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The spontaneous transfer to glass of an image of Joan of Arc |
by Tim Padfield and David Erhardt
A woven silk picture transferred its image to the glass against which it had been pressed for fourteen years. The image was formed from salt, which occupied the areas where the silk had not touched the glass. Salt impregnation increases the water absorption of silk at a relative humidity below the value at which pure salt deliquesces. A salt solution had formed in the fabric at a moderate relative humidity and then migrated to the glass where the salt precipitated because the relative humidity was below the deliquescence point of pure salt. The process has been replicated.
The full article in pdf (750Kb) is a facsimile of the article first published as: Tim Padfield and David Erhardt, 'The Spontaneous Transfer to Glass of an Image of Joan of Arc'. Preprints of the Sydney Conference of the International Council of Museums, Conservation Committee, September 1987, pp 909-913.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.