July 17, 2023 • 51 mins
Conservation Scientist Prof. Dr. Mandana Barkeshli looks at lacquered bookbindings made by Persian artisans in the 16th to 19th centuries. Persian artisans are known for their contributions to the field of bookbinding, with the lacquered bookbinding technique being one of their notable breakthroughs. This intricate technique involves multiple layers, each with their own materials, methods, and motifs that have been used from the Safavid to Qajar periods.
Professor Barkeshli delves into the details of each layer and explores the various treatments used during manufacture, as well as providing insight into the environmental enemies of the lacquered bookbinding.
Prof. Dr. Mandana Barkeshli is Head of Research and Post Graduate Studies of De’ Institute of Creative Arts and Design UCSI University in Malaysia and Principle Fellow at University of Melbourne. Her current research project is titled, 'Paper Dyes Used in Persian Medieval Manuscripts: Creating a Materials Construction Digital Database'.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
First of all, I would like to thank the Lord, thank you so much and the organiser,
especially my Renita and Julia, for making this happen, this project.
Also, I would like to thank the generous donors which make this project happen and to share with you my lecture today,
(00:29):
which is personal, like a book binding a journey.
Its layers and conservation challenges.
And of course, it's good to be here after five years. The last time I was here, it wasn't to run 2019.
Right. So the time flies so fast.
So this research, which I'm going to share with you, the methodology of the research, was actually based on literary sources,
(00:56):
basically Persian historical medieval treatises, also primary and secondary resources, which is published and then more.
And the main of my focus was in reconstruction of the Persian like or Bookbinding by help of the living traditional artists practices.
(01:22):
The outlines of my talk today is I'm starting with the brief introduction of bookbinding.
I will go through the historical review, a very brief terminology, subject matter and some renowned book binders to introduce to you.
(01:43):
And we move to the material and techniques, which is my main subject today, and the conservation issues and its challenges.
As you all know, the bookbinding has played a vital role in Persian civilisation's art and culture through the history,
(02:06):
from the earliest Islamic era till the period in 19th century, we have seen the significant changes, innovations and improvements in this field.
The lacquer bookbinding technique is just one of the several technical breakthroughs attributed to Persian artisans.
(02:30):
In general, if we would like to actually categorise the book binding in the especially the Persian like a Persian bookbinding, we will see.
There is a two main category is full leather bookbinding and Persian leather bookbinding.
The mainly the full leather bookbinding it's used by goat or sheep is keen on sometimes chagrin and the partial little bookbinding.
(03:01):
Why we say partial leather bookbinding because like, for example, lacquer bookbinding has this pine in leather, so it is partially leather also.
And also cloth and paper with leather is pine also will go to this category, the manuscript which you see here.
(03:21):
It is actually the budget document of Binder's decision,
stating the binding style and material on the central library kept in the Central Library of University of Tehran.
We have a tremendous manuscripts which document it.
What kind of a binding the the bookbinder is deciding and why.
(03:48):
And that is also another category of research which I'm not going through today.
If as a introduction we just mentioned,
I would like to mention a few techniques which involve also in some of the like a Persian Like or Bookbinding, which I show you today.
It's spitting technique, which mainly the leather book binding we call it desire to be or to be there.
(04:13):
Then we have a stamping or burning. We call it salt or suitable filigree, which we call it more rock lacquer in.
Mainly we call it raw honey and textile on paper with the cloth and lettering, which is called Mark Z.
Each of these technique have its own significant office style and motif being used in it,
(04:39):
which also it is a big subject which I'm not going through today.
Today we are discussing about peasant lacquer, bookbinding.
The most important advancement in bookbinding technology, of course, was lacquer bookbinding,
which was economically beneficial by using pasteboard rather than leather.
(05:03):
And in the history of Persian bookbinding, lacquer covers allowed for a wider range of artistic design.
And that was the significance of this technique, which developed quite tremendously fast during 16 to 19 century.
The lacquer technique we know that was known to be introduced to and used in Persia,
(05:29):
not until the Timurid and early Safavid period between 15 to 16 century.
However, lacquer may have been used already in pre-Islamic times,
but we can only begin to reconstruct its history from textual sources and physical evidence during the Islamic period
(05:50):
is studies and archaeological findings in Persia have revealed evidence that Persian painters were using lacquer,
notably not only on Wooden but also on bone and metal artefacts from the early Islamic period.
If you can see it, this image is actually regarding the right side we are at.
