Ivory

I am looking for information about fillers for ivory. The object in
question is an Art Deco figurine, about 15 cm high. Both its arms
had been broken off some time ago and were repaired by drilling
threaded metal dowels into them and then into the shoulders. The
result was that the shoulders split completely, and the whole thing
was put together again with lots of contact cement.

When taking apart the old repair, removing the dowels from the arms
without causing damage proved impossible. The part of the dowels
that goes into the shoulder was therefore filed to a smaller
diameter, and they will continue to support the arms, which are
stretched up. I am looking for a filler that will  support the
dowels, but will accommodate some movement because the figurine goes
back to a none-conditioned environment, with fairly severe seasonal
changes in humidity and temperature.

In addition to this structural filler, some filling of gaps is
necessary where the filling material will be seen, but doesn't
require any structural strength.

I would also appreciate comments about adhesives for ivory. There
seems to be very little literature on the subject. The suggestions I
found so far are for Paraloid or for PVA in ethanol, and for a heat
sensitive adhesive, Parafilm M. Laura Juszczak who placed this last
entry on the AIC objects list, was asking for more information about
it's structure, quoting the results of an analysis as: "innocuous
polymers with adhesive and melt properties, and does not contain oil
or plasticizers". Though heat sensitive material is not relevant for
the present case, I join Laura in the request for more information.

Smadar Gabrieli
Dept of Classical Studies
University of Western Australia
PO Box 260; Fremantle 6959 (h)
Australia

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:71
                 Distributed: Friday, February 20, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-11-71-009
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