Removing labels from marble

Sandy Wood <swood [at] nationalgalleries__org> writes

>I wish to remove the old sticky labels from some of the marble
>sculpture we hold in our collection and was wondering what would be
>best to use. I have often used WD40 for this task but in the case of
>white marble I am a bit wary in case a greasy residue is left
>behind.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

Most self adhesive labels can be removed from marble using white
spirit/Stoddard solvent, applied on a cotton wool swab. You need to
allow the solvent to swell the adhesive and then gently peel back
the label, applying more solvent, as necessary, to remove the
residue. However, if there is ink on the label you should check its
solubility before attempting full scale removal. You may need to
remove the last traces of adhesive mechanically and a wooden swab
stick works well for this purpose.

You are right to be cautious about using WD40 on marble as it is
sufficiently porous for the oil to be absorbed into the stone and
leave a stain that may be very difficult to remove.

Jennifer Dinsmore
Halahan Associates


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:5
                   Distributed: Friday, June 18, 2010
                        Message Id: cdl-24-5-002
                                  ***