, it wasnecessary to reinforce the idea in our own minds, timeafter time, that the volume was not being treated tomake it safe for regular handling but only to the pointof enabling digitisation and absolutely no further.

Fourteen leaves were noted as being unsafe to turn,even with great care. These leaves had severe edgedamage combined with heavy historic repair patchesthat weighed down the leaf and meant that the paperwould tear further as the leaf was turned. Beforetreatment, the leaves could only be turned byinserting a support sheet under the leaf but this wasextremely difficult and would not have been feasibleduring digitisation, as it would not have been possibleto position the leaf safely on the vacuum bar of theGrazer cradle. Tiny Japanese paper splints were


Revealing obscured text with minimal interference: before (left) and after (right). The Bodleian Libraries, University ofOxford, Arch. G c.7, Tragedies p. 398

Stabilisation treatment: the joint support patch in placeinserted underneath the spine leather and securedbetween layers of the pulp board. The Bodleian Libraries,University of Oxford, Arch. G c.7


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applied to support these damaged areas, providingjust enough support to allow safe turning. Thesesplints were extremely unobtrusive in size and colourand very few in number.

4. Digitisation

After the stabilisation work was complete, the bookwas still extremely fragile. During the digitisationprocess, the Book Conservation team worked in shiftsalongside the imaging studio staff to assist inpositioning, supporting and handling the First Folioon the cradle. The book had to be set up eachmorning and the position adjusted as workprogressed throughout the textblock. Pages wheretears were held together by splints were carefullyturned without further damage and the painstakingprocess was completed in five days.

5. Boxing

The final part of the conservation treatment was toprovide new housing for the volume. A presentationbox had been commissioned in 1906 by the Libraryfor the Turbutt First Folio from the Oxfordbookbinding firm, Maltby’s, still trading today. Thebox is now damaged and no longer serves the needs

of the volume, so a new box was designed. Thisbespoke box is constructed from archival board andcovered with Islandreagh double-warp linen cloth andis designed to be shelved horizontally, which is howthe book is stored in our strongroom. The tray of thebox is made with a platform and shaped with cut-outssuch that the book has to be removed using bothhands and can be grasped without the fingersdigging into the edges of the textblock. The oldpresentation box has been kept and is available toreaders for reference.

Further research

During stabilisation, the Book Conservation teamtook the opportunity to note features of interest thatmay warrant further research, and many of thesecaught the attention of the academics involved withthe project.

When identifying damage to the text leaves, werealised that many of what, at first, looked like tearswere in fact papermaking flaws. The same was true ofwhat looked like turned-over corners. Recent work haslooked at the status of the First Folio as an editionand though it had been assumed that an ‘exemplarcopy’ was presented to the Bodleian on publication, acloser look might suggest that this was not the case.25

Research into the paper stocks of this and other FirstFolios has begun in collaboration with Shakespeareexperts within and without the University.

The Library still holds several volumes sent to thebinder Wildgoose at the same time as the First Folio.The trim is minimal: many deckle edges survive andthe Bodleian’s First Folio is one of the largest copiesto survive. Examination of the edges of the textblockrevealed marks that appear to have been caused bytrimming with a drawknife.26 It is possible thattrimming with a drawknife rather than a plough mightindicate a certain economy in the binding but perhapsit was a deliberate attempt to minimise the amounttrimmed from the edges. It would be fascinating tostudy the binding further to try to shed further light onthese questions.

Media response

The University’s Development Office sent out theproject’s press release to coincide with the start of theOlympic games. This was a bold move as the publicityfor the games filled the newspapers. Nevertheless,the launch was covered by The Times, as the firstcampaign had been, and featured in the Telegraph,The New York Times, MSN News and many blogs andother online media. Journalists from the Guardian,


Features triggering further research: suspected drawknifetrim marks on fore-edge of textblock (above) andpapermaking flaw (below). The Bodleian Libraries,University of Oxford, Arch. G c.7, Tragedies p. 381


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BBC Radio 4 and the local news visited the workshopswith their photographers and published andbroadcast interviews with the project team and themuch-amplified sound of the leaves of the First Foliobeing turned on national radio! This media stormhelped kick-start the fundraising but, equallyimportantly, it enhanced the profile of the University,the Bodleian Libraries and, ultimately, the BookConservation team. Such focused attention increasedawareness of what we do and why and caught theimagination of the public, both about Shakespeareand about the value and significance of books inacademia and in wider society.

Conclusion

The Sprint for Shakespeare project successfully met itsbasic stated outputs: the money was raised by thedeadline of Christmas 2012, the book was digitisedand the images were mounted on the project websiteon Shakespeare’s birthday, 23rd April. From the pointof view of the Book Conservation team, our role wasalso successful: the volume was photographedwithout damage to the board attachment and withouttearing or loss of fragments. There were, in addition,many more outcomes from the project which hasbecome the start of something much bigger than aten-day repair job. Conservation played a pivotal rolein enabling and supporting scholarship as well assimply sticking things together. The workshopbecame a natural hub for the project as scholars andvisitors gravitated to the area as the book was beingworked on and new research questions were raisedfrom the unique viewpoint of the conservatorexamining the materiality of the volume as well as itscontents. The role of the conservator was not only tosafeguard the physical book but was extended to oneof outreach and communication, facilitating exchangebetween the project’s many and varied stakeholders.

The book was extremely fragile and seriouslydamaged but, despite publically noting this, theBodleian librarians of 1906 did not have it repaired inany way, even though their peers at a contemporaryBritish library recommended that Gladwin Turbutthave the book rebound in full morocco.27 How didbinders and conservators manage to keep their handsoff it for so long? And what does this tell us about thehistory of attitudes to repair and what was consideredimportant by collectors, bibliographers and librariansat various points in the volume’s history? What is thesignificance of the flawed paper stock and what canwe learn from the study of the Wildgoose bindings?All of these are questions we plan to address in thecontinued development of this fascinating and multi-disciplinary project.


Publicity and media response to the project: projectchampion Vanessa Redgrave with actors from OxfordUniversity Dramatic Society (above) and BBC Oxford filmcrew (below). The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford


12

Footnotes

1 Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, Sprint for Shakespeare,http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

2 William Shakespeare, Mr. William Shakespeares comedies,histories, & tragedies. Published according to the true originallcopies. (London: Printed by Isaac Jaggard, and Ed. Blount, 1623).Bodleian shelfmark: Arch. G c.7.

3 Falconer Madan, Gladwin Turbutt and Strickland Gibson, TheOriginal Bodleian Copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare (TheTurbutt Shakespeare) (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1905). Thestory leading up to the first campaign is described in detail.

4 Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, ‘History of the Bodleian’,http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/about-us/history

5 United Kingdom Parliament, The Legal Deposit Libraries Act2003, Chapter 28,http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/28/contents

6 Bodleian Library staff during the 1906 campaign did assume theFirst Folio came to the library under the Stationers’ Companyagreement and called it an ‘exemplar copy’. However, the evidencefor this is currently being questioned.

7 Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, ‘The Bodleian’s originalFirst Folio of Shakespeare’, in The Conveyor: News from SpecialCollections at the Bodleian Libraries,http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/theconveyor/2012/09/11/the-bodleians-original-first-folio-of-shakespeare/. Bodleian LibraryRecords consist of the library’s archive of its own history. MS. LibraryRecords e.528 is the Bodleian Library Binders Book from 1621–1624,and the relevant entry is on fol. 45r.

8 Sir Thomas Bodley to Thomas James, 1612, in ‘Companion Text:Renaissance Theatre’, Routledge Anthology of Renaissance Drama,ed. Simon Barker and Hilary Hinds,http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/0415187346/companiontext/pdf/LetterfromSirThomasBodley.pdf

9 David Pearson, Oxford Bookbinding 1500–1640 (Oxford: OxfordBibliographical Society, 2000), 38, table 2. The hatching pattern onthe binding most closely resembles edge pattern ‘J’, found onOxford bindings c.1590–1650.

10 Strickland Gibson, Early Oxford Bindings (Oxford: OUP printedfor the Bibliographical Society, 1903).

11 Marcus Tullius Cicero, De officiis, et al. (Deventer: RichardPafraet, between 1480 and 1485).

12 Madan, Turbutt, and Gibson, The Original Bodleian Copy, 7.

13 Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, ‘Rare Books NamedCollection Descriptions: Malone, Edmund, 1741–1812’,http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/finding-resources/special/catalogues/rare_books_named_collections/rare_books_named_collection_descriptions

14 Open Letter by E. Nicholson, Bodley’s Librarian, The Times,March 12, 1906, accessed as an original clipping included in Madan,Turbutt, and Gibson, The Original Bodleian Copy.

15 Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, ‘The Bodleian’s FirstFolio’, Sprint for Shakespeare,http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/the-bodleians-first-folio/

16 University of Oxford, Podcasts, ‘The Bodleian Shakespeare: Atreasure lost … and regained’, http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/bodleian-shakespeare-treasure-lost-and-regained-video

17 The Folger Shakespeare Library, ‘The First Folio’,http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=436

18 The Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and ParalympicGames, http://www.london2012.com/about-us/cultural-olympiad/.The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest culturalcelebration in the history of the modern Olympic and ParalympicMovements.

19 Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, ‘Prize Draw’, Sprint forShakespeare, http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/the-project/prize-draw/

20 Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, ‘The Bodleian’s FirstFolio’, Sprint for Shakespeare,http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/the-bodleians-first-folio/


22 It is impossible to prove when this repair happened, though itlooks like the work of an enthusiastic amateur rather than that of abinder, suggesting that it was done after the sale rather than whilethe book was still at the Bodleian.

23 Madan, Turbutt, and Gibson, The Original Bodleian Copy,plates IV and VI.

24 Nicole Gilroy, Arthur Green, Andrew Honey, Sabina Pugh andJulie Sommerfeldt, Arch. G c.7 Conservation Report (workingdocument, Conservation and Collection Care, Bodleian Library,University of Oxford, UK, 2012). A full binding description of theFirst Folio is included in this document.


26 J. A. Szirmai, The archaeology of medieval bookbinding(Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), 197, figure 9.14, and J. A. Szirmai,‘Carolingian bindings in the Abbey Library of St Gall’, in Making themedieval book: techniques of production, ed. Linda Brownrigg(London: Anderson-Lovelace, 1995), 157–180 at 166, figure 16.These photographs of textblock edges with score marks caused bythe drawknife have been used for comparison.



Appendix 1: Materials and Suppliers

Hosokawa Ohban Japanese Paper, Preservation Equipment Ltd,Vinces Road Diss, Norfolk IP22 4HQ,http://www.preservationequipment.com

Hasegawa 1.6 monme Japanese paper, purchased directly from themaker Satoshi Hasegawa, [email protected],http://www.minogami.com/index.html

Islandreagh double warp linen cloth is no longer available fromsuppliers. The Bodleian purchased a stock many years ago which isstill in use.

Wheat Starch powder, catalogue number 21146.290, VWRInternational, https://uk.vwr.com/app/Home

Speedry Magic Colour liquid acrylics, Broad Canvas Art SuppliesShop, 20 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3AS,http://www.broadcanvas.net/

Grazer Conservation Copy Stand 6545, Icam Archive Systems Ltd, 3The Old Mill, Blisworth Hill Barns, Stoke Road, Blisworth,Northamptonshire NN7 3DB,http://www.icamarchive.co.uk/grazer.htm

Bespoke Archival Book Boxes, Bridget Mitchell, ACR, 70–71 TheStreet, Helhoughton, Fakenham Norfolk NR21 7BP,http://www.arcapreservation.co.uk

Maltby’s the Bookbinders, Horspath Trading Centre, Pony Road,Oxford OX4 2RD, http://www.maltbysbookbinders.com/


13

From about the twelfth century, Spanish nobles couldprove their status by having the crown offices atGranada or Valladolid validate their lineage. Hundredsof official documents were produced over the yearsfor this purpose, called Carta Ejecutoria de Hidalguia,which translates as something like ‘Official Documentsof Nobility’. It was common practice for the noblefamily to bind the originals or certified copies of thesedocuments together, and the elaborate style of thesebindings – which were most frequently covered inrichly coloured velvet – signified the nobility and highstatus of the owner.

This paper outlines the conservation treatment of aCarta Ejecutoria of the Sanz family, completed as partof an MA project at Camberwell College of Arts.

The manuscript dated to the end of the seventeenthcentury and was primarily on paper. It consisted of thetranscription of six official documents relating tovarious members of the Sanz family. These werebound together with herringbone sewing on doublecords, between beech boards covered in pink velvet.

The opulent appearance of the volume had diminishedover the centuries since its binding: the velvetcovering no longer remained across the spine; andthe book had been squashed, distorting the spineshape and pushing the boards out of alignment. Butmost concerning was the deterioration of thetextblock. Iron gall ink corrosion was evident throughout,particularly affecting the ruled borders on every pageof the manuscript. The damage was so serious that onsome folios the area of manuscript within the borderswas almost detached from the binding.


The conservation of a seventeenth-century Carta Ejecutoria de Hidalguia

Lucy Crombie

An illustration of Don Rodrigo Sanz on his horse, whichtakes prime position at the front of the manuscript.

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Treatment of the manuscript required decisionsabout all three of these issues: the iron gall ink-induced corrosion of the textblock; the misalignmentof the spine, and the damage to the textile covering.These key areas of consideration are discussed in the following.

