Conservation around the Millennium (Hungarian National Museum, 2001)
Pages - 121
3. Paper shell drying on the wooden core with the shackles fastening it into the negative corners boards on blotting paper. The aim was to lessen the stretching force developing during drying with binding the completions to the original paper maché. I made a model of the case from wood. Its size were defined by the measurements of the bottom board and the object it held. I entwined the wooden core with cellux, so that it could not absorb moisture from the paper pulp to be applied on it. The height of the side wall of the bottom of the case was determined by the about 20 cm long paper strip found among the fragments. This strip was wider than the rest of the strips Its material was identical to that of the side wall of the lid, and it could be differentiated from the greyish covering boards The fragment could not have been on the lid, since it did not show any trace of a longitudinal fold, so I supposed that it composed the wall of the bottom part. The wall of the bottom part was made from strips of blotting paper using wheat starch. Then the remaining fragments were glued on the outermost layers. I prevented the shrinking of the desiccating paper and its leaving the negative edges of the model with pressing. I pressed a metal plate with the help of cable shackles into the corners of the lobed shape. (Picture 3) After drying, I removed the pressing instruments then, leaving the ready side wall on the model, I put temporarily a 2 mm thick paper strip on it24 and fixed it with cellux. The narrower wall of the lid was built over it partly from suction paper, partly from the original paper strips. The papier-maché was dried in the same way as above. Then I removed the walls from the model and glued them on the bottom and top boards with starch. (Picture 4) Covering the case First I covered the wall of the bottom of the case with the completed paper, then glued in the inner and outer covers. I dried them weighed between felt pads, putting back the wooden model. In the course of covering the lid, I first 4. The completed paper case. The darker colours show the original fragments built in the reconstruction 121