(06:12):
I'm showing the robot Sharif Wooden lacquered in, which is in black and red and yellow,
which was excavated and is attributed to the 11/12 century, maybe horizon in Iran.
The earliest lacquer bookbinding was made of leather or parchment that had been heavily chocked and primed for illumination.
(06:39):
Designs on patters were then painted over and the binding were finished with multiple coats of protective varnish.
This is the exterior of a temporary bookbinding of often double most cavalry,
which it is kept in the Uzbekistan Tashkent in Abu Ray, Hungary into this study.
(07:00):
And you can see the lacquer or the paint was over the leather in the earlier time.
The practice of applying paint directly to leather or parchment was known as utili or single layer or an Iraqi.
After the name of the artist Maulana Murat ESFAHANI,
(07:23):
who was one of the common Latin based topics student and invented a technique that served as a formation of his advancement in the later period.
This technique was occasionally used in conjunction with other methods of leather binding,
which I mentioned before, like xabi and soaked or beaten or stamping.
(07:47):
Soon after the pair sport replaced leather as the most popular material.
Scenes at the paint applied onto leather, often flaked off and split.
So this also allowed the production of a range of binding covers in various hues and patterns.
So this is also a one off the Bodleian Library Leather,
(08:12):
which is actually the lacquer was their protective layer was over the leather and you can see the flaking off of the parts.
In cities like Isfahan Enterprise in the 16th and 17th century,
painters notebook binders were responsible for adopting the technique and its development and enormous popularity.
(08:39):
Its peak popularity has during the 1819 century and budget period.
While the leather bookbinding continued to play a prominent role throughout the Ijaw dynasty,
the construction of leather bookbinding gradually decreased.
This is also one of the a beautiful example of the lacquer in the late Safavian early order period in the Islamic Art Museum collection.
(09:07):
Now we move to the terminology, the term bookbinder Slacker, which has been used to describe the lack of Islamic countries,
is applied to both lack of binding and other three dimensional objects.
The binding of these goods, including pen cases, mirror and inspectors, Case and other caskets were made.
(09:28):
This piece of paper added one on top of the other with the outside layer of these sheets being elaborately painted and varnished.
This is called Kieny, like her pen box, which shows the royal audience and is one of the example of the three dimensional lacquered work.
(09:50):
As a terminology. In Persian, we have a different terms for lacquer binding.
We call it jelly roll candy or the binding or gel, the zero, any underlier old binding or Gildersleeve low key lacquer bonder layer binding.
So these are all terms has been used for in different period of time in the lacquer book binding to be addressed.
(10:20):
Now we move to the subject matter. As mentioned,
the lacquered bookbinding technique has advantage for producing a variety of books with various topics objects in multi-colour and design.
The lack of bookbinding, craftsmen and painters were greatly affected by the design and production methods of
(10:40):
miniature painting and illuminated manuscripts when deciding on the team for the production.
This is also one of the beautiful work of art Bookbinding from Islamic Art Museum,
Malaysia and the subject matter, which in general we can categorise them in eight is floral.
(11:03):
We call it Calabar Flower and bucket, collaborative flower and botanical galore more geometric shape animals,
human portrait, marble and cloths, inscription and calligraphy.
And you can see the range of the different subject matter in lacquer bookbinding.
All these through the time of the history. If you do a research, of course we can see some of the motifs have been used more in earlier period,
(11:33):
like Safavi and some in Zand, and Ijaw is more popular in different motifs.
For example, Medallion Goldberg and more is very popular in Safavi period, whereas the Paisley Live,
Arab and Islamic in Haiti and also great cross there are Lily Flower and also Shamar.
(11:55):
You know the figures are very, very popular in the period in late 18th and 19th century.
I show you some of the examples of the beautiful collection of lacquer Bookbinding of Bodleian Library.
The first one in the left is the a nice example of flower on bear gold work.
(12:19):
And in the right side is a Flaubert. I leave Goldbach, which is belonging to 18/19 century.
This is also an example of Flaubert and Bouckaert collaborating and a calligraphic
inscription around the border from the Islamic Art Museum collection.
(12:40):
And Lily Bucket and also Medallion with the lie track and slobber on bird design.
It is also in the right side that you can see from Tehran, Goldston Palace, Library and Museum.
These are also another example of the lack of mining.
(13:03):
This is a beautiful work of Fateh Ali Shah and Nasreddin Shah in 19th century order period from the Islamic Art Museum collection.
