Conservation Science: Heritage Materials - Rilegato

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0854046593 ISBN 13: 9780854046591

Casa editrice: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2006

Riassunto

Conservation of artefacts and heritage materials is an increasingly popular and fascinating area, spanning both historical and scientific disciplines. Materials come in many forms ranging from sunken ships to tapestries, from buildings to books. With this wide range of matrices and materials to analyse and preserve, an interdisciplinary approach is needed drawing upon skills from many areas of knowledge. Conservation Science: Heritage Materials links these fields of research together forming a comprehensive text book that discusses analytical aspects, wall paintings, organic and inorganic materials. It provides up to date information on subjects including research on decay and degradation and an understanding of the deterioration mechanisms of historic and artistic works. Also included are a number of case studies of particularly important finds including the upkeep of the Mary Rose and the preservation of the sail on Nelsons ship HMS Victory. This book provides an essential guide and reference source for those working in all areas of heritage conservation.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

Preserving our history
Conservation science - heritage materials 

Eric May and Mark Jones (Eds) 
Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry |2006 | 300pp | ISBN 9780854046591 

 

Reviewed by Lore Troalen

As a conservation scientist and former assistant lecturer to students studying for Bachelor of Conservation degrees, I found this book a useful tool for students, as it tackles the main materials they have to deal with during their training and professional life. The chemical and physical properties of materials and their degradation processes are discussed in great detail, but the text is still accessible to conservation students. 

All the materials developed in the various chapters could be the subject of separate individual books, so the real challenge was to manage to present the chemistry of each material and to link that to conservation practices in just a few pages. Some chapters do this particularly well. 

The more interesting chapters were the ones focusing on case studies. For example the textile case studies were very pertinent and clear. The chapter on glass and ceramics brings together particularly well the chemistry of glass, degradation processes, conservation practices and conditions of storage and display. 

The chapter on plastics is useful as there are few books on conservation science discussing such materials despite the fact that they represent a large part of the collections in museums and galleries and present very specific problems of degradation, storage, display etc.  

This book should definitely be of great use for conservators and conservation scientists during their training as well as during their professional life. 

L'autore:

Eric May is Reader in Microbiology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. He has worked on stone deterioration for 20 years and recently coordinated a EU study to assess the value of biotechnology for remediation of altered stone in buildings. He organised (with Mark Jones at the Mary Rose Trust) an international heritage meeting HMS 2005 in Portsmouth in June 2005.

Mark Jones is Head of Conservation at the Mary Rose Trust, responsible for the treatment of the Tudor warship, The Mary Rose, and her artefacts. Part-time Lecturer in conservation at the Universities of Portsmouth and Southampton, he has an MSc in the biodeterioration of materials and a PhD in marine fouling.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0854046593
• ISBN 13: 9780854046591
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 376
• Redattore: May Eric, Jones Mark