[NHCOLL-L:2170] RE: plaster cast (cleaning/gluing/sealing) inquiry

[Bente Loudon]

Dear Kate,

In her book 'The Reception of Classical Art in Britain - An Oxford Story of 
Plaster Casts from the Antique' Donna Kurtz mentions on page 309 that 
Bernard Ashmole and his assistant Mohamed Saleh perfected a process of 
cleaning wholly untreated plaster casts with potato starch, pasting it over 
the surface, leaving it to dry on statues for twelwe hours or so, and then 
peeling it off; shellac sealed statues could be sponge cleaned with 
detergent.
British Archaelolgical Reports (BAR) British Series 308, Studies in the 
History of Collections 1, 2000, ISBN 1 84171 092X

Regards           Bente T. Loudon

>From: "Kate Wellspring" <kwellspring at amherst.edu>
>Reply-To: kwellspring at amherst.edu
>To: <NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu>
>Subject: [NHCOLL-L:2164] plaster cast (cleaning/gluing/sealing) inquiry
>Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 13:37:45 -0500
>
>Dear all,
>
>I would very much appreciate any and all advice on the 
>cleaning/repair/sealing (if necessary?) of plaster casts (of 
>ichnological--invertebrate trackways, in this case--specimens). A 
>researcher here has recently inquired about:
>
>"plaster Protichnites & Climactichnites casts in our collection.   Many of 
>the plaster casts are covered in dust, broken, and uncoated/sealed.  Please 
>advise me as to the optimum method for cleaning gluing, and sealing these 
>casts.  We want to make molds of them once we're done, as they represent 
>the only known "type" specimens for these two taxa - the originals were 
>lost."
>
>Anyone have experience in this realm? Please let me know if I may provide 
>anymore details.
>
>Much obliged,
>Kate Wellspring
>______________________________
>Kate Wellspring, Collections Manager
>Pratt Museum of Natural History
>Amherst College
>Amherst, MA 01002
>(413) 542-2326
>
>

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