Iron gall ink corrosion

Options for the treatment of iron gall ink corrosionremain limited – even more so if the object affected isbound, and the use of wet treatments such as calciumphytate is prohibited. In this case, it was clear that thetextblock should not be disbound because of thestability of the original herringbone sewing. A fugitivered pigment, used adjacent to the iron gall inkborders on every page, also ruled out any kind ofaqueous, chemical treatment.

Within institutional collections, the best option forsimilar severely corroded bound manuscripts mayoften be to stabilise the damage sufficiently for thebook to be digitised, before confining the original tofavourable conditions of low relative humidity and

strictly limiting its availability to readers. But for thismanuscript, part of a private collection, digitisationand restricted use was not an option: it needed to beable to withstand occasional handling.

It was concluded that low-moisture, mechanical repairby means of a remoistenable tissue was the mostsuitable means of stabilising the textblock andallowing the continued functioning of the manuscript.Series of tests were carried out to select the type ofremoistenable tissue most appropriate for the repairs.On the basis of the results of extensive testing carriedout by Andrea Pataki and Eliza Jacobi amongstothers, three types of adhesive were chosen fortrialling – gelatine, methylcellulose, and Klucel G –and two types of tissue – Berlin tissue, and Paper NaoRK00. The outcome of these trials was the selection ofa gelatine-coated Berlin tissue for the repair tissue.

This decision was based on the strength, tone andeven structure of Berlin tissue; the strength of thegelatine adhesive, and the potential capacity for typeB gelatine to fix iron (II) ions.


The process of repairing the folios.

The conservation of a seventeenth-century Carta Ejecutoria de Hidalguia Lucy Crombie

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The tendency for the broken edges of the borders tocatch against one another made it necessary to usethe remoistenable tissue to support areas of lossentirely, rather than bridging losses with smallersplints. Strips of prepared tissue were reactivated on areservoir of deionised water, and applied them toboth the recto and verso of damaged areas. Largerlosses were infilled with toned Usumino tissue. Theamount of moisture transferred to the ink and thelevel of iron (II) migration caused by application of theremoistened tissue was monitored and controlled witha tool developed by Eliza Jacobi: an indicator paperimpregnated with bathophenanthroline, and stampedwith iron gall ink. If a strip of remoistened tissueapplied to the indicator paper results in pink haloingof the iron gall stamp, then too much moisture hasbeen used to reactivate the adhesive on the tissue,and migration of iron ions has occurred. The level ofmoisture can then be reduced by reducing theamount of moisture in the reactivation reservoir, orlifting the tissue away from the reservoir more quickly.

Spine misalignment

The decision to try to realign the distorted spine wasinfluenced significantly by the requirements of thevulnerable textblock. A major potential benefit ofattempting realignment was the improvement thatcould be achieved in the opening of the book,reducing the strain on fragile areas of the folios afterrepair, and lessening the risk to the manuscriptthrough future use.

Treatments to alter the spine shape were attemptedbeginning with less interventive approaches. Firstly,during periods of treatment to the folios, the spinewas manipulated into a more suitable position.

The book was also stored with slight pressure on thespine encouraging it into improved alignment.Although these measures improved the spine’spotential for movement towards a more suitableposition, the tendency remained to slip back out ofalignment. This seemed to be down to the strongmemory of the skewed shape retained by the


The process of repairing the folios.

The awkward opening of the manuscript put particular strain on the breaking borders in the gutter of the textblock.


16

parchment panels adhered across the spine. In orderto enable the spine to retain its new shape the jointsof these panels were humidified with poultices of setgelatine, and re-set with the spine secured in position.

Small strips of aerocotton lined with Tengujo wereadhered over the spine and onto the boards to givefurther support. These were cut to fit between theparchment and the sewing cords, avoiding coveringor applying adhesive to any of the structural or mostvulnerable components of the spine. In combination,these treatments had an immediate impact on thespine’s shape and alignment, allowing it to remainstraight whilst unsupported, improving the openingof the textblock, and ultimately lessening strain onthe folios.

Damage to the velvet covering

The last issue addressed in conservation of thevolume was the damage to the velvet covering, andthe vulnerability of the exposed spine. Varioussolutions were considered for protecting the spinestructure, such as making a chemise to cover theentire volume, but ultimately it was decided to repair

the loss in the velvet. Consultation with textileconservators and others with experience of textilebindings was critical for this stage of treatment.

One hundred per cent linen was chosen to cover thespine, because of its strength and the size of theweave, which closely resembled the ground weave ofthe velvet. The linen was toned to the colour of thevelvet using screen printing pigments. These wereused in preference to fabric dye, as it was possible toapply different shades of pigment locally, and insuccessive layers, creating a tone more sympatheticto the varied fading of the velvet.

The broken edges of the velvet were adhered ontothe linen using silk crepeline coated with a mix ofLascaux 360 HV and 498 HV. This was reactivatedwith a solvent rather than heat to avoid causingfurther damage to the already degraded pile. Thecrepeline was also toned prior to coating withLascaux, to minimise the visual impact of any areasthat might be exposed.

This paper aimed to illustrate how conservationtreatments in this project were employed to allow the


Adjusting the angle of the spine whilst working on repairs to the textblock.


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continued functioning of an extremely damagedmanuscript. Treatment of the textile cover andbinding aimed to prevent further damage to thebook, without overly impacting on original structures.By repairing the iron gall ink damage to the textblock,and providing for continued – if careful – use of thevolume, access to the information contained in themanuscript text was preserved. Importantly, therepairs also allowed for continued access to theinformation evidenced by the elaborate physicality ofthe binding, an aspect that might have been lost had

interventive treatment been rejected in favour oftransmuting the manuscript into a digital record.

Contact: [email protected] 2013


The manuscript after realignment of the spine and repair of the velvet covering.


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Introduction

As part of the final project for my MA in Conservationat Camberwell College of Arts, University of the ArtsLondon, I mounted a calligraphy as a hanging scrollfollowing traditional Chinese procedures. Myobjective was to identify some of the key principles oftraditional Chinese scroll mounting that may havebeen somewhat overlooked by Western conservators,in spite of the growing common interest in thetransfer of Eastern and Western conservation skills.

A craft that has existed for two millennia is obviouslytoo huge a subject for such short discussion, yet Ihope this paper will be able to: firstly describe thereasons why Chinese scroll mounting, or, in fact, anyEastern specialism, should be viewed holistically;secondly, briefly describe the treatment undertaken inthis particular practical project; and thirdly, focus ontraining – just one aspect of this unique traditionalsystem that all conservators face, be they working inEastern or Western fields. In particular, I will look athow differences in training impact on innovation inconservation.

Before continuing I must thank and acknowledge myteacher, Qiu Jin Xian, hereafter Qiu Laoshi (TeacherQiu), for generously sharing her many years of scrollmounting experience with me and for taking me on asa student to train in this unique field. I must alsoextend my thanks to those both within CamberwellCollege and the British Museum who allowed me tocombine my MA course with working and trainingunder Qiu Laoshi at the Hirayama Studio, and theHLF/Icon internship scheme, which first introducedme to this specialism.

A new approach to viewing Eastern techniques

It is clear that over recent decades there has been areal interest in the practices of the Eastern scrollmounter, as evidenced by the number of Westernpaper conservators attending training coursesspecialising in Eastern techniques and the growingbody of literature, seminars and conferencesdedicated to the subject.1

Yet the majority of these sources are rather piecemealin their approach and are focused on the application


Carol Weiss

Forward-looking tradition: mounting a calligraphy as a Chinese hanging scroll

The calligraphy before mounting (in raking light) / Lining the calligraphy with xuan paper and wheat starch paste

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of individual techniques or the uses of particularEastern tools and materials. Many of these techniquesare, in this context, quite reasonably adapted to suitWestern objects, yet they are then separated from thecraft framework in which they are integrated and wereoriginally formed.

It is not disputed that value is clearly derived from theincreasing adoption of individual Eastern techniques,tools, and materials utilised in Western conservationstudios, yet it is proposed that greater benefits maybe achieved by moving away from this individualisticapproach and appraising Chinese scroll mounting, orindeed any Eastern scroll mounting field, as a whole,with three safeguards in place that have developedover centuries of practice. With all three safeguards inplace, conceivably interventive processes have theirrisks massively reduced. These safeguards are:

(i) the absolute importance placed on the correct useof traditional tools and materials;

(ii) the precise execution of complex nuancedtechniques;

(iii) the overarching importance of the intensivetraining process. It is this last safeguard that I shallfocus on.

Practical case study

But first to briefly describe the treatment that wasundertaken in this project as an example of Chinesescroll mounting practice, I quote an extract from theseminal Western writer on Chinese scroll mounting –Robert Van Gulik, writing in the late 1950s:

An unmounted picture or autograph does not lookvery attractive. The paper … is all crumpled up bythe wrinkles that develop there where ink orcolours were heavily applied, and the canvasseems too thin to lend body to the brush stroke. Itneeds the art of the mounter to show its beauty …When the scroll has been properly mounted all thewrinkles will have disappeared, the ink shows adeep black tone … and the picture is fittinglyframed by assorted strips of coloured paper andsilk cut to harmonious proportions (Van Gulik,1958, p. 57).

This passage could well have been written about thecalligraphy in question. It was in fairly good condition,yet was vulnerable due to its folded storage, sufferingfrom prominent creasing and folds throughout. Therewas risk of damage to the object in handling andunfolding, as well as a high risk of squashing whilst instorage – all issues stemming from its majorvulnerability – the xuan paper substrate’s fineness.

It was thus proposed to mount this twentieth-centurycalligraphy as a Chinese hanging scroll as Van Gulik


The finished hanging scroll, on display (left) and rolled up(above)

Forward-looking tradition: mounting a calligraphy as a Chinese hanging scroll Carol Weiss

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describes, to demonstrate the need for all threesafeguards to be in place to create a successful mountfor combined aesthetic and conservation reasons.

In recording this treatment for my own learning, Idetailed hundreds of individual steps in the mountingprocess. But in summary: the calligraphy had its inkstested for fugitivity which were found to be stable.The object was lined with xuan paper using a thinconsistency wheat starch paste before being placedon a karibari board to dry. A mount was designed andappropriate silks were selected to form the frame; atwo-coloured mount with jingyan was chosen. Thesesilks were lined with xuan paper and thicker wheatstarch paste and after drying on the karibari board,were cut to size and attached to the trimmedcalligraphy by means of chuzhu (xuan paper joiningstrips). After the scroll was assembled, a backingpaper to cover the entire verso was produced bylining two layers of xuan paper together. This wasthen applied to the scroll’s verso using thin wheatstarch paste, as well as other decorative and structuralelements including cover silk to protect the scroll

when rolled. The scroll was then adhered to thedrying board with a thick paste margin where itremained for six weeks. After this drying period thescroll was taken down and burnished before having awooden top stave and bottom roller with woodenzhoutou (rolling knobs) attached with thick wheatstarch paste. A braid and ribbon were attached toenable hanging and tying.

In order to facilitate the appropriate use of tools andmaterials and master the precision with which thecomplex series of procedures and techniques must beexecuted, an intensive training period of around tenyears is needed before one can properly call oneself amounter. During that time, training under thedirection of a scroll mounting Master is absolutelyessential – the third safeguard of Chinese scrollmounting.

Training styles and the impact on innovation

I have observed Qiu Laoshi perform these processesnumerous times before, and it is through assisting and


Observing Qiu Jin Xian at work, here brushing backing papers on to a hanging scroll’s verso


21

copying what is observed, without questioning, that ascroll mounter must train.

Copying one’s teacher exactly is the fundamentalmode of training in many Eastern fields; for example,in Chinese painting, an artist can spend a lifetimecopying the art of Masters before he ever attempts hisown style. To understand this concept, one mustrealise, as Van Gulik does when speaking about themanufacture of pictorial art, that ‘in China original andcopy are not separated by as wide a gulf as with us inthe West’ (1958, p. 215).

The Australian conservator Colin Pearson complainedwhen visiting conservation studios in Chinesemuseums in the late 1970s that although ‘the level oftraditional skills carried out was very high … the mostdisappointing aspect of the work seen was theemphasis on replica production’ (1978, p. 55). He didnot recognise that replica work is itself a form ofpreservation in China, not just in recreating versions ofheritage objects as facsimiles, but by honing the skillsnecessary to preserve the originals; it is through thiscopying that the craft is learnt.

Mastering traditional techniques means using onlymaterials very similar to those developed centuriesago (Van Gulik, 1958, p. 215; Schmitt, 2011, p. 199).Western conservators are increasingly interested inthe long-term behaviour of the materials they use, asevidenced by numerous research studies usingaccelerated ageing, yet the materials and techniquesof the scroll mounter have already been proved toprovide lasting, reversible protection over real time(Masuda & Oryū, 2000, p. 231; Oka, 2004, p. 17). Thisoverarching and all-consuming respect for traditiondiffers greatly to the approach found in many Westernconservation training programs, where students areencouraged to formulate new practices early on intheir training. To play devil’s advocate, if viewingconservation work from a risk managementperspective, surely the tried-and-tested approachmust be deemed safer?

Some, like Richard Smith in his 1999 paper,‘Reversibility: A questionable philosophy’, haveimplied that traditional crafts following the tried andtested techniques are static since ‘conservators arenot encouraged to create, develop, evaluate, or applynew technologies’ (p. 99). Yet this assumes that

copying excludes innovation. In the field of Chineseart, because of reverence to tradition, when a newinnovation or style emerges it is usually without theidea of breaking away from the past, but as VanBriessen puts it in his book on Chinese brush painting,emerging gradually from it (1962, p. 32).

