Volume 40, Issue 3-4 -

This article is part of the oral history research project at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and discusses the development of mountings and passe-partouts at the Grafische Sammlung Albertina from 1805 until 2018. Based on the history of passe-partouts, the professionalisation of paper conservation in Vienna can be described. Passe-partouts of drawings and prints were chronologically classified. The collection history, the appearance of the passe-partouts as well as inventory catalogues and collection stamps served to classify the passe-partouts. The prints were mounted on back mounts at the beginning of the 19th century, after 1822 they were stored in albums. Since 1900, prints were removed from the albums, from nationalisation in 1919 onwards, they were set in passe-partouts. The drawings, however, were always kept in passe-partouts. At the beginning, these only consisted of back mounts. In the 1860ies, they were supplemented by a window mount. The hinged window mount that appeared in the 1960ies has been complemented with a cover sheet since the 1990ies.

The National Library of Poland holds three historical collections with a unified visual form. The arrangement of the Wilanów collection was carried out in the first half of the nineteenth century, whereas the Krasiński collection was arranged in the early twentieth century respectively the 1950’s or 1960’s in the case of drawings by Norwid. This contribution describes the structure of mountings found in these collections, as well as the historical context in which they were created. It serves as a starting point to provide an outline of the history of conservation methods and preservation of prints’ and drawings’ collections in Poland.

In this study we will outline the history of paper conservation at the Wien Museum, emphasizing particularly on bleaching methods which were carried out during the period of 1978–1987. Our research is primarily based on conservation protocols kept at the museum during the period studied. Furthermore, theme-centred expert interviews were conducted with conservators who had worked for the collection. A literature review of common bleaching methods in paper conservation helped putting our observations into the larger context of scientific discourse at the time. During the period under study the main bleaching agents were hydrogen peroxide combined with diethyl ether and chloramine T. There were uncertainties regarding pre- and post-treatment options such as washing, deacidification and “anti-chlorine baths”. In general, treatment protocols and interviews reflect the state of published research of that time.

From the first half of the seventeenth century until the beginning of the twentieth century resizing was common practice after each aqueous treatment to replace the loss of original sizing, but it is used much less frequently today. As already described in early sources, resizing in modern conservation practice still serves three main purposes: increasing mechanical stability, modifying the surface texture of abraded papers by decreasing their surface roughness and consolidating loosened fibres and preparing the paper substrate for inpainting. Today’s practice, however, differentiates more carefully between an improvement in mechanical stability and increased resistance to physical and chemical degradation processes. While previously almost exclusively protein glues were used for resizing, today gelatine and cellulose ethers are among the most commonly used sizing agents. The solution concentrations used for resizing have significantly decreased: gelatine is used in 0.5 % (w/v) to 1 % (w/v) solutions today, while historic literature recommends 1.6 % (w/v) to 3.5 % (w/v) protein glues. Concerning application techniques, mainly immersion, closely related to tub sizing used during paper manufacture and local or overall brush applications were used for historic sizing. Spraying, which was introduced at the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century, is recommended for resizing drawings to prevent friable media from being smudged.

The restorer Johann Michael von Hermann (1793–1855), famous in the early nineteenth century, has long fallen into oblivion. A recent discovery of his work associated with old master prints at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München has allowed a close study of his methods and skills as well as those of his pupil Ludwig Albert von Montmorillon (1794–1854), providing a fresh perspective on the early history of paper conservation. Von Hermann’s method of facsimile inserts was praised by his contemporaries, before Max Schweidler (1885–1953) described these methods in 1938. The present article provides biographical notes on both nineteenth century restorers, gives examples of prints treated by them and adds a chapter of conservation history crediting them with a place in the history of the discipline. In summary, this offers a surprising insight on how works of art used to be almost untraceably restored by this team of Munich-based restorers more than 150 years before Schweidler.

The interpretation and reflection of how teaching and learning can be performed according to rather modern approaches is described. The centre of education at the Technical University is strong and supports newly appointed teachers. It is all about competences which need to be promoted and encouraged. The writing and formulating learning outcomes are the basis of different kinds of knowledge and called taxonomy levels. A learning outcome for the Bachelor module leather, its history, tannage and conservation is presented. Learning activation is enabled by changing lecture styles with the help of videos, original material and daily life memory links. The voting system PINGO can be used as activation form as well as pre-assessment format. The range of assessment styles ranges from oral and written presentation to a novel form of capturing video sequences. The production of minute-videos enable a different view to a process, helps to understand the topic of the lecture und activates the students enormously.

In conservation, the practical ability to implement treatment on objects of cultural heritage requires skills as an essential part of conservation expertise and constitutes an fundamental part of learning in conservation education. The acquisition of practical skills, which include cognitive and practical elements, is governed by laws that are primarily explained by means of organizational psychology and medicine where they have evolved in the form of step models. Stages of explicit and implicit knowledge are distinguished as well as factual-theoretical and practical-performative knowledge. Forms of learning are, in addition to guided learning, the experiment, the emergency, case studies and implicit forms of problem solving. The development of the expert can also be traced by the development of practical skills in five stages from beginner to expert. The stages of skills acquisition can be explained by reference to the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF) and the skill levels defined by the European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers’ Organizations (E.C.C.O.).

Paper conservators today face a growing preservation mandate that demands a comprehensive education. These remarks refer to the education of North American paper conservators. The path required to attain the necessary knowledge and skills to preserve works on paper has changed drastically over the past two generations starting with the establishment of graduate degree-granting programs and their dynamic and responsive curricula.

Is it time for the U.S. based art-conservation graduate programs to take dramatic steps in order to better prepare students to enter the field of professional library and archives conservation? Having been in the field as a conservator for almost 50 years, and for about half of that time, carrying out extensive research using a variety of library and archival materials, the author reflects on the current educational situation and makes recommendations to lengthen the course of study by one year and to eliminate the science-courses prerequisite.