Stained glass

I have a set of stained glass windows made in 1904 that are painted
with oil paint instead of fired glass paint.  The paint was applied
after the windows were made, and it goes over the lead came as well
as on the glass.  The colors we have found so far are white, black,
ultramarine blue, red, and yellow ochre.  The windows are assembled
in three to four layers of glass, predominantly opalescent glass.

The windows are from a church, and have to be reinstalled there,
although they will be behind protective glazing, vented to the
interior so that the stained glass will be surrounded by warmed,
interior air.  However, there's no air conditioning or other climate
control.

My problem is that the oil paint is flaking off the glass in curling
chips. We can barely touch the windows without losing paint.  When
we remove layers of glass, the small vacuum created lifts the paint
flakes. The windows have to be taken apart to replace the caming,
and we're going to lose the paint completely if we don't do
something.  Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix the paint so we
don't lose it through the processes of cleaning, reglazing, and
waterproofing, with something that will also withstand a certain
amount of weathering for many, many years?  We have used epoxies or
B72 in the past, but neither of these is desirable in this project.
We're afraid the epoxy will yellow and alter the color of the paint.
And the B72 isn't strong enough to withstand the working of the
glass to put the window back together.

Julie Sloan
McKernan Satterlee Associates
Tonetta Lake Road
Brewster NY 10509
914-278-2187
Fax: 914-278-2481

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:49
                Distributed: Thursday, November 21, 1996
                       Message Id: cdl-10-49-016
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