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Before & After Gallery

Commodore Billings's Voyage to the Arctic. The Treatment of a Portfolio of Etchings

The most disturbing aspect of the condition of the collection was the heavy stains disfiguring each plate, which appeared to have been caused by water contaminated with iron (i.e., by water from a rusty pipe leaking onto the plates). Despite extensive analysis of the composition of these stains, carried out by members of the Analytical Research Services Division at CCI,³ it was not possible to determine conclusively what the contaminant had been. Although iron was found, it was not present in large enough quantities to indicate that this was indeed the cause of the staining. However, knowing that iron was present was important because it was proposed that a reduction bleach (tetraethyl ammonium borohydride) be used to reduce or remove the stains. This bleach can react with iron to produce an unstable compound⁴ so it would be necessary to convert the iron in the stains to a stable compound with sodium dithionite prior to bleaching. The residual iron was thought to have been present at the time the paper was made, as a form of contaminant from the paper mill.

This artifact also posed a number of ethical questions concerning how far a conservator should go in trying to replicate original techniques and materials without compromising the future condition and conservation of the artifact and its final format. These questions needed to be resolved before any treatment could take place:

• The plates were originally overcast in two sections. Should they be resewn in the same way? If they were to be tipped onto guards to avoid resewing onto the original edge, this would extend the page beyond the width of the covers. If they were joined together to form sections, this would alter the original method in which they were sewn

• Plate III was sewn in the wrong way round. Should it be returned this way?
  
  
• Should the map be separated from the plates instead of being refolded? If so, this would also change the original format.
  
  
• Should the plates even be rebound, or should they be matted instead?

Prior to any treatment, research was carried out to determine whether the binding on this collection was original and where other copies of these plates were located. French and English copies in the National Library of Canada were examined first, but both had been rebound. What was interesting was that in the English version, the plates were interspersed with the text, whereas the French version was in two parts—text and plates. The French text was also bound in a smaller format (4^mo) than the English (8^mo). In some cases, the plates in the English version were depicted in reverse and had different engravers than the French.

The paper itself was also interesting. Three types of laid paper had been used for the prints in the collection, each slightly different in thickness from the rest. When examined on a light table for watermarks, the most prominent were the words 'AMBERT' and'G {heart drawing} FENEROL.⁵ The map also showed the letters 'G {heart drawing} F' but a different watermark, and the rear cover appeared to include a winged horse. Photography and x-radiography were used initially to record these watermarks, although transmitted light showed more detail than x-ray did. Paper fibers taken from the plates gave a positive identification for flax.

The response to a survey sent out to 20 libraries across Canada, the U.S.A., and Great Britain known to have collections of Arctic material (the National Library's and the Arctic Institute's copies were included in the survey) showed that Sauer's account had also been published in German (in Weimar and Berlin) and in Italian (in Milan), but the condition and binding of each copy was entirely different: no two copies were the same. It seemed therefore that the copy belonging to the Arctic Institute was the only one in North America in what appeared to be the original paper covers and with the original label. This information was important in deciding how best to proceed with the treatment.

In consultation with Professor Leo Bushman, Curator of the collection at the Arctic Institute, it was decided that the plates should be rebound in exactly the same way as they had been originally, so as to preserve the integrity of the artifact. Indeed, as Joyce Banks, Rare Book Librarian at the National Library of Canada, pointed out in her paper at Symposium 88:

"The book allowed to be subjected to disbinding falls into one of two categories: (a) that which is so severely damaged that it cannot be consulted without further damage to its fabric; (b) that which is in such a dangerous state of decay (not always obvious) that to do nothing is to risk its loss or such significant damage to it as would amount to loss."⁶

She goes on to say:

"The first step in conservation treatment undertaken [is] to return the book as nearly as possible to its original condition."⁷

Before the plates were separated, the sewing structure was documented. The thread was very brittle and would not be reused during the resewing. Therefore, in order to replicate it later, fibre analysis of the thread was carried out to determine whether it was hemp (what the fibre was suspected to be, and what might have been traditionally used) or flax (the other possibility). Further tests carried out by Janet Wagner and Joan Marshall in CCI's Textile Laboratory confirmed that it was hemp.

