Cellulose ethers

Cellulose Ether Adhesive Project

In 1994 the Canadian Conservation Institute undertook a survey of
more than 100 ethnographic artifacts to see how the treatments that
had been done to them were holding up. A paper detailing the survey
was published in the proceedings of the ICOM-CC 11th Triennial
Meeting in Edinburgh.

One of the interesting results that came out of the survey was the
high percentage of failures of cellulose ether adhesives. Of the 14
glue joins made with cellulose ethers that were inspected, 10 had
failed. Obviously, 14 glue joins is not a lot and it was decided at
the ICOM-CC Ethnographic Working Group meeting that more of these
kinds of glue joins should be inspected to see if this 70% failure
rate was just an anomaly or if it really does indicate a problem
with the way these adhesives have been used on ethnographic objects.

Volunteers are needed to spend a few hours in their collections
checking items that were treated with cellulose ether adhesives at
least ten years ago. If you can volunteer a little of your time and
want more information please contact Tom Stone at CCI at
613-998-3721 Ext. 218, fax 613-998-4721 or at tom_stone [at] pch__gc__ca

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:62
                 Distributed: Tuesday, January 20, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-11-62-003
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