Handling materials on television

In my experience handling bound books in cotton gloves can cause a
lot more damage than it can possibly prevent.  The cotton will catch
on friable, crazed and torn leather or parchment as well as title
and volume number labels.  It makes turning pages sometimes
impossibly difficult (and therefore dangerous), and ill-fitting
gloves make it difficult to get a firm grip on large, heavy books,
and require a far tighter grip on the book than is desirable.  They
will pick up dirt, especially red-rotted leather, in larger
quantities than the hands and distribute it onto other material far
more effectively.  Clean dry hands, and an insistence that all
readers  wash and dry their hands before using books would be safer,
and if Michael Wood was to be seen washing his hands before handling
the material, that might make the point just as well.  There is, of
course, material where wearing gloves is advisable, such as mounted
prints drawings and photographs and fine bindings (being consulted
for the binding rather than the text), but Shirley Jones's  dogmatic
insistence on the cotton glove for all material is likely to cause
unnecessary damage to a great deal of it.

Nicholas Pickwoad
River Farm
Great Witchingham
Norwich NR9 5NA
England


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:10
                   Distributed: Monday, July 7, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-17-10-003
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