MUO restorer bathes an 18th century print

NEWS: 09 12 2022

Veronika Klimszová, MUO restorer, continues her work on the restoration of the large-format print View of Biblical Jerusalem by Johann Daniel Herz Sr. This time she bathed the 18th century work in a special bath.

"Water usually has a beneficial effect on paper that has aged and deteriorated in this way, reacting with the many impurities and degrading components in the paper. In this case we are working with paper that is quite old, but of very high quality, which is due to its production. Even today, the paper is cohesive and strong, and of a high grammage, so we could afford to clean it in this way. However, due to the size, handling the graphics was quite difficult," admits Veronika Klimszová.

The print was treated in a large bathtub made available to us by the Museum of National History. The first bath contained warm water with a small addition of tenside, which is commonly used to clean paper. During the cleaning process, the water was changed several times, gradually replacing it only with clean water. 

"In between baths, I focused on cleaning with a brush the largest soiling at the edge of the paper and the entire reverse of the work. A very fine brush with goat hair is used for this purpose," the MUO restorer adds.

Visually, yellowing and blemishes in the paper have been greatly reduced. Once the bathing was complete, the paper had to be re-cleaned and the print was left to air dry naturally. Its straightening will be done next time, in this case the paper was too saturated with water and could change its dimension when drying under load, which is undesirable.

In the next steps of the restoration intervention, which we will also show you, it will be necessary to secure the tears and losses in the paper, and to choose a suitable method of retouching and adjustment.