Leather chariot cover

Lucy Skinner <lucy.skinner [at] gmail__com> writes

>I am beginning the process of stabilising a large group of leather
>fragments from an Egyptian chariot cover. It is oil tanned goat skin
>with painted red and green painted grain surface decoration. ...

>I have found that Klucel G 1% in ethanol consolidates the powdery
>flesh surface ...

Are you sure this is oil tanned goat skin?  The type of leather will
determine specific treatments.

What date is the chariot cover?

I agree that water would be very damaging; however humidification
should not involve water droplets coming into contact with the
leather but only water vapour.  Using a humidity chamber or possibly
a semi-permeable membrane (be sure that it is the correct way round)
with damp blotting paper on top should humidify the leather without
water droplets coming into contact.

If the leather has been in a very dry (-18%RH) atmosphere (eg in the
desert) for a long time there is a distinct possibility that the
bound (molecular) water has been lost and this cannot be regained.

I would suggest that ethanol vapour or liquid may drive out any free
water that is in the leather so is not an ideal method of
humidification.

I would not recommend the use of SC6000 (with or without added
solvent) for this object until you are absolutely sure what it is
and how it will react.  SC6000 is a wax and acrylic polymer surface
coating and not a consolidant and should be used on sound leather
only.  Cellugel (hydroxypropylcellulose in isopropanol) is our
preferred consolidant.

If you have further queries, please feel free to contact me.

Yvette A Fletcher BA Hons, MA, ACR
Head of Conservation
The Leather Conservation Centre
University Campus
Boughton Green Road
Northampton NN2 7AN
+44 1604 719766


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:23
                 Distributed: Sunday, November 6, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-25-23-002
                                  ***