Chinese scroll mounting is by no means static.Scholars recognise that the lining techniques thatinitially started Chinese scroll mounting were no wayas refined as they are now; they took ‘several centuriesof experimenting’ to develop from the first lined bookrolls in 100 AD (Van Gulik, 1958, p. 172, p. 177 & p.135). Innovations in Chinese scroll mounting are nowcoming from an increased openness with scientistsand other conservation specialists. But developmentsmust first pay respect to tradition and evolve onlyonce technical skill is mastered, sanctioned by a widematerials knowledge. Innovations therefore come inslower and subtler form than in Western practice, butwith reduced risks. Alongside this, traditional practicalskills are preserved – skills honed over centuries whichwould be difficult to recover if ever lost.

Conclusion

Returning to the calligraphy from this project,although I am generally pleased with this hangingscroll, there are many areas which could be improvedupon. The areas for improvement stand testament tothe need for long-term training under the discerningeye of the Master.

I am not advocating in any way that every Westernconservator enter an Eastern apprentice system, neverinnovate new treatments, or that all Asian objectsshould be mounted in traditional Asian formats. Butrather that Chinese scroll mounting when viewed as awhole with its three safeguards in place, can be usedas a prism through which Western conservators canre-evaluate certain aspects of their own work,including amongst them: the duration and intensity ofconservation training programmes, the never-endingsearch for ‘new’ ideas at the expense of masteringtraditional crafts, and conservators’ relationships withmaterials and the time invested into deep practicalfamiliarisation with them.



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Endnotes

1 Evidence includes: two volumes of the The Paper Conservatordedicated solely to the conservation of East Asian art (vol. 9, 1985 &vol. 30, 2006) including bibliographies by Bennett and Minterespectively; Tobunken and Masuda’s ICCROM courses on theConservation of Oriental Art from 1982–2002, continuing now inJapan; Koyano’s Handbook of Mounting Techniques (1979); the 1988IIC conference on the Conservation of Far Eastern Art held inKyoto, right up to the recent 2011 Chinese Heritage Conference,Paper from the East; and the ongoing work of the Tokyo National

Research Institute for Cultural Properties, notably in 1977 & 1988.There have also been many other additional papers includingamongst them the work of: Johnson, 1972; Wills, 1987; McClintock,2006; Huxtable & Webber, 1987; Meredith, 1995a&b, Nicholson &Page, 1988; Toishi & Washizuka, 1987; Hare, 2006; Gu, Hou &Gouet, 1999; Webber, 2006, 2001 & 1997; Kite & Webber, 1995;Burdett & Thomson, 2002; Green & Qiu, 2005; Landwehr, 2006;Masuda; 2001; Nishio, 2001 & 1993.


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Webber, P. (2006) East and West: a unified approach to paperconservation. The Paper Conservator. 30. pp. 43–56.

Webber, P. (2001) Chinese wallpapers in the British galleries. V&AConservation Journal. 39. Autumn 2001. pp. 25–27.

Webber, P. (1997) Dealing with large format works of art on paper atthe V&A. In: Eagan, J. (ed.) IPC Conference Papers London 1997.Leigh: Institute of Paper Conservation. pp. 20–33.

Wills, P. (1987) New directions of the ancient kind: conservationtraditions in the Far East. The Paper Conservator. 11. pp. 36–38.


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Based on a thesis submitted in support of MAConservation – Art on Paper Camberwell College ofArts, UAL

Introduction

This paper outlines the concept of large-scaletreatments in paper conservation. The possibilitiesand limitations of large-scale treatments are derivedfrom research into their history and current application.A case study of a collection of the Church of EnglandRecord Centre (CERC) underpins this research.

The CERC collection comprises more than 7,400architectural reproductions and drawings,photographs, maps and plans of various age, materialand condition. A collection of architectural drawings isa very good example of the possibilities andlimitations of the large-scale treatment approach, astheir preservation ‘is frequently complicated beyondthat of other paper-based materials by the large sizeand poor condition of collections, the variety ofmaterials present, and the kind of access many usersrequire’ and can ‘overwhelm limited preservation

resources’ if good planning and management is notpresent (Price 2010, p. 223). A part of the collectionsurveyed, the National Society’s (NS) School Plans(Fig. 1), were treated within the practical part of thisproject. Within this project, the objects were treatedin batches according to previously defined treatmentstandards with the aim of making them accessible.The research and the case study showed that large-scale treatments are a systematic and efficientapproach to conservation. They allow, even withinsmall institutions with limited resources, thepreservation and conservation of our collections to ahigh standard. A discussion of both the theoreticalresearch and practical work concludes this paper.

Large-scale treatments in paper conservation

Even though the term ‘large scale’ or similar terms areused by several authors in connection withpreservation and conservation, no clear description ofthe term itself and its characteristics has been given.To find out about these properties, as well aspossibilities and limitations of the large-scaleapproach, it is necessary to look at both the historyand current application of large-scale treatments inpaper conservation.1


Think big?! A look into the possibilities and limitations of large-scale treatments inpaper conservation

Anna Alena Hoffmann

Fig. 1: Maps of the National Society in their storage environment at the Church of England Record Centre before treatment(drawer F2).

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Characteristics and definition

Whilst the impulse for, and the specifics of, aconservation treatment change with every collection,the arguments for a decision towards a large-scaletreatment remain the same: a large number of objectshave to be treated, mostly within a certain time frame,and often within restricted resources. Objectsconsidered for treatment on a large scale do notnecessarily have to be part of only one collection. It is,however, vital that the objects chosen for treatmenthave the same goal of treatment2 as this inevitablydefines the degree to which the objects will betreated (Muñoz-Viñas 2005) and is the basis forchoosing methods and materials and settingtreatment standards (Appelbaum 2007).

The whole, often complex, treatment process isdivided into single steps to allow batching accordingto the treatment needed – a very important phase inthe large-scale treatment approach (Waters &McComb 1974, Alper 1992, Merril-Oldham & Schrock2000, Lindsay 2003, Ritzenthaler 2010).

Therefore, homogenous damages and materials are apivotal requirement (Brinkhus 1987, Feindt 1997,Lindsay 2003, Frankenstein 2012). The batching canbe very general (Waters 1990), or more specific anddivided into single treatment steps that are usedalone or in combination as required (Evans 1993,Homburger & Korbel 1999, Glück & Barkhofen 2012,Henze 2012, Hoffmann 2012). The building of batchesideally takes place before treatment is started, but ifall objects have to undergo the same first treatmentstep they could be divided into further treatmentgroups subsequently. In any case, treatment standardsare required to reach the treatment goal and maintainthe same high quality of work throughout the process.Ideally, the treatment standards reflect the treatmentgroups for batch building. The treatment isundertaken within treatment groups according to thestandards set, which also allows division of labour,another feature of large-scale treatments and vital totheir efficiency (Carmenati 1997, Feindt 1997, Waters1990, 1998). Based on the information researched, adecision tree (Fig. 2) was produced by the author that


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Fig. 2: Requirements a collection has to meet for a successful large-scale treatment as concluded fromits past and present application.

Think big?! A look into the possibilities and limitations of large-scale treatments in paper conservation Anna Alena Hoffmann

25

illustrates the treatment decision and highlights themain requirements for successful treatment on alarge scale.

Possibilities and limitations

Even though the implementation of standards and thebuilding of batches might be time-consuming in thefirst place, it will save resources over the long term: notime is needed for time-consuming single-item-baseddecisions or testing during the actual treatment andthe preparation time per item is reduced to aminimum.

The idea that ‘[r]ather than spending a long timeconserving and restoring a single object, [theconservator] could be undertaking the preventiveconservation work safeguarding the long-term futureof many objects’ (Caple 2000, p. 66), is a strongargument for treating on a large scale. Even though inhis statement, Caple divides between conservationand preservation, this approach can be seen as themain advantage of the large-scale treatmentapproach: many objects are treated in one process sothat the cost per item is reduced which allows moreobjects to be treated within the budget. Hill (1997)states that with a large-scale stabilisation approach,‘more material has been treated than ever before,

providing long-term preservation and greateraccessibility to the public’ (Hill 1997, p. 301), a thoughtexpressed by many other authors (Waters 1990, 1998,Grant 1994, Bélaval & Renoult 1997, Glauert & Ruhnau2005, Ritzenthaler 2010, O’Brien Miller & Tedone2011). In general, conservation techniques that areapplied on a single-item basis can be adapted tolarge-scale projects but, often, ‘solutions valid for thetreatment of individual items are far too expensive foruse in solving mass-scale problems’ (Banik & Pataki2001, p. 45f) and have to be adapted for use. Whileuse of standardised treatments will result in anefficient workflow and help to maintain the desiredlevel of quality over a long period of time and within adiverse team (Feindt 1997),3 this also requires thechosen treatment method to be appropriate for allobjects with a certain damage.

Therefore, large-scale treatments are ‘nonethelesscharacterized by compromise’ to a larger extent thanthe treatment of single items (Merril-Oldham &Schrock 2000, p. 235) and simplified to allow thetreatment of many items (Grant 1994). Simplificationmakes treatment processes easily applicable even bynon-conservation staff (Waters 1990, Lindsay 2003),which means that conservator time can be retained‘for complex treatment of materials used in other


Fig. 3: (left) Map cabinet F, drawer 4, containing some ofthe NS School Plans. Before treatment.

Fig. 4: (below) The NS School Plans after their move toCamberwell College, after examination, before treatment.


26

contexts’ (Knowlton in O’Brien Miller & Tedone 2011,p. 119). Often, large-scale treatments are undertakenon a stabilisation or preservation level only, whichsome conservators regard as a limitation, fearing aloss of skills and experience (Hill 1997). A low degree

of conservation treatment for a high number ofobjects is, however, exactly the idea behind Waters’phased preservation (Waters 1990, 1998) and can beassociated with the minimum treatment approachMuñoz-Viñas describes: ‘a conservation process


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Fig. 5: Flowchart demonstrating the decisions and actions to be undertaken within the large-scaleprocess and as demonstrated on the NS maps collection.


27

should consist of the minimum intervention requiredto achieve its goals’ (Muñoz-Viñas 2005, p. 189).

As mentioned earlier, decisions have to be madebefore any treatment starts that are valid for everyobject treated. This means that any wrong decisionwill have a major impact as it affects a wholecollection rather than an individual object. Theextensive washing of archives in the past thatprobably further damaged many iron gall ink objects(Beindtker 2004) and the collection-wide laminationwith various types of materials from man-made fibretextiles and self-adhesive plastic film to heat-setproducts that were used in many institutions (Kresh1996, Galinsky 2001)4 are only two of probably manyexamples of wrong decisions that continue to affectcollections. Test-runs can be helpful to standardisetreatments and to prove decisions.

As with every conservation treatment, a large-scaletreatment should not be undertaken just for the sakeof the treatment or ‘just because we can’.5 There aremany objects and collections that are not suitable forbeing treated in such a way (Feindt 1997) and theimplementation of large-scale treatment is ‘notintended to eliminate the option of full treatment, butrather to attempt to strike a balance’ (Hill 1997, p.303).

Conservation treatment: the National Society’sSchool Plans

The NS map collection is a mixture of church schoolplans from the early days of the NS until recent times.It consists of 158 items, stored in drawers of mapcabinet F. Following the decision tree in Fig. 2, it wasfound that the NS School Plans could be treated


Figs. 8 and 9 (from left to right): Objects showing surface dirt (left) and tears (right).

Figs. 6 and 7 (from left to right): The objects were tightlyrolled. While most items only showed minor to mediumdamage (left), some items had very brittle paper and wereheavily damaged (right).


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within a large-scale treatment process. This processdeveloped on the basis of the steps, sample surveyand research as illustrated (Fig. 5).

Goal of treatment

The goal of treatment was to make the NS SchoolPlans accessible for staff and external researchers andto treat them so that they could be used with onlyminimal risk of further damage. The methods chosenprovided a degree of archival conservation that allowedthe use of objects after treatment while aestheticswere set aside. As the collection is not catalogued, itis important to invest only the minimum of time andcost into conservation to make them accessible.

Defining treatment standards

All objects were tightly rolled, except one which wasfolded. The majority of items contained differentgrades of surface dirt, with some being heavily soiled.Almost two thirds (65.2%) showed tears and losses,with most objects being only slightly damaged. Figs.6–9 demonstrate the common damage types.

Examination of the objects and grouping intotreatment groups

Once the standards had been defined, the items weresurveyed item by item (Keene 1991, Lindsay 2003) andgrouped according to the treatment they needed(Fig. 10). While the decision tree leaves theopportunity for no treatment, this was not an optionwithin this collection, as every object had at least tobe flattened. A few objects had to be treated on asingle-item level or could not be treated within thistreatment scope, but no new treatment standards hadto be defined during the examination process. Aninteresting result was that the objects could begrouped in very few treatment groups, with themajority of objects needing surface cleaning,flattening and tear repair.

Preparation for treatment

Once the items had been sorted into batchesaccording to the standards, the material needed wasprepared before the treatment was started to enablean efficient treatment process. Chemical sponges


Fig. 10: Distribution of objects per treatment group (absolute numbers).