And you can see how beautifully it has been depicted, the colour there and what the figures and drawings like a miniature painting.
(13:26):
And as I mentioned, there are human and portraits also was very popular during Bhaijaan period.
And also the animals was sometimes in the part of the story which you can see the example here from Islamic Art Museum collection.
(13:47):
Also Paisley Leaf Medallion and some kind of ivory impression is style in Central Medallion also is the example of that period in jar,
which is quite interesting. And also it is very nicely the design and the motif and structure has been depicted.
(14:15):
Now we move to the renowned lacquer book binding artist.
Iranian book commanders typically avoided using their name and sign on their work.
However, some of the sources and still we can trace the renowned artist, for example,
in Safavi we have an of Iraq or Ali earlier drop it or Kaka which is very very
(14:44):
popular and during the Safavi period and in our period also still we have
a number of the like our bookbinder like Musa by Aboutalebi materials and also of Iraq in the tattoo period also in early time and Mohammad Zaman.
So these are also some of the names. Of course, there are other names which we cannot go to in detail today.
(15:11):
And now we move to the main topic of our subject, which is material and techniques of Persian lacquer bookbinding.
Let's start first with the raw materials. The raw materials.
The first layer is paper board, which we call it boom, or more of law.
(15:34):
The second layer we'd be on, we call it boutonniere, which is primer or filler.
The third is going to be all or the Spirit Varnishes or Rogue on Common or not.
And of course, there are many, many different layers, which I am going to explain each of them with different techniques.
(15:56):
And of course, in the top, the paint dyes and pigments.
And again, Warren is in there over the whole thing.
So if we start with the boom and we'll have what the two different types of board used in the structure of the bookbinding,
either wisely, which is created by layering water, the base paper sheets with adhesive.
(16:23):
And the second technique was called committee pasteboard, which is created by needing pieces of paper or cloth,
and then moulding is made under pressure to give the cardboard texture.
And this is a strength. Both methods involved some adhesive which the main is syringe which enemy roofs a popular
(16:47):
vegetable adhesive to bind the paper layers to reach the appropriate thickness of the pasteboard.
The second layer after you have the paper support, then we have a filler or primer, which is by to name a button.
It is one of the most significant traditional fillers that was utilised for the initial layer in most paste boards and then minerals like Tong.
(17:16):
We like, for example, white clay and chalk are combined with the water based gum or ADC, which mentioned a series.
A white filler known as meal is created.
So in Persian this layer is called milled. So this smell is a combination of the filler and ADC and recent scientific investigation.
(17:43):
It was revealed and found that white calcium sulphate,
sometimes known as a plaster of Paris or gypsum, was employed as a filler and mixture of animal glue.
Right. Silicone and grape syrup was occasionally used in place of series, which was emerus.
So there are you can expect different kind of adhesive to be mixed for there making the mill, making the filler.
(18:14):
Another very important ingredient is oil.
And this spirit launches in Persia, The traditional ingredient used to coat objects with a protective layer was an oil known as Roman.
Come on. Mixture of linseed oil, which we call it in Persian or kind of outside and sun.
The which is we call it sand narrows. The mixture was initially used to coat the bows used in archery and that is archery in Persian is common.
(18:44):
So that is some people actually believe that this name has come because it's derived from the archery protection, which was called Rowhani.
Come on. And Rowhani come on was used in different, as I mentioned before,
also in wood on a different in the bone and even in the metal for different purposes.
(19:11):
Rouhani Come on in Persian historical treatises is very much discussed and the ingredients is proportioned and is manufactured,
is very, very well documented.
Like, for example, double hair number by initial it is in 12th century.
Golisano junior by moon ship will meet in 16th century, all known also bar and casual or year 16 and 19th century.
(19:40):
So the I would like to just show you an example of Poland when I was over there, saw the big offshore talking about how to make raw money.
Come on. Which is the oil used for these lacquer bookbinding beautifully in poetry.
I just recite two couplets, Big a sun that will apart each man is between ship and war, which can be diggy know cannot be conjured on board,
(20:13):
book on batik, done on the ball or the bat on YAF rules or attach a tease Zeppelin duties attached.
My part he's just is very politically as usual that the lot of recipes is in Persian.
It sounds like a love kind of a message.
(20:37):
It is there. So it is a take one man pure sandrich break it with a hammer to the size of hazelnuts.
Take a few pot that can fit all, heat the empty pot over its stove and so on.
So all the details has been recited, has been organised and composed, a beautiful rhyme which they could actually memorise it easily.
