Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 94. (Budapest, 2001)
DÁGI, MARIANNA - SIPOS, ENIKŐ: Report on the Conservation of Coptic Textiles in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1999-2000)
the conservation project. As a first step the textiles, highly sensitive to light and acid, had to be provided with a proper storage environment. All pieces were therefore placed after conservation in a boxes made of acid-free cardboard. The next task will be the creation of a textile-friendly exhibition- and storage space, with close control of light, temperature and humidity. 4 In the course of conservation it was found that several pieces of poorly preserved decorated textile had been attached in modem times to pieces of ancient cloth. 5 The condition of the given piece permitting, the restorers removed the attached supporting fabric. As a result, the collection is now richer by nine pieces. One textile fragment (inv. no. 97.64.A) grew to about twice its original size in the course of restoration, since the gaps in one half of the fabric had, it was found, been filled by use of the other half, folded over, as an underlay; the restorers successfully separated the two halves and restored them to their original position (figs. 18-19). The conservation of two other textile fragments revealed stitches, apparently traces of ancient repairs, which were left intact (inv. nos. 93.8.A and 2000.18.A). In one case (inv.no. 97.63.A) conservation led to a negative result: in the course of the removal of one of the first of several reinforcing underlays of ancient fabric it became clear that the restoration of the piece in question, which was in a state of almost total decomposition, could not be continued without lasting damage. The Collections of the Museums of Fine and Applied Arts contain many fragments similar in style and decoration, some of which are probably fragments of one and the same piece. László Török examined the question already in his catalogue published in 1993, 6 noting in each case the possibility that given pieces belonged to the same cloth. Since then the Coptic textile collection's holdings have more than tripled, 7 so a reexamination of the pieces of both collections from this point of view seemed timely. Two fragments qualify as belonging to the same cloth if their material, colour, pattern, and the technical details of the weaving agree; and there is no difference in the size of ornamental motives, or the same differences are shared by both pieces. In cases where ornamental details differ in size, a decision can be reached through a count of weft- and warp-threads per centimetre of fabric. Taking all these criteria into account, the result of a comparison of similar pieces in the collections of both Museums is that two pieces, one in the Museum of Fine Arts and the other in the Museum of Applied Arts, are in all probability fragments of a single piece of cloth (MAA inv. no. 84.108; MFA inv. no. 97.33.A). On both a double frieze of figures holding flowers or musical instruments can be seen; the colour and material of the textiles (yellow, dark-brown, red, and green wool thread) matches, as does the warp- and weft-count (10 warp, 18-20 weft/cm.) (figs. 20-21). 4 See below the article of E. Sipos. 5 The following pieces: 75.28.A; 84.364.A; 84.373.A; 93.8.A; 97.19.1-2.A; 97.58.A; 97.63.A; 97.67.A: 2000.18. A. 6 Török, L., Coptic Antiquities II. Textiles, Rome 1993, passim. The pieces listed in the Török catalogue as belonging together were left out of the present study, or included only in so far as their possible relation to pieces acquired since 1993 was examined. 7 From 1993 to the end of 2000 the museums' Coptic textile holdings grew by 106 pieces.