1a2b5b = Surface cleaning, flattening and tear repair

1a2b = Surface cleaning and flattening

1a2b3a5b = Surface cleaning, flattening, removal of pressure sensitive tape and tear repair

1a3a5b = Surface cleaning, removal of pressure sensitive tape and tear repair

2b = Flattening

2b5b = Flattening and tear repair.


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were cut to quarters; a cedar-wood chamber was setup for humidification (Brückle & Banik 2011) andBondina was cut to fit the size of two blotter papers, asize that proved to fit the vast majority of the objects.6

It was decided to use only one type of Japanesepaper (Kozo Shi 23 g/m2) which was water-cut in stripsof two different widths. Wheat starch paste wasprepared once a week. To be able to mend tears onas many of the maps as possible at a time, flexiblemagnets were prepared with blotter and Bondina tobe used instead of weights (Blaser & Peckham 2006).

Treatment of objects

Every object ran through the treatment circle untilevery treatment proposed was undertaken and theobject finished. Ideally, every object should run onlyonce through each treatment group; for examplefrom surface cleaning to flattening to tear repair tofinished objects/further processes. In some cases,however, objects had to be placed back in the sametreatment group, as, for example, the flattening wasnot successful and the objects had to humidified andpressed again or when a tear was missed out duringthe mending treatment. A decision as to whether thetreatment is finished depends on quality control at thevery end of the treatment process: an object is onlyfinished if the treatment meets the quality set by thetreatment standards. This is a vital step in the process.

Figures 11–18 show the main treatment stepsundertaken and results of the conservation treatment.

Amendments of the treatment workflow andspecial cases

Large treatment batches were further divided intosmaller batches of around 20 to 30 objects, an amountthat could be placed in the cedar wood chamber atonce and which also was the quantity of objects thatcould be pressed simultaneously with the number ofblotters and Bondina sheets available. This allowed anefficient workflow and was easier to keep track of thanwith a larger number of objects and allowed forintertwined and simultaneous work processes. Heavilytorn objects were separated from the less damagedones by sorting them in a different batch; this madefor a very fast and efficient completion of the lessdamaged items and a special focus on the heavydamaged ones (Figs. 19, 20) without altering thetreatment standard.

Some of the objects were so tightly rolled and of suchbrittle paper that they could not be opened withouthumidification. Most of these objects also had to behumidified longer than usual, and some of them hadto be opened gradually in the cedar wood chamber,as humidification in a rolled state was not sufficient.This required a more single-item-focused treatment


Figs. 13 and 14: The first batch of surface cleaned maps in the cedar wood chamber for humidification (left) and two ofthe maps after pressing between blotter and Bondina (right).

Figs. 11 and 12: Set-up for surface cleaning (left), and result of surface cleaning with a chemical sponge on one of the moreheavily soiled objects (right).


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approach, as objects had to be on their own or withonly few more in the chamber, and each objectrequired a very careful treatment during opening asthe paper tended to crack very easily even inhumidified state. The treatment standard for theseobjects remained the same.

Objects made of tracing cloth7 had originally beengrouped into treatment code 2a, flattening bypressing without humidification, as they are verysensitive to humidity due to their starch sizing and themedia used (Price 2002, 2011). However when thetracing cloths of the NS collection were pressedwithout humidity, it became clear that pressing alonewas not enough to flatten them. To find out whether ahumidification treatment according to standard 2b8

would be successful without harming the objects,three slightly different tracing cloth objects of thecollection were humidified and pressed in a test run.They were visually examined and compared to similar,non-humidified tracing cloth objects after treatment.The comparison showed that there was only a veryslight loss of gloss on the verso of the objects, whichwas decided to be acceptable for this collection; thefact that they were sufficiently flattened was givenpriority to the very small loss of gloss. All objects ontracing cloth were grouped into standard 2b andtreated accordingly. As with the humidification, a trialwas done with the tear repair according to standard5b with tracing cloth and tracing paper objects, whichwas successful (Figs. 22, 23).



Fig. 18: The use of flexible magnets allows the piling of mended objects to save space.

Figs. 15–17 (above and below): Tear repair using a pre-cutstrip of Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste; the repairis pressed between flexible magnets prepared withBondina and blotter.

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Further processes

The finished objects were sorted according to theirnumber for a final check (Fig. 24). The long-termhousing of the collection has yet to be decided, butthis has to fit the general preservation programme ofthe CERC and be feasible within the budget. It wouldbe advisable to use folders without flaps made fromarchival-quality cardboard, storing approximately tenitems per folder (Glück & Barkhofen 2012, Weigel2012). The folders can either have two or threeformats, e.g DIN A0, DIN A1 and DIN A2, whichwould require the objects to be sorted according totheir size. If this is not possible due to archivalreasons, only one size that fits most of the maps, inthis case DIN A0, should be used. The housing of theobjects that exceed DIN A0 has to be discussed anddepends on the CERC’s ability to provide flat storagefor oversized objects.

The case study at the CERC and the followingtreatment of the NS School Plans demonstrated boththe decision process that leads to a large-scaletreatment and the single steps that are necessary for asuccessful application of a large-scale conservationtreatment. 158 objects could be grouped in only fourtreatment groups (surface cleaning, flattening,removal of pressure sensitive tape and tear repair)with the vast majority of items requiring only threetreatment steps. The objects were successfully treatedand are now accessible for the CERC’s staff andresearching public.

The CERC will provide a new storage area for the NSSchool Plans once they are back at the CERC,showing that the conservation treatment had alreadyled to a higher appraisal of those plans. It is hopedthat the CERC will continue to care for thepreservation and conservation of the maps collection.9


Figs. 19 and 20: A heavily torn object after flattening and tear repair from verso (left) and recto (right).

Fig. 21: Very brittle and heavily damaged objects during humidification in the cedar wood chamber.


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Conclusion

The main characteristics of the large-scale approachare the standardisation of the treatment steps and thebuilding of batches according to the treatmentneeded, resulting in a highly efficient process. Basedon research into their history and current application,the possibilities and limitations of large-scaletreatments were determined. A decision tree diagramwas developed which illustrates the main decisionsthat can lead either to a large-scale or single-item-based treatment of a chosen collection.

Large-scale treatments are a very systematic approachto conservation. They encompass a whole collection

of objects rather than focusing on single items andare therefore a very sustainable conservation measure(Caple 2000). The large-scale treatment approach is auseful strategy not only for institutions with largecollections, but also for institutions with a small workforce – the case study showed that the decisive factoris the concept rather than the actual number of staffinvolved or items treated per day. A large-scaletreatment can also be planned in-house withoutsourcing the actual treatment (Drüppel 1997,Frankenstein 2012) or viewed as part of a long-termpreservation policy with a phased conservationapproach (Waters 1990, 1998). This presents a majoropportunity: the sorting into treatment groups can be


Fig. 24: Some of the finished objects sorted according to their number and drawers, waiting to be housed and delivered tothe CERC maps collection.

Figs. 22 and 23 (left to right): A tracing cloth object before (left) and after tear repair with Japanese tissue and wheat starchpaste (right).


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used as a time-based grouping with some treatmentsbeing delivered immediately, and others beingpostponed until further resources are available(Weigel 2012). Large-scale treatments are an excellentmethod to work according to resources availablewhile still following an overall treatment concept andtherewith ‘achieving the best possible result within thetime, expertise, funding and facilities available’.(Caple 2000, p. 65).

Every decision that is made on a large scale has a highimpact on the collection and a wrong treatment

decision might cause (future) damage to thousands ofobjects. This imposes a high responsibility onconservators involved in large-scale treatmentdecisions, and it might be a challenging task to keepthe balance between efficient work and at the sametime honouring the unique value of objects treated(Janis 2005).

With the right decisions being made, large-scaletreatments result in a high quality of work: ‘thinkingbig!’ is a chance for conservation, no matter what sizethe institution is.


Credits, bibliography and footnotes

All pictures and illustrations were produced by the author. Thebibliography is available on request.

1 The history of large scale treatments is discussed in the fullversion of this thesis.

2 The term ‘goal of treatment’ is used by Appelbaum (2007); Janis(2005) mentions the term ‘Restaurierungsentscheidung’ (decisionabout conservation treatment / conservation decision) in a similarcontext (p.125). The conservation decision or the definition of thegoal of treatment is vital for every conservation treatment andrequires the careful consideration of things like material, presentand future function, concept, value of an object.

3 However, the maintenance of standards can be very challengingas it implies permanent quality control (Personal communicationwith Anna Bülow, The National Archives, 2012).

4 This does not mean that lamination is generally inappropriate; inrecent years, materials such as Archibond tissue have beendeveloped that have good aging properties.

5 Personal communication with Anna Bülow, The NationalArchives, 2012.

6 The approximate size of each object had been recorded duringthe initial item-by-item survey for reasons of future housing/storage.

7 Tracing cloth is a plain woven cotton fabric. A sizing with starchmakes the fabric transparent and stiff. Tracing cloth was used fromthe mid nineteenth century onwards until the 1950s, when it wasreplaced by the less expensive polyester film. Media used ontracing cloths were pencils and inks, the drawings often beingcoloured with watercolours from the verso, and photoreproductiontechniques (Price 2002, 2010).

8 Standards are explained in the full version.

9 Meanwhile, the CERC has installed new Polytunnels to improvethe environmental conditions of the map storage area as well asinvested in new plan chests.


[email protected]

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In this presentation I will describe the unusualconservation treatment solution for the Journal andCommonplace Book of Sir Thomas Barlow, a famousBritish royal physician. The journal dates from 1862–90and is held at the Wellcome Library’s Archives andManuscript collection. I will briefly introduce theobject, talk about the damage and then discuss thedecision-making process and the treatment solutionfor its conservation.

This project would not have been possible without thegreat collaboration of several conservators:

Stefania Signorello, the Conservator at the WellcomeLibrary who asked me and my colleague Lara Speronito conserve this journal and Bridget Mitchell, ARCAPreservation, who suggested the discussed option totreat the journal. Unfortunately Lara Speroni cannotbe here today to give the presentation with me.

Sir Thomas Barlow, 1845–1945

Sir Thomas Barlow was a British royal physician knownfor his research on infantile scurvy. He made his nameas a specialist in childhood diseases in the 1870s and‘80s. In his honour, infantile scurvy was named‘Barlow’s disease’ – a disease distinct from rickets,with which it was routinely confused prior to the1880s.

Barlow was medical registrar and then physician at theGreat Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. Healso held posts at Charing Cross Hospital, the LondonHospital and at University College Hospital. Barlowalso enjoyed a successful private practice. His patientsincluded members of the highest social circles. In1896 he was appointed physician to the royalhousehold treating several of its members, and waspresent at Queen Victoria’s deathbed. Barlow was aMethodist and a lifelong teetotaller. From 1923 to1930 he was President of the National TemperanceLeague.

His family gave a large part of his papers, professionaland private, to the Wellcome Library. The journaldiscussed here is now part of the Wellcome Library’sArchives and Manuscript collection.

Journal and Commonplace Book, 1862–90,(PP/BAR/A/1 and A/4–13)

This Journal and Commonplace Book forms part ofBarlow’s personal papers and family correspondence,which have survived in bulk and form a rich source ofmaterial on both his private and family life as well ashis public career. There are travel journals andsketchbooks from his earlier years, mainlydocumenting visits to the Continent during 1869–83.

The journal is a large format stationery binding with afull parchment cover over stiff boards. It measures 300× 330 mm and counts 185 folios. The pages arecovered with Barlow’s handwriting in iron gall ink. Thefolios 60–185 were left blank. There are ten smallnotebooks attached to its pages.

When you look up the object in the catalogue of theWellcome Library you will find that PP/BAR/A/1 is thejournal itself and A/2–13 are the notebooks. However,notebooks 2 and 3 are kept separate.


An unusual treatment solution: the author led by example

Sonja Schwoll ACR

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Before we treated the volume the catalogue tells you,under Access Condition, that:

the papers are available subject to the usualconditions of access to Archives and Manuscriptsmaterial. Currently only A.2–3 are available. A.1,A.4–13 are in a fragile condition and can only beconsulted by appointment and under supervisionof the Wellcome Library ConservationDepartment. Please contact the Archives and

Manuscripts Department for further information. Itis advisable to provide a minimum of five workingdays advance notice if you wish to make anappointment to view these manuscripts.

Our project was to make these objects accessibleand, as A/2 and 3 were already available, we dealtonly with the journal itself and the ten notebooks,which are still attached to the journal pages.

Barlow used this book as a diary in which he gluedsmall notebooks from his travels to Egypt, Palestine,Belgium, the Rhineland, France, Switzerland and Italy.These contain notes about his travels, sketches, somenotes for later sermons, accounts, notes on hospitalsand some case notes. The notebooks vary in weight,size and thickness and some of them were attachedwith, and some without, their covers.

They vary in height between 85–130 mm, in widthbetween 75–150 mm, and consist of between 18 and90 folios. They are made from paper of variousthicknesses with covers of different weights. Some ofthem are portrait format and some are in landscape.

The damage

Right from the start these notebooks were too heavyfor the individual page to which they had been


Fig. 1 – The journal

Figs. 2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 – p. 42, notebooks damaging the journal page

An unusual treatment solution: the author led by example Sonja Schwoll

36

attached. When the pages were turned, most of thesesmall books splayed open and pulled away from theircarrier page. The extra bulk between the pagesmakes the textblock gape open on the bottom edgeand leaves individual page edges unprotected andexposed.

