Paintings on glass

To clarify earlier comments regarding Aquazol as an adhesive for
paintings on glass: Aquazol is not an untested product.  I refer
those who are interested to "Poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline): A New
Conservation Consolidant" by Richard Wolbers, et al, in the
proceedings of Painted Wood: History and Conservation  and to
"Poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline: A new water and organic soluble adhesive"
by Chiu, et al, in Water Soluble Polymers; Advances in Chemistry no.
213.

Since Richard Wolbers introduced Aquazol to the conservation field
in 1992/93, it has been used by numerous conservators for securing
paint and gilding to a variety of surfaces, and has been used as a
fill and inpainting medium. A couple of articles on these uses have
appeared in the proceedings of AIC's Wooden Artifacts group and
JAIC.

I have used Aquazol 50 on several projects including paintings on
glass.  It is not too good to be true, but like any product used in
conservation, has many advantages and disadvantages.  I have been
very pleased with its overall performance on reverse paintings on
glass when used in water with a small addition of ethanol.  The
Aquazol  improved the adhesion of the paint to the glass often
filling in pockets of delamination.  Aquazol is not visible and does
not form the air bubbles that plagues many of the other adhesives
that have been used for these objects in the past.  However, Aquazol
suffers many of the same disadvantages of any material that is
soluble in or sensitive to water. My experiences with Aquazol have
show it to be a viable choice as an adhesive for paintings on glass
as long as its working properties, advantages, and disadvantages are
understood, like it should be for any material that is chosen.

Deborah Parr
Conservator


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:36
               Distributed: Wednesday, December 22, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-13-36-003
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