Conservation Portfolio Home

Overall view of living room doors. They are typically displayed in this open position. 

View of the decoration on the verso of the doors

Detail of verso. The vertical white "stripe"  is related to migration of the varnish coating and/or extractives from the wooden substrate likely brought on by intense humidity and temperature. 

Detail of the verso demonstrating the combination of pooling of a varnish coating and concentrations of extractives that have migrated to the surface. The pooling of discolored varnish has revealed what some of the colors may have looked like when the doors were first installed.  

Detail of the recto. The brown dots are a mixture of reticulated varnish and extractive resin bleed. Notice how bright the yellow is in areas no longer covered by a discolored varnish. 

This is a photomicrograph taken of the surface of the doors. The resin globules were analyzed using GC-MS and found to contain high amounts of sesquiterpene compounds, which are common extractives of cedar wood, the substrate of the doors and foyer ceiling. As the cedar resin and oils migrate to the surface they displace the surface varnish and/or paint. 

Here is an example of decoration in good condition. Note that there was gilding toned to gold. The leaf is tin-based and has tarnished to black/grey in most areas. 

Detail of decorative pattern on living room ceiling. This ceiling was not treated as part of the 2015 project, but samples were taken for material identification. 

Detail of condition of living room ceiling. Exuding resin was less prominent on the living room ceiling. However, the applied varnish was severely cracking and often pulling paint with it from the surface. 

Detail of lifting paint before treatment

Detail of same area after treatment: application of consolidating adhesive and gentle relaxation with heat. 

Detail on doors where some of the varnish and exuding resin was mechanically reduced. This treatment method was deemed risky to the painted surface and involved removing varnish potentially applied by the Martin studio. Even if only extractive resin globules were removed, more material is likely to continue to migrate to the surface as long as relative humidity and temperature remain high. This local area does provide an idea of how bright the colors once appeared. 

Detail of disfiguring resin globules on surface of door. Even if only extractive resin globules were removed, more material is likely to continue to migrate to the surface as long as relative humidity and temperature remain high. 

Image of same after inpainting. Instead of removing resin globules, they were toned-out with specialized paints based on a stable resin. Now the pattern is more legible and the extractive bleed is less distracting. 

Detail of another area during inpainting as the tone is being built up in layers of a stippling technique. 

Detail of previous area after toning is complete. 

Detail of another area before (left) and after (right) inpainting/ toning out the resin. 

Image before inpainting. Additional areas of complete paint loss were also compensated using the same kind of paint. 

Previous area after inpainting. 

Detail before inpainting

Detail after inpainting

Detail of larger section before treatment. 

Detail of larger section after treatment. At this distance there is not a dramatic visual change, but the surface is stable and more cohesive.