In addition to this mechanical stress the papersubstrate had suffered from chemical degradation.This originated from environmental pollution and theadhesives used for the attachment of the notebooks.With the mechanical and chemical damages thepaper could not hold the weight of the attachednotebooks and some of them were tearing away partof the paper to which they were glued; others wereabout to cause the same damage.

The author leads by example

Probably Barlow himself must have realised theproblem at its inception. He strengthened one page,to which a heavy notebook is attached, by laminatingit with several layers of paper. Figure 5 shows theheavy notebook and the very simple and quickapplication of several layers of Western paper toeither side of the sketchbook. (These photographswere taken before and after conservation. However,the only treatment this page received was surfacecleaning and securing the pages of the notebooks sothey would not splay open.) Barlow’s simple solutionsupports the notebook very well and led toconsideration of whether this idea could be the basisfor a treatment solution of the volume.

The decision-making process regarding the treatmentsolution started with the specification of theconservation goals. The first goal was to keep thevolume intact and the notebooks attached. Discussionwith the librarians and conservators revealed that thisobject is unique and that it was, therefore, importantto keep it in its original format. On the other hand, thesecond goal was to make the volume accessible. Untilthe treatment this volume was only accessible – if atall – under the supervision of a conservator.

With these two goals in mind the treatment decisionswere made.

The conservation of the cover followed the generallyrecognised approach of strengthening corners withgelatine and Japanese papers. It was also decided torepair damages and weak areas of the parchmentcover with the same materials.

The difficult treatment decisions concerned the repairand consolidation of the textblock and the notebooks.The first step would always be surface cleaning. Theattached notebooks kept the textblock of the journalopen at the edges, which had allowed even moreparticulate dirt to settle on the pages than in the caseof a textblock that is tightly held together by its boards.

The next treatment step was to repair and consolidateall tears, losses and weak areas with Japanese paperand cold gelatine. This would keep everything inplace but would still not allow unsupervised access tothe journal. The weight and movement of thenotebooks would immediately lead to new damage.


Figs. 3, 3.1 (left) – p. 54, reinforced by Barlow


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Therefore the next step in the treatment was to followBarlow’s example and to strengthen the pages withpaper linings around the notebooks. This was adecision not easily made as, within our currentconservation ethics, lining and therefore covering uporiginal areas is only a last resort treatment as itconsiderably changes the object.

However, in the case of this journal, it was found thatto support the pages with this method kept it in linewith Barlow’s original approach and use of his journal.The goal of keeping the journal in its current formatsuperseded any doubts regarding the ethics of thisapproach.

In order to realise this the following practicalconsiderations had to be taken into account: lookingat the attached notebooks it was obvious that thepaper of the textblock was moisture sensitive. Theapplication of a water-based adhesive has resulted instrong cockling around the attachments. It alsoshowed that this short-fibred paper with a verysmooth surface would, when moistened, adopt thesurface texture of a lining paper. Most pages up to f.59 contained writing on both sides and, in most cases,were almost completely covered in manuscript. Thisrestricted the areas that could be lined. The fact thatBarlow had written his journal in iron gall ink meantthat, in terms of adhesives, the only possible choiceswere either non-aqueous adhesives or gelatine.

In order to achieve good adhesion and the requiredstrengthening of the pages, we decided to usegelatine in both its warm and cold forms and,therefore, as both a liquid and a gel.

This meant that while lining the unwritten areas, wehad to work with, and prevent running of, the solubleinks used for the ruling of the pages as well as havingto control cockling of the moisture sensitive paper.The latter was made more difficult by the fact that wewere working on leaves of a bound volume. Anyplanar changes due to the introduction of moisturewould be restricted by the sewing, which holds thepages in fixed in place.

One way to achieve this was to work in small sectionsand to build up the lining in small parts and layers.This enabled the control of cockling, planarmovement and the changes of the surface texture.

As already mentioned, for repair materials we usedgelatine as an adhesive and a range of Japanesepapers of various weights, all in natural colours. Forthe lining, and to achieve appropriate stiffness of thepages, we chose a 210 gsm Khadi rag paper whichcame gelatine sized. This was then covered withJapanese papers in order to blend it in with thecolours and surface texture of the original paper.

As a final step we secured all notebooks withhandmade paper wrappers. This will stop them from


Fig. 4 – Wrapper


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splaying open and from pulling on the pages to whichthey are attached.

With this treatment we managed to support all pageswith notebooks without disguising any manuscript.The repair papers blend in well with the original. Weavoided further cockling and changes of the surfacetexture or movement of any inks. Now reinforced, theexposed edges of the textblock are no longer asvulnerable.

The journal is now safe for further research.


Figs. 5, 5.1 (From left to right) – (left) Page withoutsupport; (right) page with support

Fig. 6 – p. 42 notebooks with wrappers Fig. 7 – p. 42 with support

Sonja Schwoll ACRBook [email protected]


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In 2011 I started Current Projects, a blog forconservation students at West Dean College, with afew goals in mind. Primarily, I wanted a platform forstudents to begin talking professionally about theirwork both with ‘normal people’ and with colleagues inconservation and related fields. For those studentsnew to conservation, this is less intimidating thanpublishing in a journal or giving a talk.

Another benefit of the blog is that both practisingconservators and prospective students can see whatWest Dean students learn, and how. Hopefully this willhelp to make West Dean more connected to theprofessional world, which naturally has a vestedinterest in the conservation training of futurecolleagues. It can also make it easier for prospectiveemployers to see what the students can do, howarticulate and knowledgeable they are, and howinvolved they are in their education before evenhaving an interview.

Finally, the blog is becoming a valuable tool foroutreach. Non-conservator readers find us throughfamily and friends, Google searches, links on socialmedia, etc., sometimes asking questions about howto care for their own collections or just commentingon how interesting they found the posts. We try tohave posts that are addressed to a non-specialistaudience for this reason: to pull people in, get theminterested in what we do and motivated to take bettercare of their objects or to hire us to do it!

The following pages are excerpts from a selection ofblog posts current and available at the time of theconference, April 2013.

Our visitors come from all over the world, althoughthe US and UK are usually top.


Poster submission on Current Projects, the West Dean blog

Abigail Bainbridge

views (sample day)

Contributors come from these departments:Books & Library MaterialsCeramics & GlassClocks & Related ObjectsFurniture & Related ObjectsMetalwork

At these levels:Masters of ArtsPostgraduate DiplomaGraduate DiplomaProfessional Development

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

VIEWS NOV ‘11 JAN ‘12 MAR ‘12 MAY ‘12 JUL ‘12 SEP ‘12 NOV ‘12 JAN ’13

90 followers, 125 comments, 39,035 total views as ofMarch 10, 2013

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The Croll testimonial

Scarlett Hutchin

I have spent much of the past week getting the Crollcompletely dismantled, assessing, labelling andphotographing each component as I go. This mightsound like a morning’s work but giving individualattention to a total of one hundred and ten pieces(not counting nuts) is a slow and methodical process.All the components now have numbered tags tomake sure everything goes back together the sameway it came apart, and the tags are made from thickcopper foil rather than paper so they won’tdisintegrate in water or solvents.


Poster submission on Current Projects, the West Dean blog Abigail Bainbridge

Safety in analysis: XRF and radiation

William Bennett

Identifying the composition of both objects needingconservation and the materials used in theirconservation is an important facet of the treatmentprocess. Proper identification can elucidate theoriginal state of an object, the nature of degradationpresent, and the possible effects of differentconservation treatments on the object. Students atWest Dean are therefore fortunate to have theopportunity to learn how to make use of the some ofthe different analytical equipment available and usefulto conservators in our modest but growing analyticallaboratory.

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Japanese gold lacquer repair

Chie Yoshi

Have you seen a ceramic object repaired with gold?The technique of repairing ceramics with lacquer andgold is called gold lacquer repair. This is a traditionalJapanese technique of repairing ceramics. The goldjoin may seem too obvious compared to almost-invisible Western repairs! However, there are some fairreasons. Before gold lacquer repair was invented,riveting was a main method of repairing ceramics.One of the problems with this method was that avessel repaired in this way could never again holdwater because water would leak fom the joins.



Conservation within religious communities

Tiago Oliveira

(The following text is a shortened version of apresentation done at West Dean about conservationadvocacy.) Having worked as a conservator within areligious community in the past, to see the mediasuccess of a disfigured Christ is, unfortunately, afamiliar episode. A situation like this makes us wonderwhy and how this happens in what we call a ‘well-informed’ society such as today’s. A situation like thismakes us wonder if the correct information is reachingthose in charge of heritage’s care and protection.

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A Romanesque English rood figure

Helen Robertson

This early English rood figure is believed to date priorto the middle of the 12th century and may even belate Anglo Saxon. As there are only a few survivingexamples, it is hard to visually compare like with like.However, aesthetically, it does bear a strikingresemblance to stone carvings and brass work of theperiod, which have survived in greater numbers, toplace it in the Romanesque era. Carved from oak, thisfigure would have been at the heart of its religiouscommunity and placed on, or above, the RoodScreen.



Verge re-conversion: Alex Giroust table clock

Tim Hughes

It is the end of week 5 already, halfway through theterm one! Surely it was only a couple of days ago thatI was discussing the projects to turn my hand to onreturn from summer break with my tutor MatthewRead. It was decided that I would undertake a vergereconversion to a spring driven table clock by AlexGiroust, London, ca. 1730. His name suggests that hemay be a descendant of French Huguenots who fledFrance during and after the 17th century Protestantuprising.

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Sellotape: why it’s bad to put on paper

Sibel Ergener

Sellotape: the go-to, easy to use fix-it when there’s atear through the page of your book. Tape, you may besurprised to find, actually causes quite a lot ofdamage to paper and when brought to a bookconservator its removal is a tedious procedure. Whatexactly does it do when left there long term? What issellotape, actually? How does it work? To start with,sellotape is made up of a few layers. On top there is aclear film, called the carrier, which is traditionallycellophane.



44

Rack and roll

Storage of rolled objects can often be a problem, andthe Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum is no exceptionto this. Lack of space, numerous large objects andinsufficient racking on which to put them can lead torolled objects being inappropriately stored, resultingin the risk of damage. The V&A Museum is committedto improving its storage. The Clothworkers’ Centre forTextiles and Fashion Study and Conservation hasbeen the main focus during the last few years.Looking forward, ‘StorePlan’ is part of the currentstrategic planning for the museum, which aims toimprove both physical and digital access to itscollections.

For the purpose of this paper I am going toconcentrate on some of the areas of storage withinthe main museum building and the stores at BlytheHouse: the Word and Image Department (WID) rolledobject store, poster store and wallpaper store, theTheatre and Performance Collections incorporatingthe Matcham Plans, large posters including generalrolled storage and the Asian Collections scrolls, someof which are now housed in the new Clothworkers’Centre.

The problem

The WID rolled object store predominantly containslarge format rolled prints and designs, with theexception of a few very large flat drawings. There areapproximately 856 objects located in the store, butthere are also an estimated 148 which are either notaccessioned or have no visible numbering system,with a further 50 that are too fragile to unroll withoutfurther damage. The late Merryl Huxtable, a formerSenior Conservator at the museum, surveyed thisstore several years ago and, as a result, we had anidea of the size if not always the condition of theobjects. A visual diagram was produced and the rollswere wrapped and labelled ‘FRAGILE Do NotUnroll’, which tends to suggest that the problem ismore than just storage. Many of the rolls are looselycovered with acid-free archival paper and/or acid-free tissue paper; some are inserted into cardboardtubing. All are stacked onto open shelving in a non-environmentally controlled space. It has beenrecently suggested that most of the objects wouldbenefit from being unrolled and stored flat, but that


Chapter 2: Moving Issues, Storage Solutions

Rack and roll: an investigation into storage options

Susan Catcher ACR

Rolled object storage: mixed and rolled flat storage

45

begs the question as to where they would be stored.Ideally this storage would be in large plan chests andMelinex® envelopes but these are both expensiveand take up space, two things that most museumswould find challenging.

Within WID we have a very large poster collection,approximately some 35,000, and a slightly smallerwallpaper collection. The oversized posters aremainly attached to an antiquated rolling rackingsystem with drawing pins through tab extensions.They are then covered with plastic sheeting sealedby Velcro® to reduce dust. The space is large andagain not environmentally controlled. Until recentlythis storage solution, though not ideal, has kept theposters contained, but this storage system is nowunable to cope as the collection has grown. Someposters are rolled but not adequately stored andothers are held onto display boards awaiting de-installation and insertion into Melinex® bags, whichhave been sized to each poster, and a storage space identified.

In the wallpaper store, racking is also used to houseframed sections of wallpapers, but many loose rollsare stacked in a makeshift space beneath some stairs.This has been recognised as an area of priority mainlydue to the rolls not being easy to identify. Thewallpaper storage at Blythe House could also beimproved. Some rolls are temporarily stacked on apallet and some framed wallpapers are resting on

blocks against the wall. This space has beenmeasured for a new storage system. It is expectedthat a storage system similar to the Whitworth ArtGallery at the University of Manchester will be put inplace when funds are available.

