Cyclododecane exposure in the field of conservation and restoration of art objects

PURPOSE: Recent work practices in the conservation and restoration involve the use of cyclododecane (CDD, CAS 294-62-2) to protect fragile artifacts during their handling or transportation. Little is known about its toxicity, and no previous exposure has been reported. A short field investigation was conducted to characterize the exposure conditions to both CDD vapors and aerosols.METHODS: Measurements were conducted in the laboratory of conservation and restoration of the archeological service in Bern (Switzerland). Three indoor and four outdoor typical work situations, either during brush or spray gun applications, were investigated. Measurements were performed on charcoal adsorbent tube and analyzed by a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector.RESULTS: Measurements have been conducted during both brush and spray gun applications. Indoor exposures were of 0.75-15.5 mg/m(3), while outdoors exposures were 19.5-53.9 mg/m(3). Exposures appear to be extremely localized due to both physicochemical properties and application methods of the CDD. Vapor exposure increases dramatically with the confinement of the workplace.CONCLUSION: Preventive measures should be undertaken to limit as much as possible these exposures. Field work in confined areas (ditches, underground) is of particular concern. CDD-coated artifacts or materials should be stored in ventilated areas to avoid delayed exposures. [Authors]

Portfolio of Indian art : objects selected from the collections of the museum /

In portfolio.

Early Chinese jades.

Mode of access: Internet.

Catalogue of a collection of oil paintings and water-color drawings by American and European artists, and of Oriental art objects, belonging to T. E. Waggaman.

Mode of access: Internet.

A descriptive catalogue of the Chinese collection, in Philadelphia. With miscellaneous remarks upon the manners, customs, trade, and government of the Celestial Empire.

At head of title: Ten thousand Chinese things. Also in Chinese.

Substance and symbol in Chinese toggles; Chinese belt toggles from the C. F. Bieber collection. Text by Schuyler Cammann. Illustrated with photos.

Photocopy.

Catalogues of Antiquities: Art Objects - Egyptian, Greek, Roman, etc., and Native Art from All Areas of the World

Mode of access: Internet.

Illustrated catalogue of the furniture and embellishments from the Imperial Palace, Pekin : ... newly acquired by the firm of Messrs. Yamanaka & Company ...

Cover title: Oriental art treasures from the Chinese Imperial Palace.

Selections from Oriental objects of art collected by Worcester Reed Warner, most of which have been presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Descriptive letterpress on versos facing the plates.

English and French furniture & decorations : paintings, Georgian & other silver, English & other old ceramics, Chinese art & oriental rugs : property of the estate of the late Mrs. Lee Delafield : New York by order of City Bank Farmers Trust Company and W.E. Williams, executors : a valuable collection of table linens & laces from a California private collector together with property of Mrs. Guy Fairfax Cary, Mrs. Serge Landeau, other owners : public auction sale, January 26, 27 and 28 at 2 pm.

Cover title: English & French furniture and decorative objects.

French furniture : Chinese porcelains & decorative objects : paintings & drawings, tapestries, rugs, old sevres, meissen & Dresden porcelain, silver, linens & laces, china : property from the estate of the late John Vernou Bouvier, New York, by order of the legatees, the present owners : property of the estate of the late Mrs. Elmer E. Smathers, New York, by order of the Guaranty Trust Company of New York, administrator : and property of Oscar F. Gavrilovitch, former Consul-General from Yugoslavia in New York and other owners : public auction sale, March 11, 12 and 13 at 2 pm.

"Sale number 944."

Simplified Chinese lacquer techniques and Nanban style decoration on Luso-Asian objects from the late sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries

The meeting of multiple cultures and their mutual influence during the Portuguese expansion in Asia led to the emergence of different types of fusion styles in objects commissioned by the settlers, merchants, and religious orders present in Portuguese India. The east-Asian lacquer coatings of modestly sized wooden objects of various types dating from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries have been analyzed as part of the research for a doctoral thesis that aims to establish their cultural and geographical attribution within the context of the Getty Conservation Institute’s lacquer research project. Among the objects were three seventeenthcentury lacquered trays from Portuguese museums and private collections that had previously been classified as Japanese Nanban, Chinese or Ryukyuan lacquers or even as Indo-Portuguese artifacts. The materials and techniques that were identified show close similarities with Chinese techniques mentioned in historic accounts — the only existing Ming Chinese Treatise on lacquering Xiushi lu and the eighteenth-century memoirs of the Jesuit priest d’Incarville. These nearly 400-year-old artifacts are among the first lacquered objects commissioned by Europeans and probably the first of Chinese origin. Their detailed technical study contributes to international lacquer research and complements existing knowledge and perceptions of the lacquering processes that were applied in response to an early European demand for exotic items.

Objets d'art anciens de la China : ceramique ... pierres dures, meubles et paravents, tapis, bronzes, sculptures, peintures.

At head of title: Liquidation des biens Worch ayant fait l'objet d'une mesure de Séquestre de Guerre.

Objects of art (illustrations) : 450 examples of sculpture, furniture, metal-work, illuminations, miniatures, wax-reliefs, ivories, enamels, majolica, porcelain, crystal, glass, jewellery, snuff-boxes, siversmith's-work, etc.

Mode of access: Internet.

The politics and ethics of relocated art

At the end of Word War II, Soviet occupation forces removed countless art objects from German soil. Some of them were returned during the 1950s, but most either disappeared for good or were stored away secretly in cellars of Soviet museums. The Cold War then covered the issue with silence. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, museums in St Petersburg and Moscow started to exhibit some of the relocated art for the first time in half a century. The unusual quality of the paintings-mostly impressionist masterpieces-not only attracted the attention of the international art community, but also triggered a diplomatic row between Russia and Germany. Both governments advanced moral and legal claims to ownership. To make things even more complicated, many of the paintings once belonged to private collectors, some of whom were Jews. Their descendants also entered the dispute. The basic premise of this article is that the political and ethical dimensions of relocated art can be understood most adequately by eschewing a single authorial standpoint. Various positions, sometimes incommensurable ones, are thus explored in an attempt to outline possibilities for an ethics of representation and a dialogical solution to the international problem that relocated art has become.