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Copyright of Journal of the Institute of Conservation is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Restaurator is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Maria Bohusz (1950–1996), a Polish paper conservator and teacher of conservation, who lived and worked in Paris for the Central Laboratory of the Service de Restauration des Musées de France, based at Versailles. She was an inspiration to me in the pursuit of the study of pastels, and, more importantly, she was a friend. Summary This paper looks at the emergence and development of pastel as a recognized artists' technique in its own right in the second part of the Eighteenth Century. The novelty of these pastels was their softness, which offered artists a swifter and more economical medium to obtain the painterly effects previously limited to oil painting. New extenders and binding media were employed in pastel production, and the growing demand for high-quality soft sticks was undoubtedly responsible for the broad range of artists' materials which was soon advocated in contemporary painting manuals. The trade in pastels responded quickly to the demands of artists who were competing to satisfy the popular demand for private portraiture. The particular predilection for pastel at this period is only explained by the favourable aesthetic context of rococo painting. The colours which were popular in textiles, interior decoration, and art were bright and lively, and white and ‘pastel’ hues were particularly fashionable. The finish then in vogue was matt and opaque, and the texture of pastels was ideal to depict the notorious eighteenth-century cosmetic make-up. In its heyday, the status of pastel paintings seems to have matched that of oils, and one finds that oils strove to achieve effects which were natural to pastels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper is an empirical assessment of two methods of inlaying drawings, with the aim of assisting conservators in the selection of mounting methods for the collection of drawings at The British Museum. The first method tested was the traditional bevelled inlay and the second the more recently adopted ‘strip’ method. A set of samples inlaid using each of the two methods were subjected to changing levels of relative humidity and observed for (i) overall cockling; (ii) curvature; and (iii) bulging distortion along the join between the inlay and the drawing. The results of the tests seem to indicate that the strip method is preferable to the traditional method, particularly in the case of thinner drawing papers. The overall extent of cockling on all samples seemed to depend on the hygroexpansive properties of the papers and the adhesive selected for the join. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]