Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)
Emese PÁSZTOR - Márta TÓTH - Anikó PATAKI - Andrea VÁRFALVI: Turkish Cases from the Esterházy Treasury
a brush and water. I then rinsed the leather in clean water for half an hour. Cleaning with multiple agents Removal of the products of metal corrosion, primarily rust, I performed with a 4 per cent solution of Selecton B,, 5 0 to which I added fat alcohol sulphate 5 1 (in a quantity of 2g/l) as a surface activator. I soaked the back panel and the linings in the above solution for some hours, brushing the surfaces with a soft brush. The mixture of chemicals made some of the metallic salts permeating the leather soluble, with the result that the dissolving corrosion products became removable through repeated rinsing in water. However, this did not manage to shift the corrosion products from the patches that were thickly covered with rust. I therefore prepared a paste from a mixture of the above solution and carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC), which I applied to the thickly encrusted parts. After a few hours, the colouring of the compress indicated that the cleaning had worked effectively. Unfortunately, in places the leather had transformed irreversibly into a corrosion product. On these parts the rust stains proved irremovable. At the end of the cleaning, I again rinsed the leather in softened water. Softening using glycerine After cleaning, I soaked the moist leather in a 20 per cent solution of glycerine, in order to soften it further. Using this solution, I softened the lining leather for one hour and the leather back panel for two hours. Making the leather supple By way of concluding the conservation, I placed the leather in a solution 5 2 intended to make it more supple, and then closed it inside an airtight container. The tertiary butyl alcohol replaced the water in the leather and further softened the material, while the hoof oil likewise performed softening functions. After a few hours, I lifted out the lining leather and then the leather back panel and put them between sheets of absorbent cotton. Next, I kneaded the leather repeatedly and stretched it out. Then, utilising the original needle-holes, 1/9. Making the lining cushion 87
