Kovács Petronella (szerk.): Isis - Erdélyi magyar restaurátor füzetek 19. (Székelyudvarhely, 2019)
Pápay Kornélia: Beszámoló a műtárgyak esztétikai szempontból zavaró szőrmehiányainak pótlására tett kísérlet tapasztalatairól
of a conservator and requires cooperation with specialists of different fields of expertise. György Németh Wood and furniture conservator artist MA Translated by: Eszter Tóth Anikó Moór Two pairs of women’s silk shoes with embroidery from the 18th century In 2018 the conservation task of two pairs of baroque women’s shoes — a pink and a blue one — from the Textile and Costume Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts was accomplished as a project for MA degree in Specialization of Textile and Leather Conservation at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts Department of Conservation. The two pairs of footwear - similar in form but slightly different in construction and shaping - were created in the beginning of the 18th century according to the French fashion at the time. The forms were modelled on symmetrical lasts with no difference within the right and the left piece. The shoes have high, curved, Louis-heels and pointy toes. Their outsoles are strongly roughened in all directions, only the centre points of the soles touched the ground. The examination of fibres showed that the fabrics used for coverings, ribbons and ornaments on both pairs are made of silk. The sewing threads for the assembly and the lining fabric of the blue pairs of footwear were made of linen. The vamps and the upper parts are richly decorated with high purity silver threads. Paper was used for padding the metal thread embroidery. Silk embroidery also enriches the vamps of the blue shoes. Goatskin was used as lining for the blue shoes and sheepskin for the pink ones; both were tawed with aluminium salts. The brown, thick leather soles in both cases are probably cowhide, tanned with plant substances. The upper part of the blue footwear is stuffed by interlining made of linen. The pink pair was affixed to the leather lining with a thick layer of adhesive that simultaneously acted as a stiffener. Upper edges of both pairs are trimmed with ribbon. The shoes became statically weak and misshapen, the fabrics were contaminated, broken and fragmented, the metal threads got corroded. The blue shoes had suffered moth damage. Their interlining became stretched and had gaps in some places with occasional shrinking. The sewing was seceded in several places, the silk coverings of the heels were tom. The adhesive layer beneath the pink shoes’ fabric covering grew old and this caused gaps in the fabrics. The metal threads of embroidery were dangled and unravelled. The static reinforcement and the aesthetical improvement of the object were the main goals of the conservation. The remains of moth larvae could be eliminated by dry cleaning. Cleaning of both pairs of shoes was performed by vacuuming, during the process the surface was protected with flexible plastic mesh. The cleansing of the lining leathers was carried out with the aid of Latex sponge. The metal thread embroidery was wiped using a 1:1 mixture of ethanol and distilled water. Wet cleaning was not feasible because leathers tawed with aluminium salts are sensitive to water, and cleaning multiple layers together is susceptible to staining. Wet cleaning could cause the swelling and stickiness of adhesives as well. In order to reshape the deformations, the shoes were softened in humidity chamber and also with localized humidification using Sympatex semi-permeable membrane. The softened parts were stuffed with Ethafoam moulds. Entomological pins also stabilized the right forms until drying. For supplementing and supporting the lining leather, white goatskin was glued on it with rice starch. To prevent further damage securing the torn fabrics was necessary. To support the tom parts and replace the missing fabric, the same silk fabric was used. The covering fabric of the pink shoes was stuck into the adhesive layer, so it was required to swell the starch with Nanorestore Gel® Hydrogel. To colour the supplement fabrics matching to the original ones Lanaset dyes were used. By means of the conservation of the stitching, the backing pieces were sewn back considering the direction of the grain. Adhesive had to be used on the lower edge of the pink shoes. The fragments of edging were supported and conserved on their original locations, and they were completed at the upper edges of the shoes. The conservation was done without disassembling the artefacts adhering to the principle of minimum intervention. Anikó Moór Textile and leather conservator artist MA Translated by: Eszter Tóth Andrea Várfalvi — Csabáné Szabó — Melinda Sikéné Kovács Conservation of a male garment from the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Visonta In 2013, during the renovation of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Visonta (Hungary), a coffin had been revealed, in which a man was laying and wearing a hat, a wig, a dolman, a pair of trousers and boots. The first conservation was carried out in István Dobó Castle Museum, Eger and went on in the National Centre for Conservation and Conservation Training of the Hungarian National Museum, Budapest. The goals of the work were preventing further damage to the garment from and making the well-preserved hat and dolman displayable. The parts of the garment were treated with different methods depending on their conditions. After the cleaning 198
