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Election Jacket before conservation
Election Jacket before conservation process. 		Election Jacket after conservation
Election Jacket after conservation process.

 
On arrival, the jacket was soiled and dull looking and felt stiff to the touch. It was preferable to clean it prior to treatment to improve the handle of the silk and to allow a stitching method of support to be carried out. Following the conservator's consultation with us, it was decided that we would go ahead with solvent cleaning of the jacket in spite of its poor condition on the front and sleeves. The conservator felt that it would not be possible to stitch the dirty cracking silk and that an adhesive technique would mean sticking an adhesive coated support to a soiled object.

A light pad of nylon net was prepared for the bodice and one for each sleeve to provide a form for the jacket during cleaning. The whole was wrapped in nylon net and fastened on the front with safety pins to allow easy access if necessary during the cleaning process.

The jacket was cleaned in Perchloroethylene solvent. As the jacket was very fragile, particular attention had to be paid to the agitation it would receive during the cleaning process.

  1. The drum of the dry cleaning machine was filled with solvent to its highest level.
  2. The jacket was placed in the solvent.
  3. With the help of the machine computer we are able to control the agitation. This is called the run pause method - the cage will rotate for 1 second and pause for 5 seconds. This creates a very gentle rocking motion.
  4. A small amount of dry cleaning detergent was added.
  5. After soaking in the solvent for 2 minutes with a run pause every 30 seconds, the jacket was checked.
  6. The jacket was given a second wash using low level solvent being pumped through the filters and into the machine cage and using the same run / pause setting. The length of this process was 2 minutes.
  7. The jacket was then dried at 40°C for 10 minutes.

The jacket was successfully cleaned, and was ready to be passed on for the next stage of the conservation process.

 
Work in progress
Work in progress