Consolidating deteriorated leather

Paul Storch <paul.storch<-a t->mnhs< . >org> writes

>Soren Ibsen in his reply (Conservation DistList Instance: 11:16
>Thursday, August 14, 1997) obliquely touched on the issue that a
>complete conservation condition assessment should be done for each
>object

This is a response to the problem of book deterioration.  Paul is
right that an assessment is a good idea.  T.B. and Anne Kahle
studied samples of dust on books, the book paper, leather and air in
various parts of a library containing rare leather-bound books. They
found that when stored together acidic books can be a source of
acidity and degradation products that can transfer to other books in
another part of a library via air conditioning and passive transfer.
This was supported by Slavin & Hanlan (1992) and Dimitroff and
Lacksonen (1986).  I summarized this work and reproduced charts in
my article in Museum Management and Curatorship (1993).

Niccolo Caldararo

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:18
                  Distributed: Friday, August 22, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-18-007
                                  ***