A Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 22. (Veszprém, 2002)

Egervári Márta: Egy szecessziós női napernyő restaurálása

RESTORATION OF A WOMAN'S ART NOUVEAU PARASOL The first section of the article provides a brief survey of the history and technical development of umbrellas. The second part reports the restoration of a woman's Art Nouveau parasol. In connection with this, insight is obtained into the solutions of the general problems involved with the conservation of umbrellas, as well as how these had to be modified to deal with the peculiarities of the object in question. A frequent problem with old umbrellas is, that the aged material of the cover cannot cope with the stretching effect of the spokes in an open state. The way this is generally solved, is to fix a ribbon between the cover and the lining, which holds the spokes a little closer together, reducing the circumference of the umbrella, and thus the stretching effect on the cover. In the case of unlined umbrellas, there is no way to hide the ribbon behind the lining, so it is tucked away in the folded over hem of the cover. As the Egeralja parasol is unlined, and the edge of the cover has been simply scalloped instead of hemmed, a different method from those mentioned above had to be used when carrying out the restoration work. The main point is, that instead of using a ribbon to hold the spokes closer together, the stretching effect is borne by the supporting material, which must be both suitable to fill in the missing parts (its structure must be similar to that of the original), and also be strong enough to free the original material from the stretching effect of the spokes. Cotton atlas cloth of high thread density fulfilled both conditions. Support was achieved using slipped running stitch over a convex surface. The support material was underneath on the smaller circle, the original over the top on the larger circle. The difference between the two circumferences ensures that in every segment, the support material is slightly smaller than the original to the same extent. In this way, the stretching effect is borne by the cotton atlas with the smaller circumference. Following restoration, the parasol may be opened safely. 213