Summary

Irina Bakaeva is a specialist in conservation and restoration of works of art and documents on paper and parchments. She completed the Institute for Petrochemical Industry in 1986, and since 1994 she works in the State Restoration Research Institute in Moscow, Russia. Her skills include care and conservation of all kinds of prints, particularly prints colored by hand, maps and documents and aslo drawings by pencil, gauche and ink.

She restored more than forty graphical works from the collections of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, State Historical Museum, Russian State Library, Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents, Library of Moscow State University, Museum of Reconstruction of Moscow and the Pushkin Literary Museum. She participated in a number of exhibitions.

Irina Bakaeva is certified as a restorer of graphic art, her license has been extended in 1999 (by the Russian regulations, such licenses need to be confirmed once every four years).

The photos below present a few typical examples of her work.

 

Drawings

The landscape done by pencil on paper. -- Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898); private collection. Size: 16.2x27.8 cm. The figures below demonstrate the restoration of the front side of the drawing. The restoration had been completed in November 1997.

The paper was very thick, brittle and could eventually rupture. Strong general yellowishness, dirtiness, and deformations of the paper base. Small brown color paint stains present all over the surface, greasy stains in the lower left corner, insect excreta, a brown stain in the lower part of the drawing caused by a damp stain, transparent drops of the same color all over the surface.

Multiple losses over the drawing edges and corners. The dark-brown ink writing at the lower part of canvas were damaged and disfigured, its central part was lost.

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Before restoration

After restoration

The restoration works consisted in the following:

  1. Dry-cleaning of the surface to remove dust, accidental point marks etc.
  2. Fixing ink.
  3. Removal of the yellowishness.
  4. Treating some stains with chemical reagents.
  5. Washing of the surface.
  6. Repairing the tears and losses.
  7. Drying and flattening.
  8. Toning.

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Prints

The print on Angel-Guard on a fabric paper. -- N. Covally from the painting by Piedro Novelli (1730-1822) ; private collection.

The paper was greasy and deformed. General yellowishness. Multiple colored stains caused by damp stains, including a big one, in a shade of green, in the upper right corner. The paper was attacked by the green, pink, blue and black mold.

Multiple big and small tears were present all over the surface. Horizontal ruptures of the paper base in the central part of the print across its width.

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Before restoration

After restoration

The content and sequence of the restoration works:

  1. Dry mechanical surface cleaning.
  2. Removal of the yellowishness and desinfection.
  3. Treating some stains with chemical reagents with subsequent whitening.
  4. Washing.
  5. Repairing the tears and ruptures, fixing the edges.
  6. Drying and flattening.
  7. Toning.

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Parchments

The five parchment fragments were extracted from the spine of German book printed around 1430 (this date is mentioned in the text). The manuscript is narrow stripes of velvety West-Euoropean parchment of white-grayish color with text along the stripes. The stripe lengths vary from 5 to 9 mm, and the widths from 261 to 267 mm. The text was written in ink of green shade which left noticeable marks on the back sides of the parchments. After matching of the fragments two dark vertical lines were visible on the backs. These parchment stripes protected the spine of paper notepads comprising a printed book, which is evidenced by the typical slits although no glue marks were found. The stripes contained logically consecutive fragments of text and therefore it was necessary to match the fragments into a single whole. The parchments had slight surface dirtying, small slits and all fragments were slightly warped but in general the parchments were in good physical conditions.

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Before restoration: front

Before restoration: back

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After restoration: front

After restoration: back

The content and sequence of the restoration works:

  1. Dust removal using a cotton wool tampon.
  2. Working the back sides with a scalpel and soft white eraser.
  3. Degreasing the edges of adherend surfaces with a cotton wool tampon moistened with ethyl alcohol.
  4. Gluing using the 5% solution of polyvinilbutiral in ethyl alcohol.
  5. Drying and fixing in a light press between two clothes.
  6. Straightening using the remote dampening techniques.
  7. Pressing the fragments to stabilize the parchment base.
  8. Making a special file to store the fragments after the restoration.