Ivory

James Tapley <jthandbook [at] aol__com> writes

>Several recently carved pieces of Siberian mammoth ivory have been
>accidentally stained with a red dye of unknown origin. The pieces
>were carved and damaged in St. Petersburg, Russia. Can anyone direct
>me to recent studies concerning the morphology and conservation of
>Siberian fossil ivory?

It's is very difficult to recognize the origin of ivory when treated
or curved. Ivory is composed of calcium-phosphate and protein. It's
very sensitive for dry and heat. (sunlight) When ivory turns yellow
than the best way is to put it is on a dark spot and it will turn
white again.

To clean you can use ethyl-alcohol or acetone with a few drops of
ammonia. To polish ivory you use champagne-chalk for a good shine.
Broken ivory can be fixed with PVAC-glue or epoxy resin. When the
surface shows a lot of cracks, you can impregnate it with PVAC-glue
dilute solution. (soluble in water) To protect the surface you can
use almond-oil

You can always ask some people of Natural historical museum, maybe
they know an answer to solve this problem.

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R. Dijkstra


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 15:29
                  Distributed: Monday, October 8, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-15-29-003
                                  ***