"Fish glue, gilder’s liquor & agate burnishing. Don’t try this at home!"
August 16, 2018 1:28 PM Subscribe
The Northeast Document Conservation Center recently conserved an 1848 Mathew Brady daguerreotype image of Dolley Madison found in a trunk in 1956. [via]
"Dolley Madison became a national figure when the United States was barely a nation... [and] proved herself a powerful political player in an age when women were excluded from politics.”
"Dolley Madison became a national figure when the United States was barely a nation... [and] proved herself a powerful political player in an age when women were excluded from politics.”
I wonder why the different organic glues -- fish glue for one part, rabbit glue for another.
posted by tavella at 3:26 PM on August 16, 2018
posted by tavella at 3:26 PM on August 16, 2018
That's an amazing restoration, but am I the only one that wants to follow "Fish glue, gilder’s liquor & agate burnishing" with "garnish with a slice of lime"?
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:02 PM on August 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:02 PM on August 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
What a great website!
I didn't know there was a photograph of Dolly Madison. I wonder what it is she's wearing on her neck.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:03 PM on August 16, 2018
I didn't know there was a photograph of Dolly Madison. I wonder what it is she's wearing on her neck.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:03 PM on August 16, 2018
Countess Elena, maybe she's wearing a type of neckerchief called a buffon (a style which would have been popular in her youth, 1780/90s)?
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:37 PM on August 16, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:37 PM on August 16, 2018 [3 favorites]
Different glues have different working and mechanical properties. Fish glue, often made from the air bladders of sturgeon, is used for gilding due to its high tack and flexibility, hide glue is cheaper and stronger and traditionally used for woodworking.
posted by Blackanvil at 5:48 PM on August 16, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by Blackanvil at 5:48 PM on August 16, 2018 [7 favorites]
I think the way preservation problems with recording media change as the medium develops and changes for various uses is fascinating. There’s a precise balancing act of qualities for any purpose and “will survive a couple of centuries” is rarely a priority. The way recording media contain preservation “time bombs” and the methods for mitigating them are fascinating.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:33 AM on August 17, 2018
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:33 AM on August 17, 2018
In my time in the museum/gallery world, I've rubbed shoulders with enough conservators to know they're usually the smartest people in the room.
I mean, I can do some neat old-school crafting techniques, but they can use a particular technique a particular way with particular art supply, and you get something stable, or at least stable enough to hold until a new technique comes along. They can easily jump from jewelry to book-binding to painting to general chemistry. Someday there'll be a huge Walter White level drug bust in a museum consrvator department, and I won't be surprised. I'll only be sure it'll have the best illicit art collection of any drug lair.
The really funny part, is that for all the knowledge and chemisty and technique conservators have, their most useful tool is usually their tongue. Most of them will tell you that this is because spit is the ideal pH for gentle dissolution. If you've ever wondered what the 18th centrury tastes like, there's a conservator who knows, and can probably tell the diffrence between locales.
The one thing you don't get a sense of thru this article is the extreme patience of the time scale that they work in. This series of steps is one that can take place over days, weeks, or months. In extreme cases the work never ends, because the final step keeps getting passed down to the next generation to solve. Part of it is making sure all the stuff has reacted in a predicable manner and dissipated all the nasty bits, and part of it is that the item under the knife may have already been sitting around for a few hundred years already and a few days more doesn't really make any difference...
posted by 1f2frfbf at 8:07 AM on August 17, 2018 [6 favorites]
I mean, I can do some neat old-school crafting techniques, but they can use a particular technique a particular way with particular art supply, and you get something stable, or at least stable enough to hold until a new technique comes along. They can easily jump from jewelry to book-binding to painting to general chemistry. Someday there'll be a huge Walter White level drug bust in a museum consrvator department, and I won't be surprised. I'll only be sure it'll have the best illicit art collection of any drug lair.
The really funny part, is that for all the knowledge and chemisty and technique conservators have, their most useful tool is usually their tongue. Most of them will tell you that this is because spit is the ideal pH for gentle dissolution. If you've ever wondered what the 18th centrury tastes like, there's a conservator who knows, and can probably tell the diffrence between locales.
The one thing you don't get a sense of thru this article is the extreme patience of the time scale that they work in. This series of steps is one that can take place over days, weeks, or months. In extreme cases the work never ends, because the final step keeps getting passed down to the next generation to solve. Part of it is making sure all the stuff has reacted in a predicable manner and dissipated all the nasty bits, and part of it is that the item under the knife may have already been sitting around for a few hundred years already and a few days more doesn't really make any difference...
posted by 1f2frfbf at 8:07 AM on August 17, 2018 [6 favorites]
I've rubbed shoulders with enough conservators to know they're usually the smartest people in the room.
This is the nicest thing I've ever heard anyone say about our profession.
<3
Also, late 19th c. Montana tastes like grassy dust with a hint of pine pitch and bison. At least, in my experience...
posted by ikahime at 8:36 AM on August 17, 2018 [7 favorites]
This is the nicest thing I've ever heard anyone say about our profession.
<3
Also, late 19th c. Montana tastes like grassy dust with a hint of pine pitch and bison. At least, in my experience...
posted by ikahime at 8:36 AM on August 17, 2018 [7 favorites]
Since the header mentions agate burnishers, I might mention that in the past a dog's incisor was also used for the same job. Nowadays, most burnishers are agate, but one of the most popular shapes is a pointy one called a dog's tooth.
posted by Fuchsoid at 12:02 PM on August 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Fuchsoid at 12:02 PM on August 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
Hey, one of my friends co-wrote this and worked on that project! Neat!
posted by clockbound at 1:15 PM on August 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by clockbound at 1:15 PM on August 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
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