MCI Project Summaries 2008 - Smithsonian Institution

MCI 6080 Studies on the Identification and Degradation of Mordanted and
Weighted Textiles
MCI Staff: Mary W. Ballard, Anne-Marei Hacke, Lynn B. Brostoff, Marion F. Mecklenburg,
Walter R. Hopwood, Odile Madden, Ron H. Cunningham
A comprehensive research study was designed by Marei Hacke as a postdoctoral
postgraduate Fellow. The research was divided into four sections: a full scale review of all the
published literature on weighted silk in English and German; an investigation of metal ion
containing textiles using XRF and ICP-MS; an investigation of the deterioration of metal ion
containing silks and also silk materials used in the conservation treatment of Asian Scroll
paintings; and finally an assessment of chemical protective agents for the amelioration of metal
ion catalyzed degraded silk.
This project was helped by the loan to MSC/SIL of dye sample catalogues from Dibner
Library at NMAH. The catalogues, dating from the turn of the 20 th century through the 1930’s,
had several examples of silks, including weighted silk samples. These were very helpful in
developing a protocol used elsewhere (see MCI #6095)to determine the presence of metal
mordants and pesticides in textiles housed in the Smithsonian.
Dr. Hacke’s research study was not completed, but her excellent review of the literature
was published by Reviews in Conservation (Number 9, 2009).
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