Conservation and analysis of a Qajar lacquered painting from Helwan university museum, Egypt

Abstract EN

A Qajar lacquered painting applied on pasteboard support from the applied arts museum of Helwan university has been investigated and conserved.

the painting support was manufactured from two distinct layers of which the thick under layer was made of paper sheets pasted together, pasteboard, and the thin upper layer was a finer layer of fibers.

the support comprises cotton fibers with some additions such as kaolin and gypsum as revealed in the FTIR analysis.

human hair and straw were also added to the pulp to strengthen the support.

two pigmented preparation layers were applied of which the main layer, is blue and was applied as a mixture of Lazurite and / or indigo while the margin of the painting was applied on a red preparation layer.

the pigment palette as revealed by Raman microscopy comprises; lapis lazuli, indigo, orpiment, red lead and malachite.

the FTIR spectra for the lacquer layer suggested the application of shellac resin.

the highly needed conservation treatment was carried out including; cleaning, securing the detached paint layer and splitting paper sheets, deacidification, retouching and varnishing.

finally, a museum-grade display box was created and labelled.