Annuaire des spécialistes et experts

A protocol to conserve glazed paper after a water damage

Article de colloque/conférence

2016

Céline Allain

2016/05/17

AIC & CAC-ACCR Joint Annual Meeting and Conference : Emergency! Preparing for Disasters and Confronting the Unexpected in Conservation

Céline Allain

Montréal, Montreal Convention Centre, Room 520

American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) ; Canadian Association for Conservation (Association Canadienne pour la Conservation et la Restauration) (CAC-ACCR)

44th Annual AIC Meeting

http://www.conservators-converse.org/2016/06/44th-annual-meeting-book-and-paper-may-17th-2016-a-protocol-to-conserve-glazed-paper-after-a-water-damage-by-cecile-allain/

Following a water damage in the Art and Literature Department at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the question came of how to handle the wet glazed papers. The company in charge of freezin

Following a water damage in the Art and Literature Department at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the question came of how to handle the wet glazed papers. The company in charge of freezing and drying the damaged documents was reluctant to take care of them because the quantity of water that impregnated each document was very variable. They knew from previous experience that if glazed papers were not totally soaked with water, the sheets would stick together and freeze-drying would have essentially no effect. As a consequence, we have to find a way to separate the sheets of glazed paper stuck together. We investigated the composition of the glazing, and found that most papers were glazed with Styrene-Butadiene latex. One of the solvents of SB latex is Tetrahydrofuran (THF). THF is toxic, but it can be replaced with a mix of ethanol and toluene (50/50 v/v). Tests were carried out on a sample of damaged documents. They gave excellent results on paper sheets which were locally stuck together. When the paper sheets were stuck on their entire surface however, the results were not as good, as the solvent also seems to have effect on many of the inks. Following these investigations, we were able to establish an emergency protocol applicable to massive amounts of wet glazed papers. In this presentation, we will report on our results and present the protocol that was established from our experience.

Communications avec actes dans un congrès international