Paper Conservation: Decisions & Compromises
Paper Conservation: Decisions & Compromises Paper Conservation: Decisions & Compromises
Poster Presentations ICOM-CC Graphic Document Working Group – Interim Meeting Austrian National Library, Vienna 17 – 19 April 2013
Ethical Considerations Concerning the Conservation and Restoration of a Herbarium from the 19 th Century Magdalena Grenda Warsaw Rising Museum, Warsaw, Poland Fig. 1: Page 15 before treatment. Introduction After two years of efforts to get financial support, the Reverend Krzysztof Kluk Museum of Agriculture in Ciechanowiec ordered the conservation of a herbarium from their collection. The artifact’s history and origin were little known, and the author of the herbarium was anonymous. The curator wanted to submit the item for historical botanist research but was afraid of making it accessible for anybody due to its very poor condition. There was a clue for dating hidden in the paper: a watermark with the date 1816. The style of the Linnaean system for taxonomy assignment used in the herbarium suggested it was created before 1850 1 . Nevertheless, these were only mere pieces of information concerning the history of the artifact and the owner was interested in further research. The conservation treatment was intended to enable safe handling and submission of the item for future examination. Condition of the item The herbarium has the form of an album and is a compilation of various types of plant specimens, arranged on large sheets of a greenish laid paper. The sheets are sewn on four rigid cords, bound in cardboard binding with a woodblock printed paper. On every page, 4 to 10 specimens, are located irregularly, most of them have short handwritten descriptions. Particular specimens have longer specifications containing Polish and Latin names, taxonomy assignment and some notes on usage, some of which are very colorful. The specimens are attached to the paper using narrow strips of white laid paper. The larger leaves and petals were pasted to the paper support. The herbarium was seriously damaged prior to conservation treatment. Severe damages were found on almost all the elements of the item: only half of the front cover remained; the construction of the whole block was dismantled; the covers’ cardboard was spongy and stratified and there were a lot of losses in the outer layers of the paper. The remains of woodblock printed paper showed heavy discoloration and the pattern was hardly visible. The spine lost its proper shape. The paper sheets were torn at the edges, were creased and spongy. There were a lot of brown stains in the paper, mostly repeating the shape of the plants, which is probably the effect of poisoning the plants done in order to repel pests. However bad the condition of the paper part of the item, the most serious problem concerned the specimens. The majority of plants had fallen off their places and moved to the area of the spine which caused damages to brittle plants. The damages were of different extent, from little cracks to severe breakages or even crushing. Nevertheless, still a lot of specimens remained in one piece, yet out of the intended place (Fig. 1). The plants were brittle, often incomplete, partially crumbled and a lot of specimens swung when attached at one point to the sheet. Issues taken into consideration and conservation planning Any handling was actually risky and might cause further damages or loss of plant material. The main goal of the conservation of such an item ICOM-CC Graphic Documents Working Group Interim Meeting | Vienna 17 – 19 April 2013 93
- 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
- Page 80 and 81: The Restoration of Cartoons at the
- Page 82 and 83: tation presumes that the works are
- Page 84 and 85: To Remove or Retain? - Extensive In
- Page 86 and 87: Fig. 4 repeated applications until
- Page 88 and 89: The Migration of Hydroxy Propyl Cel
- Page 90: tion issue allowed a visualisation
- Page 95 and 96: emoved with damp cotton swab. Then
- Page 97 and 98: Conservation of a Book of Hours fro
- Page 99 and 100: Fig. 4: Pigments movement and conse
- Page 101 and 102: Notes 1 Brazilwood lake, lapis lazu
- Page 103 and 104: pages, which would easily have torn
- Page 105 and 106: The Microflora Inhabiting Leonardo
- Page 107 and 108: Acknowledgments The authors would l
- Page 109 and 110: Microorganisms in Books - First Res
- Page 111 and 112: hyaline white mycelia on and in the
- Page 113 and 114: Deconstructing the Reconstruction E
- Page 115 and 116: Fig. 3: Poster after 2012 conservat
- Page 117 and 118: Conservators’ Investigation of Ch
- Page 119 and 120: had been used, may be false-positiv
- Page 121 and 122: function will provide a holistic pi
- Page 123 and 124: Fig. 2: Patriarchs of Chan Buddhism
- Page 125 and 126: ing techniques, which build upon fu
- Page 127 and 128: Applications of Image Processing So
- Page 129 and 130: Fig. 3 Fig. 4 images in a single wi
- Page 131 and 132: Analysing Deterioration Artifacts i
- Page 133 and 134: Fig. 3 similarity maps. Similarity
- Page 135 and 136: Strategy in the Case of a Wrecked P
- Page 137 and 138: without preliminary consolidation.
- Page 139 and 140: Fiber Optic Reflectance Spectroscop
Poster Presentations<br />
ICOM-CC Graphic Document<br />
Working Group – Interim Meeting<br />
Austrian National Library, Vienna<br />
17 – 19 April 2013
Change language