The Care of Prints and Drawings, Second Edition

The 2nd edition of The Care of Prints and Drawings provides practical, straightforward advice to those responsible for the preservation of works on paper, ranging from curators, facility managers, conservators, registrars, collection care specialists, private collectors, artists, or students of museum studies, visual arts, art history, or conservation. A greater emphasis is placed on preventive conservation, a trend among collecting institutions, which reflects the growing recognition that scarce resources are best expended on preventing deterioration, rather than on less effective measures of reversing it. Expanded and richly illustrated chapters include: -Supports for Prints and Drawings discusses the properties of parchment and paper and introduces the general preservation needs and conservation problems of all works on paper, regardless of their media. -Conservation Problems Related to the Paper Support of Prints and Drawings presents a guide to recognizing the symptoms and diagnosing the causes of damage specific to paper. -Conservation Problems Related to the Materials and Techniques of Prints describes the conservation problems that affect certain printmaking materials and arise from specific processes. -Conservation Problems Related to the Materials and Techniques of Drawings focuses on the various materials used to create marks on paper. -Item-Level Collection Protection: Envelopes, Sleeves, Folders, Enclosures, Mats, Boxes, Frames, and Furniture, discusses measures taken for prints and drawings so that they can better withstand the rigors of handling, examination, exhibition, travel, and adverse environmental conditions. -Preventive Conservation for Prints and Drawings describes how the integration of a comprehensive Collections Care Program into a Collections Management Policy can reduce the need for item-level conservation treatments. -Basic Paper Conservation Procedures provides instructions on how to stabilize damaged works. -How to Make Starch Paste and Methyl Cellulose Adhesive and Suppliers of Paper Conservation Materials and Equipment are appended as well as a Glossary.
The 2nd edition of The Care of Prints and Drawings provides practical, straightforward advice to those responsible for the preservation of works on paper, ranging from curators, facility managers, conservators, registrars, collection care specialists, private collectors, artists, or students of museum studies, visual arts, art history, or conservation. A greater emphasis is placed on preventive conservation, a trend among collecting institutions, which reflects the growing recognition that scarce resources are best expended on preventing deterioration, rather than on less effective measures of reversing it.
This successful revision of The Care of Prints and Drawings will be a welcome addition to any conservator's or collector's library; it retains the fundamentally useful material from the 1987 edition but has been updated to include current research and references. Throughout the book, the author offers clear, insightful information that may be used by all levels of caretakers and conservators of works on paper. The text and associated illustrations are as useful to an emerging conservator as they are familiar to an established member of the field. And what's more, this work also offers guidance to caretakers of works on paper who are not conservators. In her accessible and engaging writing style, Margaret Holben Ellis, the Eugene Thaw Professor of Paper Conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, shares the broad experience she has acquired throughout her distinguished career as she capably informs readers of best practices in caring for works on paper.--Journal of The American Institute For Conservation
This newly-revised edition of The Care of Prints and Drawings remains replete with essential information about how to preserve works on paper, but also reflects today's prevailing focus on preventive care in the field of conservation. Filled with practical strategies, specific and detailed information, as well as fascinating details about the nature of paper-based artwork and artifacts, the knowledge and experience shared in this volume are indispensible to anyone involved in its care.--Pamela Hatchfield, Robert P. and Carol T. Henderson Head of Objects Conservation, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; President, American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) and the FAIC