Tortoiseshell or Polymer? Spectroscopic Analysis to Redefine a Purported Tortoiseshell Box with Gold Decorations as a Plastic Box with Brass

Applied Spectroscopy
António PereiraAntónio Candeias

Abstract

The study and preservation of museum collections requires complete knowledge and understanding of constituent materials that can be natural, synthetic, or semi-synthetic polymers. In former times, objects were incorporated in museum collections and classified solely by their appearance. New studies, prompted by severe degradation processes or conservation-restoration actions, help shed light on the materiality of objects that can contradict the original information or assumptions. The selected case study presented here is of a box dating from the beginning of the 20th century that belongs to the Portuguese National Ancient Art Museum. Museum curators classified it as a tortoiseshell box decorated with gold applications solely on the basis of visual inspection and the information provided by the donor. This box has visible signs of degradation with white veils, initially assumed to be the result of biological degradation of a proteinaceous matrix. This paper presents the methodological rationale behind this study and proposes a totally non-invasive methodology for the identification of polymeric materials in museum artifacts. The analysis of surface leachates using (1)H and (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) complemented by ...Continue Reading

References

May 12, 2010·Accounts of Chemical Research·Michael SchillingRachel Rivenc

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
NMR
nuclear magnetic resonance
scanning electron microscopy
Infrared spectroscopy

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