(21:03):
So however, all to the use of a and sand roots was reference in early Islamic bookbinding treatises, and both were well known to 15th century artists.
Their creative potential was not fully achieved until much later.
So prior to the 16th century, their primary source appears to have been sun rose or sun rose rather than like.
(21:28):
So if you do analytical work in earlier period, like in Tomb Re or earlier,
even you might find more sun the roots rather than lack in the in these techniques.
And Rouhani. Come on. Or this all spirit is applied on the pasteboard in numerous layers.
(21:50):
You can imagine how many layers. Sometimes it goes 12 layers.
And each layer you'll have to wait for like maybe one month or one and a half months.
So it is a quite tedious process when you want to have a proper, high quality lacquer bookbinding.
(22:16):
Sometimes I've been troubled. Each layer takes a month.
Yes, because. Because each layer needs to dry.
Then another layer, then another layer.
And sometimes, of course, two, three layer may be there, but it has to go.
(22:36):
I will show you the process. It takes quite time to to be a proper lacquer.
So the colourless lacquer, which is colourless, but it is it sometimes they tinted it.
And I will show you some of the example that the lacquer was tinted using both organic dyes and
(23:01):
inorganic pigments to produce a translucent or transparent surface in various colour tones,
such as red and green. Actually,
the recent scientific studies on this with all of our lacquer collection at the Harvard Art Museum have indicated that Cushing oil
is the primary organic dyes organic red found for colouring the colourless lacquer and copper salts are used for the green hue.
(23:32):
So this also is another process for certain techniques, which I'm going to show you later on.
But because I was working with the traditional living artists and of course some of the material is changed mainly Robyn,
come on, is a quite tedious, difficult process to do.
(23:56):
They it was used to do in the outside the village because it was so smelly.
It was it was a firing and all this was quite a difficult process.
So now due to Rowhani, come on, challenging preparation method,
current traditional artist frequently use commercial all varnish that are sold in the market and industrial old one each with their name.
(24:24):
Kupol is one of the popular oil varnish used by modern traditional craftsmen to create lacquer bookbinding.
Another important ingredient is, of course, lack and shellac.
Female like insects secret. A red resin is thick, like from which like dye and the shellac raising are obtained for dyeing.
(24:48):
The colourant is separated from the receipt.
It is then referred to as lac extract, which is red dye extract from the scale insect like if higher lacquer is produced.
So this light might have been used also for tinting the or the raw on come on or in different process.
(25:10):
And shellac which was the regime is also used to make from this product the
teak sticky shellac is then dried into a flat sheet and broken into flakes,
then crushes into a fine powder and mixed with a tide.
Alcohol before used to dissolve the flakes and make liquid shellac.
(25:33):
According to traditional artists in Persian lacquer bookbinding pasteboard,
The final coat on the paint layer is either all of our initial uncommon or a spirit varnish such as shellac.
So both of these media are actually you can expect to be involved in the Persian lacquer bookbinding in different stages and in different layers.
(26:00):
And we move to the dyes and pigment which is used for the painting.
A variety of diverse palettes of natural and synthetic pigments were used by Persian lacquer artists.
Sampler centuries and Sammy later period during the 19th century, with the development of new synthetic pigments in European market,
(26:24):
a natural mineral pigment like lapis lazuli, blue colour and red, and also yellow or demand, for example, traditional synthetic.
Of course, everybody know that is a red led vermillion and led white and the later synthetic pigment
which actually is found based on the some of the scientific analyses is emerald green,
(26:49):
yellow led chromate and composed of copper, arsenic and acetate.
No. Let's move to the different techniques of pasteboard.
So for like a person, like or bookbinding, we have a different type of board, the pasteboard we call it.
(27:11):
So either it could be plain, which is booming Saudi, it could be marsh, which is a market site.
Or it could be golden, which is Tallahassee or Undertone Gold Papali'i.
We call it Zadok, smoking marbles and maybe a lawn painted or with all these technique to be painted.
(27:37):
So let's move each passport and the layer of how it is actually constructed.
White, female or male was prepared from a mixture of white mineral, as I mentioned,
and vegetable garden with water, bass, gum or other seafood such as Irish.
(27:59):
It was make a gesso paste. So gesso was applied on the primary board and after it was dried,
it was polished and burnished with emery or sandpaper to actually come up with a very smooth surface.
(28:19):
After polishing and cleaning the surface layers of all varnish were applied after the layer of oil is dried completely.
