Illuminations

In Conservation DistList Instance: 15:70 Tuesday, April 16, 2002,
Patricia Mouraud requested advice on illuminations "covered" with
silk, probably silk cover sheets or interleaving materials,
historically sewn along the top or left margin to prevent abrasions
of the design layer, rather than manuscripts laminated with silk.

Deborah Evetts (Pierpont Morgan Library) lectured on this subject at
the "Professional talks" of  the 1997 ANAGPIC conference, hosted by
NYU. Unlike laminating material, these sewn cover sheets have
historical value, thus presenting a genuine curatorial concern.  The
cover sheets can be lifted to reveal the underlying illustrations,
but this creates difficulty for exhibitions and repeated handling
damages the textiles.  To remove the silk is to remove a part of the
artifact, so the documentation should be very thorough, no matter
which treatment is selected.  I'm sorry that I cannot suggest an
adequate replacement interleaf or a treatment for silk.  It may be
useful to talk to Abigail Quandt  (Walters Art gallery) and other
manuscript conservators, to find out what protocol they have for
preserving original or historic interleaving materials.

Valinda Carroll
Marshall Steel Postgraduate Intern in Paper Conservation
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 15:72
                  Distributed: Tuesday, April 23, 2002
                       Message Id: cdl-15-72-004
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