Lamp

I'm looking for any advice on an object that came into our lab a few
days ago. The object is an electric lamp with 2 female figures
reading sheets of music. I'm not sure about the history of this
piece, yet. As far as the environment it came from, I do know that
it was kept in a box near a heater for several years.

It appears to be made out of iron or steel and the paint on both
figures is badly chipped and cracked. It is difficult to move
without losing paint. The exposed metal on the figures is smooth and
dark gray with no signs of rust. The base of the lamp, however, is
rusted in several spots, but there is less loss and only small
sections of bubbled paint.

I have two problems with this piece. The first is that distilled
water seems to remove a fine, brown glaze that covers the figures.
I'm not sure how to begin cleaning this piece, if at all. The second
problem is the adhesive I am using is an ethulose mixture of
distilled water, ethulose and ethyl alcohol. It work well to
consolidate the paint chips, but now I'm afraid it will remove the
glaze. I'm also not sure how it will effect the metal underneath. I
believe that there was a primer used before the final decorative
paint was applied because the reverse side of the paint chips are a
bright yellow.

Amy Rider
Conservation technician
Albert Michaels Conservation, Inc.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:46
                  Distributed: Tuesday, March 7, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-13-46-030
                                  ***