Paper Conservation: Decisions & Compromises

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Fig. 4 Museum in London and the prestigious exhibition of fine medieval art in Brussels in 1880 10 . This major exhibition included a large number of medieval manuscripts and incunabula from all over Europe and proved to have considerable public appeal. Already in 1860 there was a growing interest, especially in England, in travelling to the Continent to see actual medieval relics, a trend that the development of the railways had made possible. On the other hand, the growing interest and public display of century old books encouraged the unbinding from their original bindings. For the 1880 Brussels exhibition a splendid illuminated book of Hours (the Hennessy Hours) was unbound and the folio’s presented in movable wooden frames 11 . The same approach could be seen in the Bargello Museum in Florence where the collection of manuscript leaves of the French antiquarian Francetti Carrand (1821-1899) were put in 1894 on permanent display in vertical wooden showcases 12 . The press took the communication for the exhibitions in their hands and Travel Guide Books like the little red Baededeker, Handbook for Travellers are revealing with great precision which precious books or documents the new traveller could see “on show” in the main European libraries, museums or archives. These institutions were open to the public, although limited hours a day or week. A closer look to the continuing new editions of the Baedeker show how long the same manuscripts and early printed books stayed on display, this could be without doubt between twenty and thirty years, with the opening on the same page. The example of the Antwerp Museum Plantin-Moretus is clear, the 1891 edition of Baedeker is mentioning: Room III. in the center, miniatures from the tenth to the sixteenth century 13 . On the first floor of the Museum there were autographs, incunabula and documents on view in glass showcases, close to the windows. The showcases were covered with leather covers to protect against light (Figure 4). Not all repositories took these preventives measurements. For public collections, there was another challenge. After the Sankt-Gallen (1898) and the Liège conference (1905) attended by a large group of European librarians, one of the solutions proposed to protect original book material was the making of reproductions 14 . The starting point was the idea that the original would be handled less and thus would be better conserved. Photographic reproduction, it was argued, allowed the user to view and study a manuscript as much and for as long as he pleased, without any risk to the original. In this scope, only facsimiles of European manuscripts were sent to the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. The travel risks and the long display period were esteemed to riskfull. Conclusion The context and evolution of display of historical documents in public and private places reveals a fundamental interest of the custodians for the protection and the prevention of the artefacts. In the modern period, the value of libri antiqua shifted to items with an historical, didactical financial and artistic value. In this context, books were from the 19 th century on -without scrutinydismantled, mounted, restored and rebound to function in the shifting exhibition contexts. The ‘progress’ in display entailed occasionally a dramatic paradox for the physical integrity of the old document. The history of the display of an artefact is an important mark in the material pedigree of a book. In this regard, conservators -with their trained eyes and minds- can frequently reveal detailed material marks of those distant and mostly undocumented displays. In this way they are privileged observers and keepers of the unwritten history of a book or document 15 . ICOM-CC Graphic Documents Working Group Interim Meeting | Vienna 17 – 19 April 2013 26
Notes 1 The Old French the word exhibicion from the latin exhibere (to hold out, display) is already mentioned in the 14th century. 2 The Paix de Douze is a the peace agreement that finally brought to an end a bitter vendetta between two noble houses that had devastated the principality of Liège. See : Stanislas Bormans, Recueil des Ordonnances de l principauté de Liège, 1st series 974-1506, Brussels, 1878: 556. 3 A. De La Grange, Choix de testaments tournaisiens, Tournai, 1897: 257, no. 908. n 24. 4. Luc Indestege, Verslagen en Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Taal en Letterkunde, 1961: 77. 5 William Blades, On Chained Libraries, Read at the Annual Meeting of the Library Association, London, October, 1889, The Library (1889): 412. 6 Brussels, State Archives, CC, 28584, fol. 54r. 7 L. Mirot, L’Hotel et les collections du Connétable de Montmorency, Paris, 1920: 57-58, 70-73, 103-105 and 161-162 8 James Weale, ‘Le couvent de soeurs de notre Dame de Sion, à Bruges’, in Le Beffroi, vol. III, (1866-1870: 85 and 92 9 Christine Sciacca, ‘Raising the Curtain on the Use of Textiles in Manuscripts’, in Weaving, Veiling and Dressing. Textiles and their Metaphors in the Late Middle Ages, Medieval Church Studies 12, Kathryn M. Rudy and Barbara Baert (eds.), Turnhout, 2008: 168-171 10 Charles Ruelens, ‘Les Manunuscrits’, in M. Camille de Roddaz, l’Art Ancien à l’Exposition Nationale Belge, 1880: 289 11 Jozeph Destrée, Les Heures de Notre- Dame dites de Hennessy: étude sur un manuscrit de la bibliotheque royale de Belgique, Brussel, 1895 12 Rosalia Bonito Fanelli, Tessuti italiani del Rinascimento: collezioni Francetti Carrand, Museo nazionale del Bargello, Prato, Florence, 1981 13 Karl Baedeker, Belgium and Holland, Handbook for Travellers, Leipzig – London, 1891, Tenth Edition, Revised and Augmented: 155. 14 Jozeph Van den Gheyn, Les manuscrits des bibliothèques de Belgique à reproduire, Rapport présenté au Congrès international pour la reproduction des manuscrits, des monnaies et des sceaux, Actes du Congrès international tenu à Liége, les 21, 22 et 23 août 1905, Brussel, 1905: 46-47 15 Further reference: Lieve Watteeuw, The History of <strong>Conservation</strong> and Restoration of Illuminated Manuscripts in the Low Countries, Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts, Vol. 19, Low Countries Series, Peeters, London-Leuven-Walpole, 2013 (Forthcoming) Figures Fig. 1: Book niche with grids in a 15th century church. Rogier Van der Weyden’s Seven Sacraments Altarpiece (1445-1450), Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Inv. 394, detail of the central panel.