Previously, curators and conservators have gottogether to explore other methods of rolled storage:the Matcham designs, the Theatre and PerformanceCollection’s rolled storage and oversized posterdesigns all demonstrate alternative methods ofstorage. The Matcham Collection is comprised ofarchitectural plans of various London variety theatres,for example, the Hackney Empire, Victoria Palace andthe Savoy Theatre constructed during c.1890 –1910.These plans are considered important because theycontain information on all aspects of the buildingdesign from the bricks and mortar to the electricallayout. Unfortunately, there are approximately 139rolls with between 9,000 and 10,000 drawings. Twothousand have been conserved and are now housedin Melinex® envelopes and folders, which are kept flaton shelves. However, there are still problems: firstly,the lack of space between the shelving means thatthe folders cannot be easily accessed. The ReadingRoom is on the ground floor and the collection is tobe found on the first floor. The lift is too small to takethe large flimsy folders and the stairs are too narrowand turn back on themselves, not to mention thesingle doors leading into the Reading Room. It is


Rack and roll: an investigation into storage options Susan Catcher

Poster store: poster rolls on a pallet Blythe House wallpaper store

46

almost impossible to navigate with the folders unlessthe plan required for viewing is removed and rolled.Many of the other plans are still rolled and coveredwith archival paper but have no internal rigidity andthe weight of the roll can cause it to collapse on itself.Flat, smaller plans are often stacked and open toparticulate dirt and dust in a non-environmentallycontrolled space.

The Asian Collection scrolls, including Japanese,Chinese and Korean paintings on both paper and silk,are stored in various locations. As is often the case,the original box has been discarded, a policy of old,and the scrolls are loose in drawers or put into trays.Collection movement due to planned extensivebuilding work during 2014 –16 has forced the issueand the textile scrolls have been decanted to newstorage in the Clothworkers’ Centre at Blythe House.Scrolls painted on paper are destined for new storagewhen building work is completed.

A solution

A few years ago the Whitworth Art Gallery at theUniversity of Manchester underwent a completerefurbishment of their wallpaper collection andcontacted the V&A Museum to discuss variousstorage methods. Rolled wallpaper storage within theV&A had been partially addressed, but these ideaswere utilised and developed by the Whitworth ArtGallery to support their collection. They have variousroll sizes from complete runs of contemporarywallpaper to larger, canvas-backed, older papers androlls of smaller fragments. Using shelving that had twosizes of custom-shaped Plastazote® linings, the rollswere interleaved with acid-free paper, wrapped withMelinex® and tied with cotton tape. The use of twosizes was considered necessary in order toaccommodate all the various wallpaper formats.Oversized papers were threaded onto metal poles andsuspended. These were also wrapped with Melinex®

and tied with cotton tape whilst smaller fragments wereplaced flat in drawers. The smaller collection anddesignated budget enabled the Whitworth Art Galleryto conceive a complete storage programme suited tothe gallery’s needs.

The result

In 2011 conservators and curators at the V&Aorganised interns from the Camberwell College ofArts MA Conservation Course and interns from theInstitute of Conservation HLF scheme to spend twoweeks tackling the WID rolled object store. Thisproject was an opportunity to unroll and accessionobjects which had been stored unseen for many years.Use was made of the Prints and Drawings StudyRoom, which had conveniently closed for its two-weekannual stock take. The area naturally divided into twosides: one for cleaning and the other for remedialconservation work. Another room was put aside foroversized drawings requiring more space.Humidification chambers were constructed and apressing area kept clear. The Curator of



Blythe House staircase: narrow stairs for moving largeobjects

Whitworth Art Gallery rolled storage: rolls housed withindrawers



Documentation and Digitisation identified the mostvulnerable rolls and a ‘conveyor belt’ system was putinto place. The success of this project wasimmediately obvious with some 67 rolls containingmultiple objects being opened up to reveal 459 drawings, designs, prints and wallpaper samples. The

wide range of media and paper objects were oftenfragmented requiring remedial conservation. Theaccomplishment of this programme has led to othercollections asking for a similar agenda and this will berepeated in the Theatre and Performance Collectionsduring the summer of 2013.

Theatre posters are often very large and, due to theephemeral nature of their usage, fragile objects. Ahanging storage method has been devised wherebythe conserved posters are put into custom-madeMelinex® bags that are sealed around the edges,providing a dust-free environment. These have metaleyelets punched into the top margin and are thensuspended on hooks to hang free and give easyaccess. A cotton cover is used to keep off dust and aninventory is kept up to date at the side for easyidentification. Other smaller posters are kept insecondary paper or thin board folders flat in drawersor on shelving.

Within WID we have a new method of housing smallposters using a vertical stacking system. Each poster isattached to an acid-free mount board by Japanesepaper hinges and inserted into a Melinex® sleeve.Each sleeve is then pegged into a plastic runner andsuspended vertically. Although this system is better

Rolled object store: interns at work

Theatre and Performance Collections hanging storage:oversize posters in custom-made envelopes

Small poster store: vertical storage system



than most, as it is easy to access and catalogue, it isnot without its problems as the rails do not always runwell and the pegs are very fiddly to use. Often, inorder to enhance the visitor experience, the objectshave to be removed from their housing to bephotographed because the Melinex® creates adistortion. This in turn causes a handling issue. Larger-sized posters are put into the drawers locatedbeneath the suspended posters. The room isenvironmentally controlled and has OCEAN (ObjectCentred Environmental Analysis Network) whose datais acquired via telemetry. Some framed sections ofwallpapers are hung on a racking system whilstcomplete rolls are boxed if possible during theacquisition process or when required forloan/exhibition.

The new Clothworkers’ Centre, due to open inOctober 2013, is in the process of being installed.Some collections are already in place, such as thelarge rolled tapestries, hats and smaller textiles thatare rolled onto metal tubes and posted ontoprotruding metal poles, affectionately known as the‘bed of nails’. This is actually a reuse of an old systemand with it come some inherent storage issues: the

poles are located too close together than would beconsidered ideal, leaving little room for manoeuvringthe rolls on and off the poles, and the top polescannot be used because they are too high to reachcomfortably, which becomes a health and safety issue.

But in the times of tight budgets and recycling, thissystem does serve a purpose. The Asian Collection’stextile hand and hanging scrolls have also beendecanted to this storage facility. The silk scrolls are firstlycovered with custom-made Tyvek® bags to protectthem before being boxed and stored whereas paperscrolls will be wrapped in lightweight natural cotton.

This boxing project mirrors that of the WID wallpaperstorage scheme whereby the boxing techniquebecomes part of the display method, as well as beinga storage solution. The wallpaper is held on acid-freeboard rollers that have a solid wooden end in which apig nose bolt is screwed. This bolt enables thewallpaper to be held onto a Perspex® bracket/handlethat also creates a gap underneath to stop thecrushing of the roll. The pig noses form part of thedisplay system where brackets are used to hold theroller at the top and bottom allowing for minimal

Boxed storage for scrolls and wallpapers


‘Bed of nails’, a recycled storage system in the new Clothworkers’ Centre for Textiles and Fashion Study and Conservation


object handling as well as boxed storage.Construction of the boxes is carried out on a Zund M-1600 machine using acid-free corrugated board. Theyare stackable and easily transportable when requiredfor loan to other museums.

The future?

Due to the problems of vast numbers of objects, lackof storage space and an ever-dwindling budget, theV&A is constantly looking at more inventive andinnovative methods of tackling the issue of oversizedobject storage. In an ideal world, collections would allhave a designated storage facility, such as thewallpapers at the Whitworth Art Gallery. The V&A ismoving toward this ideal, as is evidenced by theClothworkers’ Centre, but even this facility has had toreuse difficult spaces such as the old lavatory cubicles,which were unable to be knocked out as Blythe Houseis a Grade II listed building. Existing racking wasrecycled, as demonstrated by the ‘bed of nails’, tomake best use of a limited resource, with the newracking under a weight restraint due to the loading ofthe Victorian floor.

Methods of rolled and racked storage as outlined inthis paper can be readily adopted and adapted: firstly,the Whitworth Gallery’s system of storage of oversizedrolled objects on poles. The V&A Museum also usesthis method to store tapestries. Secondly, rolledwallpaper storage on rollers wrapped in Melinex® withan image for easy identification on the outsidesupported on shelves by shaped Plastazote®. Lastly,smaller flat works suspended or placed on racking inMelinex® bags with a secondary folder.

Susan CatcherSenior ConservatorVictoria and Albert Museum

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This article accompanies the poster of my MAresearch into preferences for adhesives and materialsin the conservation treatments of parchment,specifically in the area of book conservation.

One of the three bindings that formed my final MAproject was a late eighteenth-century account ledgerfrom the Barings Bank Archive in London. There wassevere damage to the head edge of the spine as wellas to the front joint due to consistent wear and tear ofthe binding. There were losses to the parchmentcovering of the spine at the head, which extendeddown the joint to the third sewing support. All threeleather panels had sheared on the front joint withsome loss of leather and all were missing tackets. Theparchment on the tail edge of the spine was scuffedand torn and there was a split forming along the tailedge of the front and back joints. Internally the

textblock was sound and it was decided that norepairs were necessary, as the binding was not usedoften.

To inform the treatment of the account ledger,research was undertaken in the form of a survey. It wascreated to be anonymous using the web-basedprogram SurveyMonkey. The survey was circulatedusing the Conservation DistList as well as being sentto personal contacts in conservation studios. Thesurvey asked which materials and adhesives wereused for parchment repair, where the recipientstudied and in which area of conservation theyspecialised, amongst other questions. The surveyyielded 45 responses and these responses werecollated into charts. The most popular adhesives aschosen by the recipients were wheat starch paste (themost popular), then gelatine liquid, isinglass and


Chapter 3: Joint Adhesives Session

Adhesives for parchment repair: an exploration

Liz Ralph

51

gelatine mousse as the top four choices. A chart wasalso created for the most popular repair materials.

As a large proportion of the answers did not specifythe percentages of their chosen adhesives, additional

research, discussion and experimentation were carriedout to determine their advisable strengths. Thesewere the adhesives chosen: 10% Jin Shofu wheatstarch paste, 5% gelatine liquid, 5% gelatine mousse,


Adhesives for parchment repair: an exploration Liz Ralph

52

and a 4% isinglass. The mousse was created by lettingthe gelatine liquid set and then passing it through aTerylene cloth. This forms a white, mousse-likesubstance which is then applied like paste.

Mechanical tests were carried out based on the resultsfrom the completed survey. After the results werecollated, the top four preferences for materials andadhesives were looked at in more detail. Sampleswere created for basic tensile strength testing todetermine whether the repair materials were weakerthan the original parchment and if the adhesives hada strong enough adhesion to attach the repairmaterial to the parchment. The following materialswere used: a three-layer caecum,1 buffed sheepskinrepair parchment, Atsukuchi, a 57gsm kozo-basedJapanese paper (70% kozo fibres and 30% wood pulp)and a three-layer caecum lined with a 23 gsm kozopaper using Jin Shofu paste. The adhesives testedwere those mentioned previously. The relative tensileextensions between Atsukuchi paper and thekozo/caecum pasted to parchment with 5% gelatinemousse were comprehensively analysed.

To repair the parchment losses, pre-dyed caecum wasadhered to the underside of the original parchmentusing the 5% gelatine mousse. Care was taken toensure that the repairs were adhered only to theparchment and not to the spine. The lined and dyedcaecum was also used to repair the corners of theboards.

The relatively undocumented use of caecum as aparchment repair material is a surprise. This materiallends itself incredibly well to repairs and can beworked and manipulated with ease, without tearing orstretching. It is as simple to use as Japanese paperbut has the added advantage of being a like-for-likematerial. It has been very effective as a repair materialfor this project, strong enough to support the morefragile areas of the spine and flexible enough to moveeasily with the opening characteristics of the binding.

Please contact me with any requests or for moreinformation about this project [email protected] or through my bloglizralphconservation.wordpress.com


Acknowledgements

Jocelyn Cuming, tutors, technicians and fellow students atCamberwell College of Art. David Dorning and Maureen Duke atWest Dean College, Christopher Harvey and the ConservationDepartment at the College of Arms, Lara Webb at Barings Bank

Archive and all those who completed my anonymous survey.

1 Caecum is alum-tawed goldbeater’s skin and is made from thesplit linings of a cow’s large intestine. It is available in three differentthicknesses – 1, 2 and 3 layers.

Adhesives for parchment repair: an exploration Liz Ralph

53

During my internship in the conservation laboratory atthe Smithsonian National Museum of the AmericanIndian, the laboratory was preparing several hundredobjects from the museum’s collection for an exhibittitled Infinity of Nations. The exhibit opened in theNational Museum of the American Indian’s GeorgeGustav Heye Center in New York City in October2010. One of the objects I treated for the exhibitionwas a mat (193371.000), made from sealskin by theInupiaq in Cape Prince Wales, Alaska, dated circa

1890 to 1920 (Fig. 1). The mat is comprised ofnumerous squares hand sewn together with cottonthread. Each square is embellished with a circularmotif appliquéd to the surface. In addition to surfacecleaning and minimising a heavy crease in the mat,sections of appliqué that were partially detached andin danger of breaking away needed to be secured(Figs. 2 and 3). For the purpose of this article, I willfocus on the method chosen to stabilise sections ofthe appliqué.


The repair of an Alaskan Inupiaq sealskin mat with Lascaux 360 HV and 498 HV

Francis Lukezic

Fig. 1: Mat before treatment.

