Effect of alum on silk

From the literature on the mounting of Chinese and Japanese scrolls
on paper and especially silk, I am familiar with the usage of alum
with collagen glue (called dosa in Japanese) to prevent
solubilization of pigments during remounting. It is traditionally
believed that this product accelerates degradation of the support,
making silk dark and brittle. Having an interest in designing an
experiment to test this assumption, I am wondering if any scientific
research has been done on the subject. I am aware that Japanese
scientists have studied the influence of alum on paper but do not
know of any research into the effect of alum on silk.

Ekaterina Pasnak,
Student of paper conservation,
Queen's University, Canada


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:21
               Distributed: Thursday, September 19, 2002
                       Message Id: cdl-16-21-014
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