Kovács Petronella (szerk.): Isis - Erdélyi magyar restaurátor füzetek 13. (Székelyudvarhely, 2013)
Puskás Katalin: Kísérlet a vörösbomlásos bőr kezelésére, avagy epizód egy 19. századi fotótartó mappa restaurálásából
a mixture of indigo and orpiment for green, and cinnabar for red. The middle part of the flower motifs which today looks brown would at one time have been red, since during microscopic investigation of the pigment in transmitted light the brown particles appeared as a dark red organic dye-like isotropic material. In the course of the work, an inscribed coffer was restored, during which cleaning, conservation, and restoration procedures were worked out that can be employed on other painted surfaces on the furniture and fittings in the church. Translated by Chris Sullivan Zita Sor ‘What Adheres, Sticks’-An Investigation of Adhesives and Their Removal in Restoration Practice An investigation of pressure-sensitive sticking tapes is presented through the restoration of a children’s toy from the early 20th century, a toy theatre resembling a real theatre. In this type of theatre, no play is performed. Rather, a narrator tells a story whose principal scenes feature in coloured, printed depictions on a roll of paper inside the theatre itself. The artefact is the property of the Hetedhét (‘Over the Hills and Far Away’) Toy Museum in Székesfehérvár. It passed to the museum as a jealously-guarded treasure of a family with eight children. This family was originally from Budapest but later moved to Kassa (today Kosice, Slovakia). The family was deported from there in 1945. The theatre was greatly esteemed in the family, whose members were so fond of it that they tried all means possible to keep it in service. They repaired it themselves, using different substances and materials from generation to generation. The artefact consists of a wooden box, a varnished chromolithographed roll of paper 3.6 meters long, a paper front panel, a textile curtain, a metal musical box, and a paper back panel. The wooden box and the paper front and back panels had been nailed through in the course of the repairs. The nails had caused damage to both the wood and the panels. The theatre’s originally removable cranking-handle, needed to operate the musical box, had been fixed slantwise to the spindle of that device. The front panel had been sewn together with thread along the edge of the torn fastening band. Because of frequent use, perpendicular and horizontal tears had developed in the paper roll, on the edges of which the weakened paper had split in many places, with pieces coming off. Attempts had been made to repair the tears on the front and reverse sides of the paper roll using various kinds of sticking tape - cellotape, glued paper cellophane, insulation tape, and textile sticking tape —, often with the application of more than one layer. The adhesive materials had soaked in among the fibres of the paper, causing brown coloration. During conservation, the artefact was taken apart completely. Deficiencies regarding the wooden frame were made good. The paper covering was cleaned and backing paper was prepared for the purpose of reinforcing it. In the course of the work, the cleaning and conservation of the textile curtain, the musical device, the front paper sheet, the back paper sheet, and the different paper scenery elements were performed. Of all the various parts, the paper roll represented the most difficult, time-consuming, and meticulous conservation task. The different plastic adhesive tapes were removed from the surface using a heated iron spatula adapted for the purpose that was supplied with a temperature regulator. One kind of adhesive was removed using a crepe eraser. Fragments of the paper roll, which had disintegrated into many hundreds of pieces, were kept in place using temporary adhesive strips for the duration of cleaning with solvent, which after lengthy experiments, finally took place using a mixture consisting of two parts methylethyl-ketone and one part acetone, with immersion. After careful washing, repairs to the paper roll were performed using a special table. Throughout the above-mentioned treatments, it had to be kept in mind that because of the sensitivity of the varnish (barium sulphate mixed with kaolin), mechanical impacts affecting the surface had to be kept to a minimum. So that the musical theatre could be shown in operation, a copy was made of the paper roll — in the interests of preserving the condition of the newlyrestored original one - and the copy placed in the wooden box. A reconstruction of the missing tympanum part of the theatre was made on the basis of an analogy. The following is an extract from a letter sent to the museum by Mrs. Béla Thurnay, née Vilma Schulek, the donor of the artefact: ‘At the end of the 1950s, the grandchildren were already bom. Of them, the eldest ones remember the theatre and today regret that we were unable to have it repaired. By that time already, we didn’t use it much. It was very old. I guarded it jealously. Placed in a box in the attic, it was awaiting a better fate. In the end I decided to donate it to the toy museum where they could have it repaired and where children could see it from a distance, but could not damage it. My wish is that many children should look with joy at this theatre, which is so dear to us. I would like to thank the ‘master’ who gave it new life. He must have had a lot of work with it...’ Translated by Chris Sullivan Ildikó Beöthyné Kozocsa - Márta Kissné Bendefy- Katalin Orosz - Marianne Érdi The Structure, Behaviour, and Deterioration of Parchment and Untanned Hide from the Viewpoint of Restoration of Works of Art In the present volume, two studies by the above authors are published on closely connected themes. They appear sepa220