The initial treatment consisted of surface cleaning all the plates and the map, using erasing compounds. After testing with ethanol, acetone, trichloroethylene, and amyl acetate, the pieces of pressure-sensitive paper tape holding sections of the map together were removed with amyl acetate. pH readings were taken of all pages and covers. The readings ranged from pH 4.28 on the front cover to pH 5.97 on Plate VII. Predictably, the covers and the first and last few plates were the most acidic.

Tests had indicated that the library stamp on the title page was soluble in ethanol. Since ethanol would be a major component of the bleaching solution, the stamp was fixed using a solution of paraffin wax and petroleum ether, applied on a mini suction table, prior to the washing process. All the pages and plates were washed individually by immersing them in an alkaline wash water. The iron compounds were stabilized with sodium dithionite. This was followed by immersion in a reduction bleach (tetraethyl ammonium borohydride in ethanol), which successfully reduced the stains to an acceptable degree. Each page was then resized with gelatine.

The cover sheets, paste-downs, and title page were leafcast using a blend of up to three pulps to achieve a harmonious tone, and additional toning was applied with natural earth pigments. Other repairs were done with Japanese paper and wheat starch paste. The map was lined onto Japanese paper.

When the final pH readings were taken, the paper was still found to be acidic (e.g., Plate VII had a pH of 5.57), apparently as a result of using gelatine size. Since this was an undesirable situation, it was decided to rewash all the plates, map, and supplementary pages to remove the gelatine. This was achieved on the suction table using a wash water solution buffered with 20 ppm (parts per million) magnesium bicarbonate. The readings taken after this treatment indicated that, for the most part, the gelatine had been removed and the pH had been returned to an acceptable level (e.g., Plate VII now has a pH of 6.47) as a result of the alkaline wash water. Not only that, but the repairs were still intact!

The plates were reassembled and resewn using the overcast technique. The map was refolded and sewn in on a guard at the end of the book, where it had been originally, and the covers were attached. A portfolio was made to house the rebound plates, and an 8" x 10" black-and-white photograph of the missing Plate XIII, supplied by the National Library, was inserted into the portfolio.

It could be argued that the concept of using original materials to maintain the integrity of the artifact is not always compatible with modern conservation practices. For example, the use of gelatine, although a traditional sizing material, is to be cautioned when taking this kind of approach, and a more suitable alternative should be sought. Similarly, overcasting as a sewing technique is not always ideal from a conservation standpoint. However, since it is expected that the artifact will receive limited use, the amount of stress encountered when opening and closing it should be minimal. This book is, after all, the only known example in North America in this format, and to have changed the sewing technique would, in the opinion of the author, have destroyed valuable bibliographic evidence.

Endnotes

1. Art Bank, Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary. Collection des Planches de Voyage dans le Nord de la Russie Asiatique, etc., extract from translation into English, p. 1.
   
   
2. Ibid.
   
   
3. Moffatt, Elizabeth et al., "Analysis of Certain Stains on Voyage dans le Nord," CCI Analytical Report no. ARS 3015, January 10, 1992; Young, Gregory and Kate Helwig, "Analysis of Certain Stains on Voyage dans le Nord, II," CCI Analytical Report no. ARS 3015.1, June 24, 1992.
   
   
4. Burgess, Helen, "Practical Considerations for Conservation Bleaching," Journal of the International Institutefor Conservation - Canadian Group, vol. 13 (1988), pp. 11-26.
   
   
5. Ambert is a town in the Auvergne region of France with a papermaking industry dating back to the fifteenth century. "G Fenerol" would appear to be the name of the paper mill or maker, but further research in this area has not been carried out.
   
   
6. Banks, Joyce, "The Ethics of Disbinding Bound Materials," Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works on Paper (Ottawa: Canadian Conservation Institute, 1994), pp. 273-274.
   
   
7. Ibid.

Further Reading

Cox, Edward Godfrey, A Reference Guide to the Literature of Travel, Including Voyages, Geographical Descriptions, Adventures, Shipwrecks and Expeditions. Vol. 1, The Old World (Seattle: University of Washington, 1935), p. 353.

Lada-Mocarski, Valerian, Bibliography of Books on Alaska Published before 1868 (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1969), pp. 216, 218.

Sabin, Joseph, A Dictionary of Books Relating to America from Its Discovery to the Present Time, Vol. XVIII (Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1962), p. 534.