By Caitlin Moore

From time to time we get the odd project to shake up our routine a little bit. This one was pretty interesting. Quite a bit different than the books and paper we are used to!

The A.D. White collection of historical medallions is a collection of two thousand copies of antique gems from the Royal Museum of Berlin. These plaster casts are very small and have been adhered into paper lined wooden boxes. Many of them have been on display for years and had gathered a lot of dust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When they came to the lab we decided to use the Nilfisk vacuum with a micro brush attachment to clean out the boxes. This is a photo of a half cleaned box:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over time the adhesive holding the casts in place had become brittle and weak in some areas so I also re-adhered the loose pieces into their rightful places using B72 Restoration Adhesive.