Corroding bronze

From Neal Putt's inquiry on behalf of Belgian colleagues, it is
unclear how sophisticated they are in terms of museum-quality
exhibition and design. For the basics on the issues involved, I
suggest my book Guide to environmental protection of collections,
which is available from several European booksellers. Drying out of
the air inside a case will of course help with the corrosion
problem, but the case materials need to be chosen properly as well,
and the design of the case, that is, internal air circulation, air
volume, etc., needs to be considered carefully. It is sometimes
possible to use incandescent bulbs to heat the case interior to
lower the RH instead of using silica gel, but the owners' capacity
to maintain conditions and monitor also needs to be taken into
account.Particularly with private owners, an assessment of the
client can be as important as the technical needs of the objects.
Even if a client swears that the conservator will be called in
periodically to monitor conditions and/or change silica gel if
needed, it often doesn't happen.

B. Appelbaum

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:99
                    Distributed: Friday, May 9, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-10-99-005
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