It was polished again, if necessary, followed by the application of varnish layer.
So we have a primary board, then we have a varnish, then we have a gesso and then again varnish.
(28:41):
So you will get maybe few layers to reach to that.
Not the Zionist that artists once. There is a very, very well known pasteboard, we call it Marcus, a sparkling pasteboard known as Boom.
(29:01):
And Mark actually is created by applying a layer of fine particles of an iron rich mineral directly over this thick,
a ground layer followed by an oil varnish application.
So we have a plain board, then varnish, then mark as a particle, and then again once.
So these are actually the there is a stone, which actually I have brought the example for the conservation lab.
(29:29):
It is it going to be powdered and then applied, which is this is the picture of the hall.
It looks the mark outside the mark large the stone.
And then when you grind it, it becomes like a sparkling kind of a work, which when you put it on the board and then when you warm the sheet,
(29:53):
it becomes as some kind of a beautiful, beautiful, sparkling nice colour on, on your work.
And then of course you can put a paint on it later. But the background is a marsh.
So contemporary icons refer to the use of Marcus side and period, also known as Fool's Gold,
(30:15):
both with the same same chemical formula of items will fight with different crystal systems.
Analysis of samples from selected lacquer was recently revealed the presence of haematite and iron oxide minerals.
So if you analyse the markers you might find mean the pasteboard which looks like mark.
(30:37):
I might find fool's gold or mark outside spirit.
So you you should expect that in your analysis.
Now we move to the golden pallor. Your passport.
For obtaining golden passport. The sheets of gold were made.
Traditionally, gold metal was beaten between their skin or leather to get a flat fine sheet of gold.
(31:03):
Then warnings such as come on,
oil and shellac or animal glue solution can be applied on the primary plane board to create a sticky surface to apply the gold layer.
Then the gold sheet were applied and smoothened with hand or burnished carefully with agate stone, followed by coat of varnish.
So we have a plane bought here and then oil or spirit.
(31:27):
Roll on, come on. Or like. And then for the gold, sometimes you expect that they use the animal glue and then the gold sheets again the ones.
So in this a Bodleian Library University collection, you can see a beautiful golden pasteboard,
which on the top it has been painted very finely with the high quality work.
(31:55):
Then we have another kind of a pasteboard. We call it Undertone, a gold pathology, which for obtaining this pasteboard,
the same process as the golden pasteboard, was followed after the gold sheet was applied on the dried varnish.
Primary layer tinted varnish was made by adding dyes such as black and other shades of colour,
(32:19):
such as green, blue and red to the varnish and applied on the surface.
So if you look at this beautiful colours, it is actually on top of the gold, which is done by tinted warns.
And again, this is the example of how the pathology looks on the paint over it.
(32:46):
This is sometimes the technique is Meek's with Marcus and Tatler for making Medallion, for example.
So this is a marriage board which they put they would like to have.
For example, the medallion, the gold pattullo medallion.
So the gold was pasted on the page on the board, and then the tinted varnish has been applied over.
(33:15):
Now another passport, which sometimes is confused by marriage because it's quite tricky.
Sometimes if you look you can distinguish is Zarek.
Zarek is a while. A sparkling effect is created by marsh technique with Zarek is smooth, gold background is achieved.
(33:37):
So for obtaining Zarek the golden pasteboard or tallow was quoted and varnish followed by the spreading
gold or brass flakes on the whole surface to obtain a sparkling gold after it was completely dried.
Number of layers of varnish were applied on the surface to seal the metallic layer.
(34:00):
So this is actually the effect which you have a gold layer and then the Zarek ee There could be the gold particles or a lot.
We have seen brass flakes which also give that kind of an effect.
Of course, it will give also the deterioration factors, which that is our concern later.
(34:26):
Another technique is Smokey. Do the.
Four opinion marbled kind of pasteboard.
The primary board was coated with a layer of light shape colours such as oak.
After the boat was completely dry, the common oil was applied over it.
(34:47):
Then, with the use of oil that can create smoke such as cotton, oil, paraffin or wax,
with the help of lamp and funnel that is placed below, the pasteboard designs were made with careful movement.
Finally, the pasteboard was coated with varnish and was led to dry.
So this is the beautiful example of this technique.
(35:11):
And you can see here that smoky or marble or do they call it in Persian is created by this technique.
But then the paint is applied over it.
