The Russian State Library hosted the 5th Scientific and Practical Seminar «Document Restoration: Conservatism and Innovations» from 5 to 9 April 2021. More than 350 restorers, custodians of library, archival and museum collections, and experts in the field of document conservation took part in it.
The seminar was especially popular this year: it gathered professionals from Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, the Republic of Slovakia, France, Egypt, Qatar, India, Sweden and other countries.
The event included a number of reports, presentations, practical tutorials and workshops. One presentation explored the use of visual methods for inspection of documents before transferring them to a library stack. Aleksei Anatolevich Kashcheev, Head of the Preventive Conservation Sector, Department of Restoration of Library Collections of the Russian State Library, described how the ZEISS Stemi 508 microscope serves for document examination.
Aleksei Anatolevich Kashcheev, Head of the Preventive Conservation Sector, Department of Restoration of Library Collections of the Russian State Library
“It is crucial for an expert working to restore a document to see everything down to the smallest detail. For example, the examination of a document in Chinese from the collection of the Center of Oriental Literature proved that the text is handwritten. In the binocular field of view one can see that the outline of the hieroglyphs is uneven, uncharacteristic for printing. At high magnification one can see how the ink spread. This type of examination helps to get the notion of both: preservation and condition of the materials for text application.
Moreover, the use of microscopy in the process of examining a document is one of the stages of microbiological appraisal. Types of damage to various documents can be very similar in appearance but have different causes. They are determined, for example, by using a microscope for subsequent choice of the correct restoration technique.”
“It is crucial for an expert working to restore a document to see everything down to the smallest detail. For example, the examination of a document in Chinese from the collection of the Center of Oriental Literature proved that the text is handwritten. In the binocular field of view one can see that the outline of the hieroglyphs is uneven, uncharacteristic for printing. At high magnification one can see how the ink spread. This type of examination helps to get the notion of both: preservation and condition of the materials for text application.
Moreover, the use of microscopy in the process of examining a document is one of the stages of microbiological appraisal. Types of damage to various documents can be very similar in appearance but have different causes. They are determined, for example, by using a microscope for subsequent choice of the correct restoration technique.”
Aleksei Anatolevich Kashcheev, Head of the Preventive Conservation Sector, Department of Restoration of Library Collections of the Russian State Library.
The seminar included a number of workshops, where the presenters shared their practical experience in applying microscopic methods to solve various restoration problems. The participants of the seminar saw the structure of ancient fabric samples from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums; they learned how to conduct a microscopic analysis of biological damage to book pages and how to correctly determine the photographic technology of the 19th century in order to select the correct restoration method.
During the workshop «Features of Restoration of Gelatin Photos of the 19th century» Elena Aleksandrovna Kalistratova, art restorer of the first category, Department of Restoration of Library Collections of the Russian State Library, demonstrated how one can determine the photographic technology using the ZEISS Stemi 508 microscope. The workshop participants learned about theoretical and practical aspects of the 19th-century photography restoration and had an opportunity to try and restore photographs from the archive of the Russian State Library by themselves.
Elena Aleksandrovna Kalistratova, art restorer of the first category, Department of Restoration of Library Collections of the Russian State Library.
Oksana Vladimirovna Shadrina, specialist of the Preventive Conservation Sector, Department of Restoration of Library Collections of the Russian State Library, conducted the workshop «A Set of Measures for the Prevention and Elimination of the Consequences of Biological Damage.» She showed the workshop participants how to identify the type of biological damage using a microscope and choose a technique to eliminate the damage.
Oksana Vladimirovna Shadrina, specialist of the Preventive Conservation Sector, Department of Restoration of Library Collections of the Russian State Library
“Microscope is an important part of pre-restoration work as it helps to conduct a microscopic analysis and determine the genus or species of fungi as well as their viability. On the basis on this information, one can understand the colour, form, growth rate and choose a way to eliminate the contamination.
Microscope facilitates restorer’s work tremendously, speeds it up and allows obtaining accurate information about the object under study.”
“Microscope is an important part of pre-restoration work as it helps to conduct a microscopic analysis and determine the genus or species of fungi as well as their viability. On the basis on this information, one can understand the colour, form, growth rate and choose a way to eliminate the contamination.
Microscope facilitates restorer’s work tremendously, speeds it up and allows obtaining accurate information about the object under study.”
Oksana Vladimirovna Shadrina, specialist of the Preventive Conservation Sector, Department of Restoration of Library Collections of the Russian State Library
Nadezhda Pavlovna Maslennikova, art restorer of the highest category, and Elena Iurevna Mukher, Head of the Sector for the Restoration of Textiles at the Moscow Kremlin Museums, conducted the workshop “Main Methods for the Fabric Binding Restoration on the Example of Monumental Books of the Moscow Kremlin Museums.” They described how they use the ZEISS Stemi 508 microscope for pre-restoration research and the detailed examination of restored fabrics.