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After considering the working properties of BEVA 371film and Lascaux 360 HV and 498 HV adhesives, Iselected a mixture of three parts Lascaux360HV:498HV 50:50 with one part water. Lascaux 360HV and Lascaux 498 HV are thermoplastic acrylicresins comprised of a water-based dispersioncontaining butyl acrylate and methyl methacrylate,thickened with acrylic butylester. They can be appliedwet or as a dry film reactivated by solvent.Additionally, Lascaux 360 HV performed well inadhesive testing carried out by the CanadianConservation Institute, displaying flexibility andfavorable ageing properties (Down, et al., 1996). A50:50 mixture of Lascaux 360 HV and 498 HVproduced desirable working properties. Together, 360HV and 498 HV increased tack but the mixtureremained smooth and easy to apply. I used thefollowing technique to secure the partially detached

sections of appliqué:

• First, the diluted mixture of 50:50 Lascaux360HV:498HV was brushed onto both sides of asheet of 4 mil (~100 μm) Reemay (spunbondedpolyester). The Reemay acts as a carrier for theadhesive, which minimises the amount of moistureintroduced to the sealskin. In addition, theadhesive-coated Reemay piece is more reversiblethan BEVA 371 film.

• While the Reemay sheet dried, templates werecreated using Melinex (transparent polyestersheet) of the appliqué sections requiring repair.

• After the Reemay sheet was dry, the templateswere used to cut shapes out of the Reemay to fitthe corresponding appliqué sections.

• The adhesive-coated Reemay pieces were solvent-reactivated by applying a few drops of acetone.


Figs. 2 and 3: Examples of partially detached appliqué before treatment

Fig. 4: During treatment. Weights placed on top ofrepaired sections.

Fig. 5: Example of appliqué section after treatment.

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The repair of an Alaskan Inupiaq sealskin mat with Lascaux 360 HV and 498 HV Francis Lukezic

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• Then, the Reemay pieces were inserted beneaththe appliqué sections using tweezers.

• A small weight was placed over the top of therepairs to provide some pressure to the sectionwhile the adhesive set (Fig. 4).

Fig. 5 illustrates a section of applique after treatmentwhile Fig. 6 provides an overall view of the mat aftertreatment. Lascaux adhesive has been used in avariety of conservation disciplines, including paintings,textiles, and objects. Perhaps the use of Lascauxadhesive in this case study will prompt furtherthoughts on its application within the context of bookand paper conservation.

Author’s Contact Information

Francis LukezicMSc Conservation Practice (of museum andarchaeological objects) [email protected]

References

Down, J., et al., 1996. Adhesive testing at the CanadianConservation Institute: an evaluation of selected poly(vinylacetate)and acrylic adhesives. Studies in Conservation, 41, pp. 19–44.


Fig. 6: Mat after treatment.

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The repair of an Alaskan Inupiaq sealskin mat with Lascaux 360 HV and 498 HV Francis Lukezic

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Outline

The evolution of the photographic print in all itsdiverse process forms is mirrored by changes inattitudes and approaches to its mounting andpresentation; stylistically, aesthetically, materially andconstructionally. This paper will focus on the evolutionand usage of the various adhesive systems andapplication techniques for the mounting andpresentation of photographic prints, their effect onimage and materials stability and reversibility and howthis impacts approaches to their interventiveconservation treatment and reversal as part of abroader interventive conservation treatment strategyfor mounted photographic prints.

Within the history of photography, the developmentand choice of adhesive systems, mountingtechniques, materials, and presentation styles wenthand in hand with the development of thephotographic print process and its subsequentcommercialisation. These developments began withthe salted paper print, evolved via the albumen,collodion and gelatine print processes and includedthe plethora of mainstream non-silver printingprocesses that were also introduced in response todiffering material and behavioural properties. Theintroduction of the gelatine print period in the late1870s, with its more complex process stratigraphy andmaterial make-up, for example, demanded differentmounting techniques and different adhesives if thevisual and material qualities of the process were not tobe marred by the mounting process itself.

The many and varied uses of photography gave riseto many presentation scenarios on a wide range ofmaterial bases (adherends) in addition to paper andboard, such as plastic, glass, metal, ceramic, textile,leather, wood, ivory, bone, stone and mica.

Initially practitioners simply adopted the adhesivesand the papers, boards and book forms that werealready available and in common usage. Adhesivessuch as gelatine and starch were widely andcommonly used in the mounting and presentation ofpaper-based prints. Starch, in its various processedforms and mixtures, combined with other adhesives,was the most widely used adhesive for the mountingof photographs.

It is also extremely important to emphasise that bothaqueous and non-aqueous adhesives were also usedthroughout the history, development and manufactureof photography as sizing agents, fillers, binders andsubbing layers in predominantly paper- film- andglass-based photography in the application of theirchemistries, light sensitive colloids, emulsions andcoatings.

Adhesive application techniques for ‘paste-down’photographs fall into two basic approaches ‘wetmounting’ and ‘dry mounting’.

Wet mounting

This is the application of a water-based adhesive to apre-soaked, fully wetted photograph which is then


The history, application and stability of adhesives used in the mounting and presentationof photographs and criteria for their conservation treatment

Ian L. Moor ACR The Centre for Photographic Conservation

57

applied whilst wet to a preconditioned or wettedsupport. The combined photograph and supportwere then dried under pressure.

Wet mounting methods of attachment include:

• Drum mounting

• Full contact – paste-down

Dry mounting

This is the application of an aqueous, or non-aqueous,solvent-based adhesive to a dry photograph and/orits dry adherend/support without the necessity forpreconditioning or wetting. This includes the use ofheat in the application of thermoplastic adhesives(melt-freeze adhesives) and the use of pressure forPSA (pressure sensitive adhesive), cold set, contactadhesives. The subsequent use of drying pressure wasoptional and usually determined by adhesive andprocess type.

Dry mounting methods of attachment include:

• Spot/corner attachment

• Hinging or hinges

• Inlaying

• Drum mounting

• Partial/incomplete contact

• Full contact

The demands of the rapidly developing medium soongave rise to the introduction of many commercialadhesive preparations each boasting of their superiorqualities and purity.

Commercial adverts for adhesives and sample ofDerepas tissue


1840–1920 timeline of adhesives used in the wet and dry mounting of photographs, presented as a poster

The history, application and stability of adhesives used in the mounting and presentation of photographs Ian L. Moor

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Classes of adhesive used historically in themounting and presentation of photographs

Proteins

• Gelatine (mixture of peptides and proteinsproduced by partial hydrolysis of collagen)

Animal glue (bone/hide/connective tissues –unrefined)

Gelatine (refined)

• Isinglass (gelatine from fish air bladders especiallysturgeon [fish glue])

• Bull’s blood (globular protein groups: albumins,globulins, and fibrinogens)

Polysaccharides

• Starch (vegetable)

Wheat

Corn

Rice

Potato

Arrowroot

Starch plus preservatives such as mercuricchloride, potassium carbonate (carbonate ofpotash), oil of cloves and carbolic acid

Dextrine (British gum: a heat- or heat andacid-modified starch producing an adhesive withlower viscosity and a higher solids content forfaster drying)

• Plant gums and mucilages (sugar and uronic acid).Water-soluble or water-dispersible materials

Gum arabic (gum acacia, acacia senegal)

Tragacanth

Cherry gum

• Modified cellulose – nitrate and acetic esters

Terpenoids

• Resins

Shellac (insect resin)

Canada balsam

Gum elemi


Commercially produced adhesives proliferated

Sheet of Derepas shellac-coated dry mounting tissuec.1905


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Polyisoprenoids

• Caoutchouc (latex – an al-cis isomer: India rubber,gum elastic)

• Rubber cement (Cow Gum)

• Gutta-percha (an all-trans isomer)

Synthetic – drying adhesives

• Heat-set/seal dry mounting tissue

• Cold-set PSA films (1920s rubber-based)

• SprayMount (solvent-based aerosol)

• Contact adhesives

• Glue sticks

Caprolactam (with hydrogen peroxide andsodium hydroxide)

PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone, a water solublepolymer)

Mixtures of adhesive used (commercial and non-commercial)

• Gelatine/starch mixtures

• Gelatine and arrowroot

• Gelatine and other additives (gums)

• Dextrine/gum

• Shellac/mastic

• Shellac/gum elemi

• Shellac, gum elemi/Canada balsam

• Shellac/borax (a water-based adhesive)

• Shellac/wax

Dry Mounting tissue (heat-set/seal (melt-freeze)adhesive)

• Shellac and additives – gum elemi and Canadabalsam

• Acrylic

Dry mounting tissue and adhesives (cold-set contactadhesive)

• Cold-set, double-sided PSA film

• SprayMount/PhotoMount

• Cold-set, single-sided PSA coating (magneticalbums)

• Glue stick (Pritt Stick): caprolactam with hydrogenperoxide and sodium hydroxide or PVP

Additives

Many adhesives, commercial preparations, home-made preparations, preparations used by

photographers, photographic studios, camera clubs,print sellers, binders and stationers, etc., contained avariety of additives such as:

• Preservatives, which were added to prevent theadhesive from:

Putrefying (or going mouldy)

Oxidising

Breaking down

Hydrolysing

Becoming brittle (embrittlement)

• Modifiers, which were added to alter essentialadhesive properties such as:

Flexibility

Absorbency

Slip

Grab, tack (tackiness) and adhesivity

Drying rate

Clarity

Solubility

Adhesive additives

Typical adhesive additives included gums, resins,humectants, plasticisers, glycerine/glycerol, sorbitol,preservatives such as mercuric chloride and potassiumcarbonate, driers, acids such as carbolic acid,carboxylic acid and oxalic acid, oil of cloves, oil ofwintergreen (methyl salicylate: a decolouriser andfragrant, anti-herbivore defence against plantpathogens [fungi, bacteria, protists]), ammonia,chloral hydrate (a binder [bonding agent], solvent andclearing agent), sodium carbonate (washing soda),alcohol (ethanol), methylated spirit, sugar, borax andalum (potassium aluminium sulphate).

The use of even the most commonplace adhesivessuch as gelatine and starch was not without itspotential problems given the inherent nature andsensitivity of silver-based photographs, particularlythose processes based upon photolytic silver, knownas the printing-out processes.

The deleterious effect of adhesive systems on silverimage stability was a factor identified by thePhotographic Society of London’s ‘FadingCommittee’ of 1855, chaired by Roger Fenton. Thecommittee’s report identified ‘adhesives’ as a majorcause of fading in positive proofs (prints), a fact all-too evident in the condition of historic photographstoday.



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Physical and chemical changes in adhesives inresponse to inherent material chemistries and externalenvironmental factors that can lead to adhesivedegradation, oxidation and insolubility are welldocumented and understood for most commonadhesive systems.

Physical changes arising from diffusion and solubilityfactors result in:

• Shrinkage

• Embrittlement

• Hardening

• Stress-related fissures and shear

Chemical changes result in:

• Oxidation

• Polymerisation

• Cross-linking

• Acid hydrolysis

• Insolubility (affecting permeability)

• Loss of diffusion (affecting permeability)

• Loss of flexibility

However, the production, fabrication and mountingfor presentation and storage of photographsintroduces additional degradatory influences that canalso affect the stability and solubility of the variousadhesive systems used. Photographs are not onlyadversely affected by adhesives; adhesives are alsoadversely affected by photographs, their chemistriesand their adherends.

Other contributory factors that affect adhesivestability, permeability and solubility include thefollowing.

The pH factor

The acid hydrolysis of paper cellulose, sizes, additives,dyes, mordants, fillers, loadings, coatings, etc. willaffect adhesive solubility.

• The pH stability of the photographic process itselfas photographs are either acid or alkalinestabilised

• Residual processing chemistry

• Metal ions in photographic base papers or paperand board secondary supports can cause localised,sporadic acid hydrolysis (foxing) which, in turn, willresult in localised, sporadic adhesive insolubility in


This Samuel Bourne albumen print (Neg. 1218 Amar SinghGate, The Fort Agra 1860s) shows oxidation stainingarising from the gutta-percha adhesive

Loss of image density and discolouration to the edge ofthis albumen print (Anon. Irish Cross, Kilklispeen, CountyTipperary 1866) arising from drum-mounting the print withunrefined gelatine

This Samuel Bourne albumen print (Neg. 1064 Cemetery inResidency Lucknow 1860s) clearly shows image silverdegradation arising from the caoutchouc adhesive


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an otherwise soluble/reversible adhesive such asstarch

The adhesive

The inherent physical and chemical nature of theadhesive will affect its stability, permeability andsolubility:

• Mixtures of adhesives formulated to take fulladvantage of their combined individual propertiesof slip, grab, flexibility and diffusion will also affectstability, permeability and solubility

• The addition of modifiers, pH buffers,preservatives, lubricants and plasticisers, notuncommon in commercial preparations, will alsoaffect stability and solubility

The photograph

The inherent physical make-up and chemical nature ofthe photograph can affect an adhesive’s stability,permeability and solubility through the followingfactors:

• The degree of adhesive diffusion

• The pH of the process

• The presence of metal ion chemistry

• The presence of residual processing chemistry

The adherend/support

Degradation of the various adherends, that is thephotograph and its support(s), can also result indegradation of an applied adhesive.

Whilst photographic base papers are historicallyfabricated from high-grade cellulose, their secondarysupports are invariably fabricated from essentially low-grade materials finished more for show than stabilityor functionality (low-grade core with good qualitycover and backing paper).