(© Griet Steyaert) Fig. 2: Miniature on parchment depicting the virgin and child, mounted behind a polished mountain crystal. Illumination damage by darkening of the lead white. Early 16th century, City Museum of Mechelen, “Closed Garden of the Unicorn” (© Lieve Watteeuw) Fig. 3: 13th century red silk veil protecting an initial. Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp, M. 16.3, Petrus Lombardus, Sententiarum libri IV, France or England, first quarter of the 13th century, (© Bruno Vandermeulen - KU Leuven) Fig. 4: Exhibition room with showcases for manuscript display in the Museum Plantin-Moretus, Room III, Antwerp. Postcard - early 20th century ? (© Museum Plantin-Moretus) Author Lieve Watteeuw, KU Leuven & Faculty of Arts, Illuminare, Research Centre for Medieval Art, Blijde Inkomststraat 21, 3000 Leuven, Belgium lieve.watteeuw@arts.kuleuven.be ICOM-CC Graphic Documents Working Group Interim Meeting | Vienna 17 – 19 April 2013 27
Page 1 and 2: Paper Conservation: Decisions & Com
Page 3 and 4: Content Lieve Watteeuw Introduction
Page 5: Michael Wheeler | Nicholas Barnard
Page 8 and 9: New Trends in Preservation in the D
Page 10 and 11: and monitoring against adverse envi
Page 12 and 13: Steve Hobaica, Patrick Loughney, Ma
Page 14 and 15: The Albums of Duke Charles de Croÿ
Page 16 and 17: Fig. 4: turning the supporting pape
Page 18 and 19: Fig. 2: Close-up of some of the los
Page 20 and 21: manuscript paper, the binding would
Page 22 and 23: Figure 2 partial sewing: the blue d
Page 24 and 25: Books in Exhibitions: History and A
Page 28 and 29: Risk and Safety of Illuminated Manu
Page 30 and 31: Fig. 2 Atlas, the Crown papers are
Page 32 and 33: Acknowledgments The authors would l
Page 34 and 35: Verdigris I: Compromises in Conserv
Page 36 and 37: Verdigris 2: Wet Chemical Treatment
Page 38 and 39: Integrated Modelling: The Demograph
Page 40 and 41: Fig. 3: The consequence of 50 insta
Page 42 and 43: Characterisation of Historical Pape
Page 44 and 45: pling is required, tide-lines are c
Page 46 and 47: Study of Phytate Chelating Treatmen
Page 48 and 49: Evaluation of stochiometric effects
Page 50 and 51: Practice and Progress in the Conser
Page 52 and 53: Fig. 1 Fig. 2 plex picture and prov
Page 54 and 55: Fig. 2: Coloured paper strips place
Page 56 and 57: the fire (on the other hand paper,
Page 58 and 59: inform decisions on conservation tr
Page 60 and 61: This paper summarizes what is known
Page 62 and 63: 2. Methods An interdisciplinary met
Page 64 and 65: Fig. 4: Dyed endpaper pasted at the
Page 66 and 67: Preservation of Architectural Drawi
Page 68 and 69: Notes 1 According Salvador Muñoz V
Page 70 and 71: course of time under the influence
Page 72 and 73: the curators in review of the treat
Page 74 and 75: cellulose powders with cellulose et
Page 76 and 77:
Authors Xing Kung Liao Conservator
Page 78 and 79:
Fig. 2: Our Railroad Workers and th
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The Restoration of Cartoons at the
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tation presumes that the works are
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To Remove or Retain? - Extensive In
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Fig. 4 repeated applications until
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The Migration of Hydroxy Propyl Cel
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tion issue allowed a visualisation
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Ethical Considerations Concerning t
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emoved with damp cotton swab. Then
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Conservation of a Book of Hours fro
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Fig. 4: Pigments movement and conse
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Notes 1 Brazilwood lake, lapis lazu
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pages, which would easily have torn
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The Microflora Inhabiting Leonardo
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Acknowledgments The authors would l
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Microorganisms in Books - First Res
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hyaline white mycelia on and in the
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Deconstructing the Reconstruction E
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Fig. 3: Poster after 2012 conservat
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Conservators’ Investigation of Ch
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had been used, may be false-positiv
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function will provide a holistic pi
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Fig. 2: Patriarchs of Chan Buddhism
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ing techniques, which build upon fu
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Applications of Image Processing So
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Fig. 3 Fig. 4 images in a single wi
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Analysing Deterioration Artifacts i
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Fig. 3 similarity maps. Similarity
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Strategy in the Case of a Wrecked P
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without preliminary consolidation.
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Fiber Optic Reflectance Spectroscop
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Fig. 3: 18 th century paper seal, i
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Fig. 3 Fig. 4 of responsibilities r
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Characterising the Origin of Carbon
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Fig. 3: Sampling depth for ATR spec
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Fig. 2: Filmoplast® tape attached
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Pluchart, F. 1971. Pop Art Et Cie.
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Fig. 3: The reverse of left screen
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porting the reverse of severe creas
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Paper Conservation: Decisions & Compromises

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