Art on Paper

This volume brings together 31 papers from a British Museum conference exploring the mounting, storage, and display of works on paper. Contributors examine how specialist mounting protects against physical, chemical, and biological threats, while also shaping public perception. Topics include historical mounting practices, preventive conservation, aesthetic presentation, and collection management-highlighting the crucial role of mounting in both the preservation and appreciation of prints and drawings.

Mounting and housing of works of art on paper have always had an important influence on both the survival and the appreciation of the work. Many dangers of a physical, biological and chemical nature await unprotected works of art on paper and specialist mounting provides the primary way of safeguarding them. Also, since the way in which works are presented to the public affects their perception of them, mounting of works of art can contribute significantly to the success or failure of an exhibition. A variety of problems, solutions, past practice and future developments in the mounting, storage and display of artworks on paper are considered in this volume of thirty-one articles presented at a conference at the British Museum*. These include the significance of mounting in the historical study of prints and drawings, the preventive care of paper artifacts, their aesthetic presentation and the management of paper collections. This volume (originally published in 2005) can be considered a companion volume to Conservation Mounting for Prints and Drawings: A Manual Based on Current Practice at the British Museum by Joanna M. Kosek (Archetype Publications 2004). Both volumes are essential tools for the owner, collector, curator, conservator and all professionals who deal with works of art on paper. *Conference entitled: Mounting and Housing Art on Paper for Storage and Display: History, Science and Present-Day Practice

Preface and acknowledgements

Historical Mounting

The Royal Mount: 250 years of mounting practice in the British Royal Collection

Alan Donnithorne

The photographic mount: a brief historical outline

Laura D. Staneff

Treatment of framed paper in the historic houses of the National Trust

Andrew Bush

Materials and Microenvironments

What happens to enclosed paper?

Joanna M. Kosek and David Jacobs

The quest for acceptable standards: mount boards and hinging papers, tapes and adhesives for mounting and framing

Barry C. Leveton

Open-minded storage: a box-maker's perspective on housing art on paper

Stuart Macdonald Welch

Print frame microclimates

David Thickett

Out of the box: measuring microclimates in Australian-made Solander boxes

Andrea Wise, Caitlin Granowski and Belinda Gourley

Investigation of historical and modern conservation daguerreotype housings

Hanako Murata

Anoxic framing investigations at Tate to date

Katharine Lockett and Brian McKenzie

The Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights: scientific basis and practice of encasement

Catherine Nicholson and Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler

Argon-filled containers for the display of paper

Nancy Purinton and Joan Irving

Contemporary Practice in Mounting

Mounting as part of preservation planning

Mounting and housing in a modern collection: Moderna Museet

Alison Norton and Ellen Cronholm

Storage solutions for large format works on paper

Michelle Facini

Developing a preservation programme for modern unframed and unglazed photographic and digital artworks

Angels Arribas, Keith Morrison and James Berry

Wellcome moves

Caroline Checkley-Scott and Julia Nurse

2-D or not 2-D? - that is the question: the storage and display of rolled wallpapers

Nicola Walker and Christine Woods

Mounting in a tropical climate: preservation, display and storage of the graphic art collection at the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, India

Praveen Kumar Agarwal, Ram Pravesh Savita and Chitta Panda

Overviews and case studies

Conservation mounting at the V&A: an overview of techniques

Clair Battisson, Chris Gingell and Simon Fleury

The display of single-sheet material: two recent exhibitions at the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Andrew Honey

Reproducing decorative mounts

Louise Bradley

A 1960s classic: researching an approach to the treatment of an unstable framed linocut by Edward Bawden

Alice Powell

Housing and storage solutions for four book of hours bi-folios

Jordi Casasayas

Mounting and framing of gouaches by the CoBrA Movement

Piet van Dalen and Jan Stokmans

Oriental and African works

Advantages and disadvantages of the hanging scroll format from a conservation viewpoint

Yasuhiro Oka

Don't throw away the box

Simon Fleury

Wrap and roll or flatten and hinge: approaches to mounting and storage of Chinese art on paper

David Green and Jin Xian Qiu

Mounting fragile Tibetan and Asian material at the British Library: exhibition and storage

Ian Swindale

East meets West: solutions for housing papyri and thangkas

Nicola Lewis

Mounting papyri at the British Museum

Bridget Leach

Mounting of African paintings and scrolls: two case studies on textile and parchment

David Giles and Victoria de Korda

Contributors,

Preface and acknowledgements

Historical Mounting

The Royal Mount: 250 years of mounting practice in the British Royal Collection

Alan Donnithorne

The photographic mount: a brief historical outline

Laura D. Staneff

Treatment of framed paper in the historic houses of the National Trust

Andrew Bush

Materials and Microenvironments

What happens to enclosed paper?

Joanna M. Kosek and David Jacobs

The quest for acceptable standards: mount boards and hinging papers, tapes and adhesives for mounting and framing

Barry C. Leveton

Open-minded storage: a box-maker's perspective on housing art on paper

Stuart Macdonald Welch

Print frame microclimates

David Thickett

Out of the box: measuring microclimates in Australian-made Solander boxes

Andrea Wise, Caitlin Granowski and Belinda Gourley

Investigation of historical and modern conservation daguerreotype housings

Hanako Murata

Anoxic framing investigations at Tate to date

Katharine Lockett and Brian McKenzie

The Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights: scientific basis and practice of encasement

Catherine Nicholson and Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler

Argon-filled containers for the display of paper

Nancy Purinton and Joan Irving

Contemporary Practice in Mounting

Mounting as part of preservation planning

Mounting and housing in a modern collection: Moderna Museet

Alison Norton and Ellen Cronholm

Storage solutions for large format works on paper

Michelle Facini

Developing a preservation programme for modern unframed and unglazed photographic and digital artworks

Àngels Arribas, Keith Morrison and James Berry

Wellcome moves

Caroline Checkley-Scott and Julia Nurse

2-D or not 2-D? - that is the question: the storage and display of rolled wallpapers

Nicola Walker and Christine Woods

Mounting in a tropical climate: preservation, display and storage of the graphic art collection at the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, India

Praveen Kumar Agarwal, Ram Pravesh Savita and Chitta Panda

Overviews and case studies

Conservation mounting at the V&A: an overview of techniques

Clair Battisson, Chris Gingell and Simon Fleury

The display of single-sheet material: two recent exhibitions at the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Andrew Honey

Reproducing decorative mounts

Louise Bradley

A 1960s classic: researching an approach to the treatment of an unstable framed linocut by Edward Bawden

Alice Powell

Housing and storage solutions for four book of hours bi-folios

Jordi Casasayas

Mounting and framing of gouaches by the CoBrA Movement

Piet van Dalen and Jan Stokmans

Oriental and African works

Advantages and disadvantages of the hanging scroll format from a conservation viewpoint

Yasuhiro Oka

Don't throw away the box

Simon Fleury

Wrap and roll or flatten and hinge: approaches to mounting and storage of Chinese art on paper

David Green and Jin Xian Qiu

Mounting fragile Tibetan and Asian material at the British Library: exhibition and storage

Ian Swindale

East meets West: solutions for housing papyri and thangkas

Nicola Lewis

Mounting papyri at the British Museum

Bridget Leach

Mounting of African paintings and scrolls: two case studies on textile and parchment

David Giles and Victoria de Korda

Contributors

• Edited by Judith Rayner
• Edited by Joanna M. Kosek
• Edited by Birthe Christensen