Support for painted veneer

Our studio has been entrusted with the conservation and restoration
of a painted wooden panel (dated 1939) by one of the most famous
Brazilian artists. After taking it out of it's frame we realized
that it is not a solid wooden panel as we were previously told by
museum personnel, but that during previous restoration, the painted
layer of an original three-ply plywoodboard (3 mm thickness per
layer) has been glued onto a wooden cradle board (of 18mm thickness)
utilizing a wax-resin mixture. The wood grain of both runs in
parallel direction.

As the relatively thin painted veneer layer is the weaker member in
this composite it has been forced to follow the contraction and
expansion of its much stronger wooden cradle, causing large cracks
and complete detachment of one of the corners. We also noted, that
about 30% of the entire area of the veneer has already detached from
the supporting cradle board. As the wooden cradle with parallel
grain direction is not an appropriate support, I have the following
2 questions:

    *   Apart from a high quality, possibly marine plywood, what
        other supports could be appropriate, also considering
        aesthetic aspects? E.g. I would be reluctant to transfer the
        veneer onto an aluminum sheet etc.

    *   Since the reverse of the painted veneer is completely
        impregnated with wax-resin, what other adhesives apart from
        BEVA could be appropriate.

Dipl. Rest. Stephan Schaefer
ArtCare & Consulting
Sao Paulo, Brazil


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:14
                  Distributed: Friday, August 18, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-14-14-015
                                  ***