Tobacco leaves

Howard Wellman <wellmanconservation [at] comcast__net> writes

>A client has acquired a "hand" of tobacco leaves (the dried bunch of
>leaves, still attached to the stalk), and wants to display them
>hanging as if still in the drying barn. ...
>
>Does anyone have suggestions for consolidating or otherwise
>stabilizing what is basically an intact dried botanical specimen
>that is going to be displayed with no other modifications?

In the early 1990's David Grattan's laboratory at the Canadian
Conservation Institute in Ottawa, Ontario experimented with the
stabilization of botanical materials from arctic Axel Heiberg
Island, a 45 million year old frozen desert.  He did some work with
sublimating  parylene C onto the material to hold the leaf litter
mats in place.

Molly O'Guinness Carlson
Head Tide Archaeological Conservation Laboratory
35 Sheepscot Shores Road, Suite A
Wiscasset, Maine 04578


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:34
                Distributed: Thursday, February 2, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-19-34-008
                                  ***