Wood and rabbit skin glue in the framing package

scurran

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I want to use a duplex mats for a very high end piece that came in. If I use a watergilded piece of 8-ply rag mat, does the rabbit skin glue that is used, or the whiting, damage the art in any way either by touching it or by off-gassing?

And what about sealing wood fillets with shellac or acrylic gesso. Does this sufficiently protect art from burning or off-gassing over the years?



~Sean
 
The glue used to lay down the gold in a duplex mat should not be a problem.
Most if it should be covered by gold which is a vapor barrier. Care should
be taken to ensure that the gesso will not touch the art, for physical
and not chemical reasons.
To truely seal the fillet, a sealing foil, like Marvelseal 360, works best, since
it can be applied with heat and no additional adhesive and its alumiunm layer
serves as a vapor barrier. Nothing that can be painted on can be considered
to be a true vapor barrier.


Hugh
 
Lineco self adhesive frame sealing tape is an aluminum barrier tape that works well for many applications too and should be readily available at all your framing suppliers.
 
Are we concerned about "vapors" transferring to art just through contact or should we also be concerned about "vapors" being released into the air in the frame package. If so, then a truly archival frame treatment cannot have a wood fillet included. And what are vapors?

~Sean
 
An interesting question Sean. Yesterday I opened a picture that had "acid burn" and "foxing".... [IMHO, but I'm not a Certified Conservator, nor do I play one on TV]

There was an old wood fillet directly in contact with the litho, and I expected to see burn where the fillet was touching the paper. What had me really curious was the lack of the very dark area fading to pale that is usually prevalent around old paper mats bevels.

When we got it open, what surprised the heck out of me, was the band of "un-burned" or white paper that was directly under the 25 year old basswood fillet. Then there was a "fog" of burn under the rest of the mat.... which tells me that the students who did all the testing for me about pH in products... really knew what they were saying: The basswood fillet was neutral, and the paper mat burned the litho, as well as general off gassing and maybe a little oxidation and what not in the mat resevoir from air and sunlight.

So we swapped out the mat for AlphaCare with zeolite in hopes that the micro sieve will absorb some of the degredation, and put it all back together with ConClear. Who knows, maybe with enough time the nasty old wood product will finally start burning the litho.....

But then, I wouldn't know, I'm not a Board Certified Conservator.
 
This is hardly the first time that paper has come from old framing, showing
more discoloration where it was exposed to light and air pollution than it
shows in places where it was next to side grain wood.



Hugh
 
They've chosen to frame it so the deterioration begins. We can only do our best to slow it down so seal it off the best you can. Nothings foolproof & we're nothing if not fools to claim otherwise. As for the vapors, great grandad Hart preffered a drop of Itself to ward them off but as far as I know he wasn't a framer.

Let your quacks and newspapers be cutting their capers
About curing the vapors the scratch and the gout
With their medical potions, their serums and their lotions
Upholding their notions, they're mighty put out.

Who can tell the true physic to all that's pathetic
And pitch to the divil, cramp, colic and spleen
You'll know it I think if you take a big drink
With your mouth to the brink of a jug of poteen

So stick to the cratur' the best thing in nature
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys
Oh what botheration, no dose in the nation
Can give consolation like poteen me boys.

No liquid cosmetic to lovers athletic
Or bodies pathetic can give such a bloom
As the sweet by the powers in the garden of flowers
Ever gave their own bowers such a darling perfume
And this liquid so rare if you willingly share
To be taking your hair when it's frizzled and dead
Oh the sod has the merit to yield the true spirit
So strong it will shake all the hairs from your head

Then stick to the cratur' the best thing in nature
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys
Oh since its perfection, no doctor's direction
Can cleanse the complexion like poteen me boys

While a child in me cradle, me nurse with her ladle
Was filling my mouth with a notion of pap
When a drop from her bottle fell into my throttle
I stumbled and capered clean out of her lap

On the floor I lay crawlin' and screaming and bawling
'Til me mother and father were called to the fore
All sobbing and sighing they feared I was dying
But soon found I only was crying for more.

So stick to the cratur' the best thing in nature
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys
Oh lord how they'd chuckle if babes in their truckle
They only could suckle on poteen me boys

Through my youthful aggression, through times of depression
My childhood's impression still clung to my mind
And at school or at college the basis of knowledge
I never could gulp 'til with whiskey combined

And as older I'm growing times ever bestowin'
On Erin's potation, a flavor so fine
And how ere they may lecture on jove and his nectar
Itself is the only true liquid divine

So stick to the cratur' the best thing in nature
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys
Oh lord, 'tis the right thing for courting and fighting
There's nowt so exciting as poteen me boys.

Come guess me this riddle, what beats pipes and fiddle
What's hotter than mustard and milder than cream
What best wets your whistle, what's clearer than crystal
What's sweeter than honey and stronger than steam

What'll make the lame walk, what will make the dumb talk,
The elixir of life and philospher's stone
And what helped Mr. Brunnell to build the Thames Tunnel
Wasn't it poteen from ould Inisowen

So stick to the cratur' the best thing in nature
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys
Oh lord, it's no wonder, if lightning and thunder
Weren't made from the plunder of poteen me boys.

You maidens pathetic, with lovers athletic
For liquid cosmetic, you can't beat the drop
With a glow to your cheek, it will make your heart leap
It'll quiet a stallion or cure an old cob
At the mouth you would drool, be reduced to a fool
You'd kick up your heels and you'd peel to the buff
Then 'tis he'd be pathetic while you'd be athletic
If only you'd take a few drops of the stuff

So stick to the cratur' the best thing in nature
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys
For there's nothing like whiskey to make maidens frisky
It soon separates all the men from the boys.
 
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