SCIENCE AND ANTIQUE.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15128, 20 February 1922, Page 6

SCIENCE AND ANTIQUE.

MEW WAYS OF RESTORING VALUABLE OBJECTS. MUSEUM EXPERIMENTS ‘ The manner in which science can help in tre restoration and preservation of objects exhibited in such places as the British, Museum is disclosed in a report by Dr. Alexander Scott, a FelloW of the Royal Society, who in 1919 was asked by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to give his assistance to the trustees of the British Museum in the restoration of exhibits at the , Museum. The report, which was published recently by the Stationery Office, Imperial House. Kingsway, W.C., price 25., places at the disposal of private collectors and dealers the knowledge gained by Dr. Scott during his experiments. At the museum antiquarians collaborated with Dr. Scott in (the work. One of the most striking instances of the success achieved was the case of a Watteau drawing, disfigured by a varnish stain probably dating from the time of the drawing. A chemical process was applied and w"hs so successful that not only was It afterwards difficult to detect traces of the stain, but the removal of the latter revealed some hitherto unsuspected rough sketches on the back of the paper. ' When exhibits are acquired as the result of exploration x and excavation it is only occasionally that they are fit for exhibition without some preliminary treatment. For instance, the remains of wood carvings at least 2000 years old, found under a bed of guano 14ft. thick, will obviously need some very careful treatment before they can be put in the museum cases. Mildewed Pictures. Pictures and engravings are disfigured by mildew and the bright tints become dulled; surfaces of stone monuments fall off in scales and coloured enamels break away from their metal bases. . Some of the exhibits are so precious that a single slip of the fingers may do irreparable damage. But in the course of the experiments at the British Museum a number of methpds for dealing with these problems have been evolved. Dr. Scott shows how it is possible to remove from prints and drawings the disfigurements (“foxiness”) due to mildew, and how to restore in coloured drawings the whites which have been blackened by long exposure to town air. His method is simple an dsafe, since it does not involve the application of liquids to the drawings. One achievement is of special interest. Some coloured drawings made by busbmen upon rock were partially covered by lichen so firmly adherent that there was great danger of destroying the drawings in removing it. A safe and simple method of removing the lichen was found and the undamaged drawings were completely disclosed.