Adhesives can be affected by the following adherendproperties:

• Their material stratigraphy, i.e. solid caste, duplex,triplex or multiplex (pasteboard) boards with orwithout finishes and coatings

• Their make-up, i.e. fibre content, can be eithersingular, using 100% virgin pulp or waste paper, asin chipboard, mill board, straw board, mechanical(ground) wood-pulp board, chemical pulp boards(kraft or soda processes) or mixed fibre content,with layered combinations of high- and low-gradematerials

• The presence of sizings, binders, loadings andfillers in papers and boards

• The presence of finishes and coatings

Photo-oxidation (photo-degradation)

Photographs are meant to be seen and are oftendisplayed, sometimes for long periods of timeinvolving exposure to light (UV through to infra-redwavelengths), which can result in their oxidativedegradation as the differing materials’ Thermal LinearExpansion (TLE) values are exceeded, or thermal gainaccelerates oxidation reactions in all materials.

Interventive conservation treatment criteria forphotographs and their adhesives

Adhesive and adherend degradation has hugeimplications for the photographic conservator todayfaced with the preventive or interventive conservationtreatment of historic mounted photographs.Interventive conservation treatment may necessitatethe removal, or reattachment, of a photograph fromits secondary support(s). The ability to successfullyreverse an historic adhesive is determined by a properassessment of the following factors:

• The adhesive – its identification, type, makeup (asit could be a mixture), condition, stability andpotential solubility

• The photographic process – itsidentification/process type, condition, materialnature, makeup and stratigraphy

• The adherend/secondary support – its materialmake-up, structure/stratigraphy and condition

• The stability of all relevant, component materialsto potential treatment solvents, aqueous and non-aqueous

Barriers to treatment/adhesive reversal

The photograph itself can present a number ofimpermeable barriers that can prevent or inhibitsolvent diffusion to the adhesive layer. Such barriersmight include:

• The colloid

• The base

• Its stratigraphy and makeup

• A baryta layer

• Resin Coated (RC) polyethylene layers to the paperbase

• Where photographs are mounted to both sides ofa secondary support



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Coupled with a photograph, an adherend/supportcan also present an impermeable barrier to solventdiffusion. Such barriers might include:

• Its material stratigraphy, i.e. solid caste, duplex,triplex or multiplex (pasteboard) boards with orwithout finishes and coatings

• Its make-up, i.e. fibre content can be singular,using 100% virgin pulp, or multi-fibred as inchipboard, mill board, straw board, mechanical(ground) wood-pulp board, chemical pulp boards(kraft or soda processes), or mixed fibre contentwith layered combinations of high- and low-gradematerials

• The presence of sizings, binders, loadings andfillers in papers and boards

• The presence of finishes and coatings

A thorough assessment of all the aforementionedfactors should enable the formulation of a treatmentproposal that:

• Targets the adhesive

• Utilises adhesive-specific solvents

• Utilises physical manipulative release techniqueswhere appropriate

• Identifies and targets the quickest and mosteffective access route to the adhesive layer

• Minimises treatment time and its potential impacton the photograph through:

Effective pre-treatment dry cleaningtechniques

Dry delamination

The use of aqueous (non-basic) and non-aqueous surfactants

• Uses appropriate process- and condition-determined treatment controls such astemperature, water quality, pH and duration

• Ensures the stability, integrity and preservation ofall inherent material and visual qualities of theartefact being treated

The original presentation is integral to theprovenance and integrity of the photograph andshould be preserved. All interventive treatmentsinvolving aqueous and non-aqueous solvents withphotographs are potentially hazardous and musttherefore be carried out only when deemedabsolutely necessary for the extended-termpreservation of the photograph and only withappropriate treatment-based controls in place.

This paper has briefly outlined the history, applicationand stability of adhesives used in the mounting andpresentation of photographs and the criteria for theirconservation treatment. The identification andassessment of adhesive systems used in the mountingand presentation of photographs is paramount to allpreventive and interventive conservation treatmentsfor photographs.



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The re-treatment of the green velvet bed at theNational Trust’s Hardwick Hall and the State bed atClandon Park

This paper, based upon a poster presentation for theIcon Positive Futures 2013 conference, focused on theapproach taken with the re-treatment of two NationalTrust beds: an early eighteenth-century green velvetbed at Hardwick Hall and the State bed at ClandonPark which dates from around 1705. Both treatmentsresulted in full ‘adhesive-stitched’ supports beingused but their specific treatments followed differingroutes to reach that same destination.

One past treatment was reversed and the originaltextiles were re-treated using up-to-date adhesivetechniques whilst the other past treatment wasretained and supplemented with extensive stitching.In exploring the differing approaches to these twolarge-scale adhesive projects, this paper aims toillustrate how the decisions regarding choice ofapplication method and materials were influenced bythe specific nature of the textiles involved as well astheir respective past treatments, ethical andbudgetary considerations and the equipmentavailable.


Working with adhesives: different routes to the same destination

Zenzie Tinker ACR, Textile Group

Hardwick Hall bed

Clandon Park bed

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The existing treatment of the green velvet bed atHardwick Hall

The existing treatment consisted of a complex, three-dimensional velvet supported on a double-sidedthermoplastic adhesive film cast on polyesterStabiltex with a silk support layer behind. The imagesabove show examples of areas where the adhesivesupport was failing, resulting in dust getting in behind

The existing treatment of the State bed atClandon Park

The satin curtain linings had been repaired onto heavycotton patches. The adhesive used in the repairappeared to have been applied as a ready-made film


Dust and the failing adhesive support The use of sticky threads

These three images show some of the issues relating to the previous repair of the satin linings on the bed hangings.

Delamination of detaching adhesive-treated fragments

the delaminated areas and exacerbating the problem,and areas of the curtains where adhesive had beenused without supplementary stitching, allowing thevelvet to lift from its support as the adhesive bondfailed. Furthermore, ‘sticky’ threads had been used inthe historic treatment, a technique that hassubsequently shown itself to be unsuitable for thistype of scenario.

in some areas but had also been brushed on as aliquid in others to form a combination of laminatinglayers and fully penetrating layers of adhesive.

Additionally there was failing adhesive and fragmentsof adhesive falling out from the hems of the curtains.

Working with adhesives: different routes to the same destination Zenzie Tinker

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Comparative chart of previous adhesive treatments of the bed textiles


Previous adhesive treatment of silk velvet Hardwick bed hangings

Previous adhesive treatment of silk linings of Clandon bed hangings

1980s treatment Treatment date unknown, possibly C19th or early/

mid C20th Professional conserva�on Non-professional repair

Full support of polyester Stabiltex and dyed silk backing layer applied with no reference to original seamed construc�on

Patch support of heavy co�on only applied to damaged areas

Reasonably heavy thermoplas�c film (probably Mowilith DMC2) cast double-sided onto polyester Stabiltex support, allowed to dry and then laid by hand onto reverse of tex�le with silk interlining laid on top. Adhesive reac�vated with heat via vacuum hot table

Heavy, unevenly applied adhesive (mix of gu�a- percha, wax and clay) had been both directly painted wet onto reverse of sa�n linings (brush marks visible) and applied as a ready-made film, possibly reac�vated with heat

A few tension problems where adhesive support is too �ght and causing small bubbles or pleats in velvet

Badly-applied patch support causing tension problems; weakness and spli�ng around edges of patches. Patches creased and grain of weave not aligned to object

No supplementary s�tching No supplementary s�tching

Majority of adhesive support remains well-bonded to tex�le and silk interlining layer

Adhesive has penetrated fibres of tex�le yet does not hold support in close contact with tex�le

Bond remains fairly good throughout but is delamina�ng from tex�le along splits and holes

Bond breaking down unevenly. Adhesive film delamina�ng and pieces dropping from object

Adhesive treatment s�ll providing good overall support as intended; tex�le s�ll able to hang but with specific areas of vulnerability

Adhesive treatment not providing support intended

Support could not easily be removed mechanically without causing extensive damage to tex�le, meaning that adhesive bond is stronger than weakened structure of tex�le

Support can be peeled from tex�le without too much damage if removed along direc�on of splits, meaning

that adhesive bond is weaker than tex�le. A�er removal of support, most of adhesive remains embedded in structure of tex�le

Adhesive would be fully reversible by using an appropriate solvent if required

Adhesive residue is fully reversible where condi�on of sa�n allows


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The evidence supplied by this chart shows thattextiles with past adhesive treatments may present acomplex combination of contradictory factors, andsuggests that reversibility is both desirable and ill-advised! In short, the reversal of adhesive treatmentsis never a simple decision to make.

The conservation decisions for the treatment ofthe Hardwick bed

It was decided to leave the past adhesive treatment inplace and supplement with stitching. The mainpurpose of the introduction of stitching was to reattachloose fragments and improve flexibility and drape.

The major considerations that shaped this decisionwere:

• The size of the textiles: there was a total of 33 m²of textile in the four bed hangings

• The weak, powdery condition of the silk

• The overall strength of the adhesive bond

• The economics of reversal and re-treatment

• Overall, the previous treatment was still sound andcould be supplemented to good effect

The treatment to stabilise the green velvet bedcurtains involved approximately 2,000 hours’ work.

The conservation decisions for the treatment ofthe Clandon State bed

It was decided to remove the existing adhesivetreatment and replace it with a modern adhesivetreatment. The major considerations that shaped thisdecision were:

• The unsuitable adhesive patch supports werefailing

• The existing conservation treatment was badlyapplied involving non-professional repairs andusing an unsuitable adhesive


New supplementary stitching worked through the textileand the previous adhesive treatment, front (above) andback (below)

Completed treatment


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• Replacement linings were considered but theoriginal silk linings are integral to the originalstructure of the bed

• Areas of these linings were very soiled and in needof wet cleaning

• Large areas of linings were in good condition butwith sufficiently significant areas in a very poorcondition

• A replacement adhesive support would reduce theamount of stitching required in brittle areas

• A full, rather than a patch, support would providethe overall strength required

The overall importance of the bed and its originalcompleteness played a large part in the desire toconserve the linings rather than replace them. It wasalso the case that, particularly with the foot curtains,there were many panels of lining that were still in verygood condition. Furthermore, manually removing thecotton patches was a relatively quick and easy part oftreatment.

Adhesive removal

Removing the adhesive, which was a mix of wax, clayand rubber, was an enormous challenge. It was alsoessential to extensively test to find the right solventsfor the removal of the adhesive layer and to developan economic mobile extraction system that we coulduse for health and safety compliance.


Head curtain lining after manual removal of patches: fullview (above) and detail (below)

Although initial tests had indicated some individualsolvents worked fairly well, we had to consult a solventspecialist due to the composite nature of the adhesivecomponents and the fragility of the affected areas ofsilk which would have made mechanical action toodamaging. Solvent application was in two stages: aninitial application to soften the adhesive to allowgentle scraping to remove any excess, and then afurther application to dissolve the embeddedadhesive.

Wet cleaning followed the solvent treatment. Alcoholwas used to aid the initial wetting out of the fibres andthen the power of the water and detergent wasenough to remove almost all of the final residues ofadhesive.

Wet cleaning proved to be very successful as it notonly removed a huge amount of soil and black silkdust from the embroidered curtains but restored thebody and lustre to the silk satin.

Mobile extraction chamber



Manual removal of softened adhesive residue after applying a solvent mix of alcohol, xylene, IMS and heptane (left),dissolving adhesive embedded in the weave structure using the same mix of solvents (right). The adhesive residue andsolvent mix was then flushed out with Cyclohexane followed by IMS

View after removal of adhesive prior to wet cleaning

Wash bath samples

View during wet cleaning


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Making and applying a new adhesive support

Adhesive film preparation

An adhesive film of 2:1 Lascaux 360 HV:498 HV dilutedwith four parts water was applied via rollers to a dyedsilk crepeline support. More than 30 m of dyed silkcrepeline were carefully prepared and each panel oflining was then supported by hand with the adhesivefilm. The lack of access to a vacuum hot table meant

that we had to work with spatula irons and the verycareful use of flat irons to ensure an even application.

In addition to the adhesive film, stitching was workedin fine polyester to supplement the bond between theadhesive crepeline and the weak areas of loss in thelinings. Additionally fixing lines and seams were alsostitched through to a dyed silk interlining used tovisually fill areas of loss and provide some dustprotection for the reverse side of the adhesive filmlayer.

It is at this junction that the two treatments meet upon the same path: both objects now have a fulladhesive treatment and a dyed silk interlining layer.An essential difference was the time that each supporttreatment required. By incorporating supplementarystitching at the outset of the treatment rather than asa means to stabilise an existing treatment, the amountof stitching required for the treatment of the Clandonbed was minimal compared with the green velvet bedat Hardwick Hall.

Both treatments also required the application ofoverlays of dyed nylon net in the most vulnerableareas. As both beds were to be returned to opendisplay in an historic house setting, and as such willneed to be cleaned and handled a little in the future,the net will offer some protection from normalmaintenance, housekeeping and storage.

A postscript to the original poster presentation is thatdiscussions with photographic conservator Ian Moorat PF13 seems to confirm our supposition that theadhesive originally used to treat the Clandon bedlinings was very similar to adhesive manufactured in thenineteenth and early twentieth centuries and commonlyused to laminate photographs to card mounts.


Application of new adhesive support to the reverse of onepanel of the curtain lining

Delicate hand application of adhesive support alongoriginal seams

Detail of the adhesive report in place with the addition ofsupplementary stitching


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Acknowledgements

The National Trust, UK for permission to publish.

The dedicated team at Zenzie Tinker Conservation, Brighton,without whom these large-scale projects would not be possible.

www.zenzietinker.co.uk


Views of a foot and a head curtain lining after conservation
