Műtárgyvédelem, 2007 (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum)
Válogatás az utóbbi évek magyar papír- és könyvrestaurálási munkáiból - Összefoglalók
The wooden boards are covered with leather of a single piece decorated with goffering made with a back tool. The leaves of the body were made from hand- moulded paper and the booklets were sewn together and to the boards with arched chain stitches (“biaxial” sewing). Due to frequent use, the volume could soon get injured and it bears the traces of contemporary repair. The body fell apart, and the edges of the leaves got frayed and very dirty with oil and water stains. Wax drops densely covering the leaves reveal the circumstances of use. Many of the folds of the sheets were repaired. One of the endbands was worn but completely preserved, while the other one was fragmentary. The gluing of the contemporary repair of the lime boards aged and the boards fell to several pieces. The edges of the channelling broke at a few places and insects damaged the corners. The leather cover was very dirty, the spine got cracked and the guards over the endbands were worn, the corners were incomplete. The clasps got lost only the remains of the flat-braided straps and the pegs were preserved. The task was to reconstruct the unity of the object using the original production technology, and to preserve, at the same time, the contemporary repairs and the traces of liturgical use. The research and documentation of analogues preceded the reconstruction of the missing elements. Before starting conservation, a model was made with Byzantine binding to practise the unknown elements of the binding technology. After the wet and dry cleaning of the leaves of the body, the missing elements were replaced with hand-moulding. Thin Japanese paper, rag-paper and glue of a methyl-cellulose base were used for further repairs. The damages made by insects in the wooden boards were repaired with wood dust mixed in synthetic resin and the lacks caused by shrinking during desiccation were filled in with lime wood. The boards were glued with poli-(vinyl acetate) dispersion. After the cleaning of the boards, the repaired sheets and the two boards were collected and they were sewn together with the original biaxial sewing method. The rounded spine was mounted with wheat starch and linen then the injured end- band that was completely preserved at the head was conserved. The repaired and reconstructed endbands were attached to the boards and the gatherings. The covering leather was cleaned and softened with fatliquor. The missing parts of the leather cover were completed with goatskin coloured with metal complex dyes. New leather had to be pulled over the spine where the leather had been cut and to replace the worn guards. Also new leather was glued under the worn corners and at the edge of the backboard with wheat starch. The missing clasps were replaced with yellow copper clasps prepared after analogues. The straps of the clasps were made with flat braiding. The clasps were stringed across the board and the endpapers across the original holes. They were fixed in the holes with glue. Owing to the conservation, the physical and chemical stability of the book could be restored, and the traces documenting the history of the object could be preserved (wax stains, notes, original repairs). The object was conserved within the frames of object conservator training conducted in the co-operation of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and the Hungarian National Museum in the academic year of 2002/2003. Zsuzsanna Tóth was the supervisor of the diploma work. 261
