Project

Thorough study of aqueous and solvent interactions in the cleaning of Asian lacquer

Code
12I07817W
Duration
15 January 2017 → 31 March 2022
Funding
Federal funding: various
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Inorganic chemistry
    • Organic chemistry
    • Theoretical and computational chemistry
    • Other chemical sciences
Keywords
solvent interactions Asian lacquer
 
Project description

This research project focuses on the scientific study of the interacties of cleaning solvents with the lacquer surface in order to formulate "best practices" for cleaning Asian lacquers. The emphasis is put upon possible changes in chemical as well as physical aspects of the lacquer through solvent and aqueous cleaning. There will be special attention to the lacquer collection of the RMAH (estimated at 250 pieces), evaluating the current condition of the lacquerware and proposing "best practises" for safe cleaning and hence long-term preservation. To elucidate the solvent/lacquer interactions chemical analyses will be carried out at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK/IRPA) and Ghent University (UGent), applying mainly complimentary chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques. Based on a thorough inventory of the Asian lacquer collection of the RMAH, some objects actually stored in the reserves, will be cleaned using solvents which are - based on the outcome of the chemical research- proven to be safe en effective.