Leather Pouch with Glass Vials

Object

We’re having a throwback blog this week to look in more detail at an object that’s been on display in the department for about a year. The object in question is a leather pouch with a number of glass vials and is from Beamish museum, an amazing ‘living’ museum in the north of England. We get  a lot of weird and wonderful objects from Beamish and they’re always a favourite of the students when it comes to the Conservation Practice module over the summer. A number of them also go out on display so if you keep a look out you might see some of the objects featured on our blog around the Beamish site!

This particular leather pouch is possibly made of fish skin rather than mammalian skin as there is a distinct lack of hair follicles on the surface. Within the pouch are a number of glass vials each with a, once liquid, substance in them. Comparative examples and the paper list found inside the pouch, indicate that these vials are filled with a variety of varnishes, which would possibly have been used to show prospective customers the range of varnishes on offer.

Although it isn’t known exactly where the pouch and vials came from, it could be that they were from a local company making coach varnish. It wasn’t unusual for salesmen to have samples of products and to show them to customers and prospective buyers; this is something that is still seen today though not nearly as widespread as it once was.

Condition

• Discolouration of the paper notecard as well as dryness and fragility around the edges.
• Dirt and dust on the surface of the leather.
• Evidence of mould growth on the leather.
• Evidence of insect attack on the leather and cork stoppers.
• Surface dirt on the glass vials.
• Corrosion of the metal clasp.

Conservation

As there were signs of an insect infestation the leather pouch was wrapped and placed into a freezer for two weeks to ensure no insects remained alive. This would ensure that there was no further damage to the leather pouch, no other objects would become infested and the infestation would not return to the museum.

Once the pouch was removed from the freezer the mould on the surface needed to be treated in order to prevent further deterioration and to protect visitors as mould spores can be inhaled and cause illness. The pouch and its contents were first vacuumed in order to remove large surface deposits of mould and dirt, this then allowed for leather, paper and glass vials to be treated more accurately.

• The leather was sprayed with a mixture of solvents designed to kill mould spores.
• The paper was treated using cotton swabs and a slightly different solvent mixture in order to kill the mould spores without damaging the paper.
• The glass vials were swabbed using a pure solvent to treat the mould spores.

After testing a variety of dry cleaning methods on aged newspaper, the notepaper and ink were surface cleaned using vinyl eraser as this proved most effective at removing surface dirt without damaging the writing. Although the leather had been vacuumed and treated using solvent there was still evidence of ingrained dirt on the surface. To remove this a combination of smoke sponge and vinyl eraser were used and the leather looked noticeably cleaner on completion.

The metal clasp showed some signs of discolouration and corrosion, which needed to be removed in order to allow the clasp to function correctly. The metal was surface cleaned using cotton wool swabs and an appropriate solvent before being treated with a mild abrasive in order to remove the corrosion. Finally the metal was consolidated in order to help prevent corrosion in the future.

As well as surface dirt and mould growth the leather pouch had suffered some shrinkage, likely due to environmental changes during storage. In order to re-adhere the flaps and physically stabilise the pouch the leather required humidification to assist with reshaping. A ‘sandwich’ of Sympatex, acid free tissue and aluminium foil was placed around the leather and then an ultrasonic humidifier was used to dampen the leather. It was then dried under pressure to ensure it would dry flat. All areas of loss were strengthened and supported by adhering Japanese tissue in strips, which were then colour matched in order to minimise their obtrusiveness.