We have another is paper or marbling for obtaining marble pasteboard mucilage after a garcon or
(35:36):
Katie raw or fenugreek seed to mention barley or rice is starch was obtained and placed in a vat.
Then different desires. Shades of colours were applied to the surface, like the same technique as paper marbling.
The plane pasteboard was placed on the surface to transfer the design.
(35:59):
This is what we did in the workshop, which we had in butter,
and we did actually a technique to to experiment with the pen box and using the marbling technique for this.
And this is the historical lacquer bookbinding of this technique, which the pasteboard was completely after, is dried, the varnish was applied over.
(36:28):
So there you can see the marbling technique here.
And this could be also the varnish on the top layer.
And finally, we have a painted pasteboard.
But there is is some trick and some kind of interesting process.
After the final coat of varnish was applied on the surface of desired pasteboard and it was completely dry the excess of oil.
(36:57):
Because you put oil or the varnish, the excess of oil was removed by a technique called voxel.
So this wash technique is actually using animal grou or silicone to make the surface
ready for the painting and to remove the excess of the oil from the surface.
(37:20):
So this is a very, very trick on the actually to get the good paint on the surface to make sure that there is no oil, excess of oil on the board.
And then, of course, designs were transferred, followed by paint with the brush and layers of varnish over the paint layer.
(37:43):
Design could be transferred from paper to a template in three different thickness by pricking, punting or drawing with freehand.
So all these three technique, as usual, could be used on the top of the either you have a totally,
either you have a marsh or Zadok or whatever the pasteboard you have.
(38:05):
You have this freedom to make the paint, whatever design you would like to have it over.
So that is the beauty of Persian lacquer bookbinding, because you have a freedom to create whatever you imagine.
Now let's go to conservation issues.
(38:27):
Okay. So I hope everybody's still here.
Okay. Yeah, well, as imagine how many layers is involved in the person like or bookbinding from paper support,
primer filler, all on the spirit varnish Metal layers.
(38:53):
If it's Zarek or if it's, you know, Golden Talalay or stone and all spirit varnish again.
And then paint. And then once again.
So you see how many layers is involved in this.
And then, of course, the complexity of these layers means that several different chemical processes may occur at the same time.
(39:23):
So the damages, of course, it could be chemical, physical and biological deterioration.
Natural ageing, light temperature and relative humidity affect a layer of lacquer, bookbinding and cause damages such as separation of layers,
croaking haze, clotting and bloom, physical damage, corrosion of metal, old and improper restoration is always there in any artefacts you will face.
(39:57):
The natural ageing. Several chemical changes may occur at the same time in ageing process of materials that are used in the lacquer technique,
oil and spirit varnishes that were used, namely common oil and shellac, will create a film on the surface differently and of course quite differently.
(40:19):
Also, the ACT, the total result of these changes will increase in solubility and in brittle element of the coating resin.
All if it has been used goes through oxidation process exposed to air, causing the molecular chain to cross-linked and for shellac.
(40:41):
The mixture of lack and spirit goes through the process of volatile ization, so that actually make a lot of challenges in the layer.
This is the one or two examples of the University of Oxford Bodleian Library Collection, which natural ageing has occurred,
(41:04):
and of course the light have also a very big effect on the deterioration increase the rest of the oxidation and cause discolouration,
accelerate the process of different chemical changes in the materials due to photo expedition oxidation resulting.
The polymerisation. Also UV exposure may cause the breaking of the molecular chains, colour change and non reversible discolouration and yellowing.
(41:34):
This is another example of Persian lacquer bookbinding charred army which has faced the very serious light damage in this work.
Another issue is, of course, temperature and relative humidity cause tension.
(41:55):
And just so part the layer of gesso used in the filter and primarily layer is a mixture of water based material,
whereas the oil and the spirit varnish use as coating have some resistance to water.
However, the water soluble glue enlarges or does not.
So when the one layer is water soluble and another layer it rises on the water, it make pension and flaking.
(42:22):
So water penetrating through the surface will soften the glue, causing the surface to lift and simply flake off.
This is some of the example of separation of paint, a layer of magnified AJA Persian lacquer, bookbinding and the separation of layer.
(42:43):
When these two surfaces move at different rates,
it eventually causes the layer of separation occurs due to the tear active interface between the coating and the substrate.
So this is also a good example that you can see the different layers in the deterioration factor.
(43:04):
You can see the different layers are flaking off layer by layer.
This is also another example of beautiful works of Bodleian Library Collection with the flaking issue.
And this is also another and actually you can see there are some kind of a metal sparkling here.
