Damage caused by silverfish

Richard Mulholland <richard.mulholland [at] unn__ac__uk>

>I am currently working on an early 19th century English picturesque
>etching which has suffered quite serious silverfish damage around
>the edges of the image. The grazing is considerably distracting to
>the eye and it was decided that repair and toning of those areas
>affected should take place if possible. I would like to know if
>anyone has had experience in using pulp infill/leaf casting to
>repair silverfish damage on paper, whether either leaf casting or
>pulp would be effective and what alternatives might be available.

I hope that this will not discourage you from leafcasting your
silverfish damaged etching, but please remember that many
leafcasting machines do not have sufficient vacuum created to draw
pulp into areas that have been browsed upon and therefore not
penetrated through the paper. I don't have any solutions to this
problem, no magic wand etc, however I would be very interested to
hear more from you regarding which machine you are currently using
etc. Any information is welcome, being a Visiting Tutor at
Camberwell college teaching leafcasting, the more info' I can pass
on the better (with your consent of course)

I hope you are successful with the repair.

Jeff Cargill

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:78
                   Distributed: Friday, April 2, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-12-78-003
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