Conservation of Salvador Dalí’s ‘Peerless’ suitcase
Suitcase owned by Salvador Dalí, brand “Peerless”, made of wood, leather, fabric and metal. There’s a boarding label dated 1948.
Dry cleaning, stain, rust and fat removal. Continue reading
Blog Archives
Conservation of gouache and watercolour drawing on paper
Conservation of a china ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache drawing with severe discolouration due to light exposure.
Dry cleaning, wash cleaning, deacidification, light bleaching, inpainting of light areas and flattening. Continue reading
Workshop “Wet treatments
of Works on Paper” (Germany)
Theoretical and practical sessions. When to apply wet treatments on paper, and how. From the basis of handling wet paper to more complex moisturizing, humidification and washing techniques. Fugitivity tests, types of inks and their properties, and many case studies to show conservation treatments on real artwork: manuscripts and documents, drawings, watercolours, pastels, charcoal drawings… Continue reading
Conservation of reused bindings (Part two)
Book conservation involves a tough decision making regarding usability and long term preservation handling.
Sometimes we are dealing with fragmentology, or disjecta membra (fragments of written supports are re-used as part of a binding, with a diverse purpose from the first use) whereas in other cases the purpose is the same, and the whole binding is being recycled to bind a different book.
Incunabula and manuscripts with laced-case and limp vellum bindings are studied. Continue reading
Conservation of cartoon drawing of a packed tram
Conservation of a china ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache drawing with severe discolouration due to light exposure.
Dry cleaning, wash cleaning, deacidification, light bleaching and flattening. Continue reading
Workshop: Preservation, housing, mounting and framing of paper artwork
Practice and theory session in which we’ll see different materials related to housing and framing for the exhibition of paper artwork: adhesives, boards, cardboards, folders, plastics, glasses, sealing foils, passe-partouts…
We’ll speak about reversibility, “acid-free” and “archival” products and much more! Continue reading
Assessment on the conservation of Swamiji’s manuscripts
Assessment on preventive conservation, housing, storage, digitization, exhibition and possibilities of conservation of Swamiji’s manuscripts from Vedanta Academy historical archive. Continue reading
Conservation of re-used bindings (Part one)
Book conservation involves a tough decision making regarding usability and long term preservation handling.
Sometimes we are dealing with fragmentology, or disjecta membra (fragments of written supports are re-used as part of a binding, with a diverse purpose from the first use) whereas in other cases the purpose is the same, and the whole binding is being recycled to bind a different book.
Incunabula and manuscripts with laced-case and limp vellum bindings with rolled sewing on parchment are studied. Continue reading
Conservation of recycled limp vellum wallet binding
Conservation of a manuscript which was a recycled limp vellum binding with flap. The flap and other missing parts are reconstructed after conservation. Continue reading
Conservation of stationery vellum binding with rolled sewing
Owner: Historical Archive of Lleida (Catalonia), National Archive of Catalonia, Government of Catalonia. Object: Limp vellum binding mansucript. Rolled sewing on parchment. The covers are a re-used manuscript (disjecta membra). “Manual notarial d’Andreu Soler” (notes by notary Andreu Soler). Date: … Continue reading
Video about the profession of book and paper conservator
What does a paper conservator do? Whom does she work for? What skills and knowledge does she ought to have?
Preservation and conservation, a field linked to science, history and arts and crafts. A video explains what differenciates us from forgers and shows -among other- how we produce a hand-made suction table to restore paper artifacts, with loads of creativity, a feature most necessary to become book and paper conservator. Continue reading
Conservation of a manuscript with one binding inside the other
Not uncommon to find waste material as part of a binding (parchment manuscripts, for instance), but quite much rare when the previous and original binding is part of the boards layers of the current recycled binding!
The outer and visible binding belonged first to a former book, and the hidden binding, to the current, one… crazy! Continue reading
Conservation of limp vellum binding with flap and leather tackets, on reverse parchment
Owner: Regional Archive of La Segarra (Cervera, Spain), Government of Catalonia. Object: Medieval manuscript on laid paper with limp vellum binding in reverse parchment, with flap and alum tawed leather tackets sealing the turnings. Sewing on two leather tackets. Date: … Continue reading
Sew it, rather than paste it!
Book Conservation: One Philosophy, Many Interpretations
Event: Conference Book Conservation: One Philosophy, Many Interpretations. Organization: ERC (European Research Centre for Book and Paper Conservation-Restoration) and the University for Continuing Education, Krems (Austria). Donau-Universität Krems, Die Universität für Weiterbildung. Lecture: Sew it, rather than paste it! Sew … Continue reading
Conservation of racing cars poster
A lithograph by Spanish painter Cidón, dated 1922
Conservation of a ithographic print from 1922, a poster of the 2nd edition of the car race “Armangué Trophy”, organized by the Royal Motorcycle Club of Catalonia. Continue reading