(43:31):
Might be. We have to go to a more closer. It is seen that it might you you sometimes you can see even the layer of metal in the in the work.
Another very, very big issue is haze, clothing and blue, cloudy appearance of oil.
(43:51):
And the spirit vanishes due to water absorption. Opaqueness of surface layer due to moisture,
condensation from dust attraction bloom caused by oil varnishes that are not
completely dried during the varnish application repeated in several stages.
Permanent blue caused by condensation trapped within the water niche due to sudden cooling during the application of a new varnish.
(44:21):
Hayes is caused by the lamination due to the application of inappropriate varnish over the original and the aerospace between the layers.
And also Claudia appearance on the surface due to network of extreme find cracks.
To just answer your question about why did they wait so long for each layer?
(44:45):
Because of this, sometimes the application of the work so fast.
Different layer to put different layer over layer. You may compromise a lot in this later that the deterioration factors which accelerate quite a lot.
(45:07):
This is an example of some issues with cracks,
stress caused by different rates of expansion and contraction between two layers
due to a continuous cycle of high and low humidity caused cracks in failure.
Quality and technique of paint application also can face cracks.
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The difference between pigment particles and their absorption in the binding medium during drying also could cause the cracks.
Use of LED light as the ground layer.
Also, it is another issue that might face the kind of a crack because of the nature of the light, while by itself.
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Premature drying of the paint and varnish layer and ageing and the loss of flexibility
of the paint and varnish layer due to drying oxidation and polymerisation.
This the left side here, you can see the cracks in border due to the pigment particles and their absorption in the binding medium during drawing.
(46:18):
This is the example of use of late white cause.
The cracking and fine curved crafts due to premature drawing of the paint on varnish can cause this type of cracks.
So each crack has its own story with a different kind of a pattern in the cracks.
(46:40):
Of course, physical damages, pressure, transportation, improper storage can make compromise the the quality.
And then in the in the wrong long run you may lose some of this pine or pressure
and so many different kind of a deterioration based on improper storage
(47:04):
like this is some of the works of each physical damage can be seen in the in
their work and one of the most important is deterioration of associated metal.
Of course, if you use the gold sheets on gold powder, pure gold flakes, you don't face that issue.
(47:26):
But if you replace it with brass or tin or other metals, then the, for example, in your period after other metals have been used.
But insofar sapphire, it is more into the pure gold.
So we see some of the corrosion of the metal in the in the different period because of the using of brass and other materials.
(47:52):
So this is then magnified of showing brass flakes in the zodiac pasteboard.
Do you remember the zodiac, which we use the particles of gold or brass?
And here you can see some of the, you know, corrosion of the metal here and there, which of course, that is because of the the metal layer.
(48:17):
And old improper restoration.
And sometimes you can see and you get so annoyed, you know, just put the tape on the like your bookbinding is is so, you know,
sad and some improper inappropriate coating during the conservation in the earlier period or some using kind of inappropriate female for example.
(48:49):
So these are the the some conservation issues which you might face in the old an improper restoration.
Let's move to the my conclusion. Our study shows the commitment of contemporary bookbinding artists to the traditional way of the masters.
Techniques have been enhanced and new materials have been mindfully adopted while the old ways have been preserved.
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Persian Lacquer. Bookbinding has a complex structure with multilayer components that face different conservation issues,
and it needs a total knowledge of the material technology of each layer to make the right decision to their preservation.
To share the knowledge of understanding the layers of Persian lacquer, bookbinding and its conservation challenges.
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We did some workshops and conducted in different institutions, museums and libraries.
This is during 2019, when we had a workshop on Persian Lacquer Bookbinding with the living artist Mr. Dr. Hamid Maliki,
on which we could actually go to the different pasteboard and reconstructed by the
(50:03):
staff of the library to see what is the different technique and its challenges.
This project, I would like to acknowledge, was made possible thanks to the generosity of donors and sincere thanks to Dr. Hamid Mallikarjun,
an expert living traditional Iranian artist and concentrator for sharing his knowledge and his
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contribution to this project and active participation on the organisation of the workshops.
And there are different bibliographies which I have been use.
Actually, this is going to be published soon if anybody's interested.
And I would like to end my presentation with a beautiful poetry from this earlier Salafi, which he is in our 19th century.
(51:01):
Say it was say I say you do Sophia Hosseini with a beautiful couplet, a whole treatises is poetry and how to make the different mind is amazing.
