Perspiration stains on silk

Regina Hollinger <regina.hoellinger [at] gmx__net> writes

>... A main focus in
>conservation is the degraded silk fabric in the underarm areas
>because of perspiration stains. Due to the degrading effect on the
>silk fibre I would like to remove or reduce the perspiration
>residues, if possible. Has somebody experience in removing
>perspiration stains on silk without complete wet cleaning of the
>object? I have not found much literature to this topic during my
>research.

The masters all things silk seem to be the Japanese. We know that
silk kimonos have always been cleaned using funori, a polysaccharide
starch derived from a seaweed harvested off the coasts of Japan and
Korea.

I suggest you search the Japanese literature for the cleaning of
Kimonos using Funori or contact the Japanese consulate where you
live and ask for English speaking contacts within the Japanese
museum community. The material is well known in Japan.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:34
                 Distributed: Sunday, January 20, 2013
                       Message Id: cdl-26-34-003
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