Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)
Emese PÁSZTOR - Márta TÓTH - Anikó PATAKI - Andrea VÁRFALVI: Turkish Cases from the Esterházy Treasury
1/6. Earlier repair work on the leather (similarly to the back and its lining, too). The leather had tolerated humidity and drying out differently. It has contracted more than the textile, with the result that the velvet had become crinkled, had lost shape and had, in some places, split. There were thick deposits of dust in the wrinkles on the surface of the textile, and at the lower, pointed, end of the artefact there were muddy, sticky stains. The velvet itself remained comparatively glossy and soft, and its pile had fallen out only a little. As a result of the drying out, the velvet and the leather layers had come apart from each other; the thin strips of parchment bordering them and holding them together were for the most part missing. On the sections that remained, the original method of affixing the parchment strips could be observed: metal wire had been laid on the strips, which had been stuck on and then sewn on around the edges using silk thread in large, even stitches. The thin metal embroidery wire had in many places worn off from the bundles of thread used for padding, and on a short section along the edge of the case the padding was itself missing (fig. 1/5). The surface of the metal-wire embroidery was covered by a grey, in places black, layer of corrosion. The skófium twine had drifted on the surface of the padding thread; on these surfaces the uncoloured mass of cotton thread could be seen. The fabric insets in the middle parts of the flower motifs had become fragile, the surface of the silk was threadbare, scuffed and creased, while the metal-strip weft had blackened and was coming off The original inventory label stuck to the back of the case was split and incomplete. At some time or other, an attempt had been made to repair one of the corners of the artefact, but the coarse, large stitches and the thick thread used for the sewing had damaged the shrivelled and brittle leather surfaces still more (fig. 1/6). Managing together the velvet and the leather layers from which the case was constructed would not have been possible. Therefore, the complete disassembly of the artefact became necessary. Stages of the restoration 1. Disassembly After separating the velvet and the leather layers, I performed the moistening of the partially surviving parchment that had become hardened through drying using a coat of Sympatex, 4 6 a preparation honoured in leather conservation. Moistening and softening took two hours. Then, with the com84