So one of them,
which I love it is saying that before it become oral that are power which are let Bosch will make one jump it after bringing together all heart,
(51:25):
all the scattered pages, be like a book that binds the disparate pages.
Thank you very much and open to any question.
Lisa.
First of all, I would like to thank the Lord, thank you so much and the organiser,
especially my Renita and Julia, for making this happen, this project.
Also, I would like to thank the generous donors which make this project happen and to share with you my lecture today,
(00:29):
which is personal, like a book binding a journey.
Its layers and conservation challenges.
And of course, it's good to be here after five years. The last time I was here, it wasn't to run 2019.
Right. So the time flies so fast.
So this research, which I'm going to share with you, the methodology of the research, was actually based on literary sources,
(00:56):
basically Persian historical medieval treatises, also primary and secondary resources, which is published and then more.
And the main of my focus was in reconstruction of the Persian like or Bookbinding by help of the living traditional artists practices.
(01:22):
The outlines of my talk today is I'm starting with the brief introduction of bookbinding.
I will go through the historical review, a very brief terminology, subject matter and some renowned book binders to introduce to you.
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And we move to the material and techniques, which is my main subject today, and the conservation issues and its challenges.
As you all know, the bookbinding has played a vital role in Persian civilisation's art and culture through the history,
(02:06):
from the earliest Islamic era till the period in 19th century, we have seen the significant changes, innovations and improvements in this field.
The lacquer bookbinding technique is just one of the several technical breakthroughs attributed to Persian artisans.
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In general, if we would like to actually categorise the book binding in the especially the Persian like a Persian bookbinding, we will see.
There is a two main category is full leather bookbinding and Persian leather bookbinding.
The mainly the full leather bookbinding it's used by goat or sheep is keen on sometimes chagrin and the partial little bookbinding.
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Why we say partial leather bookbinding because like, for example, lacquer bookbinding has this pine in leather, so it is partially leather also.
And also cloth and paper with leather is pine also will go to this category, the manuscript which you see here.
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It is actually the budget document of Binder's decision,
stating the binding style and material on the central library kept in the Central Library of University of Tehran.
We have a tremendous manuscripts which document it.
What kind of a binding the the bookbinder is deciding and why.
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And that is also another category of research which I'm not going through today.
If as a introduction we just mentioned,
I would like to mention a few techniques which involve also in some of the like a Persian Like or Bookbinding, which I show you today.
It's spitting technique, which mainly the leather book binding we call it desire to be or to be there.
(04:13):
Then we have a stamping or burning. We call it salt or suitable filigree, which we call it more rock lacquer in.
Mainly we call it raw honey and textile on paper with the cloth and lettering, which is called Mark Z.
Each of these technique have its own significant office style and motif being used in it,
(04:39):
which also it is a big subject which I'm not going through today.
Today we are discussing about peasant lacquer, bookbinding.
The most important advancement in bookbinding technology, of course, was lacquer bookbinding,
which was economically beneficial by using pasteboard rather than leather.
(05:03):
And in the history of Persian bookbinding, lacquer covers allowed for a wider range of artistic design.
And that was the significance of this technique, which developed quite tremendously fast during 16 to 19 century.
The lacquer technique we know that was known to be introduced to and used in Persia,
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not until the Timurid and early Safavid period between 15 to 16 century.
However, lacquer may have been used already in pre-Islamic times,
but we can only begin to reconstruct its history from textual sources and physical evidence during the Islamic period
(05:50):
is studies and archaeological findings in Persia have revealed evidence that Persian painters were using lacquer,
notably not only on Wooden but also on bone and metal artefacts from the early Islamic period.
If you can see it, this image is actually regarding the right side we are at.
(06:12):
I'm showing the robot Sharif Wooden lacquered in, which is in black and red and yellow,
which was excavated and is attributed to the 11/12 century, maybe horizon in Iran.
The earliest lacquer bookbinding was made of leather or parchment that had been heavily chocked and primed for illumination.
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Designs on patters were then painted over and the binding were finished with multiple coats of protective varnish.
This is the exterior of a temporary bookbinding of often double most cavalry,
which it is kept in the Uzbekistan Tashkent in Abu Ray, Hungary into this study.
(07:00):
And you can see the lacquer or the paint was over the leather in the earlier time.
The practice of applying paint directly to leather or parchment was known as utili or single layer or an Iraqi.
After the name of the artist Maulana Murat ESFAHANI,
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who was one of the common Latin based topics student and invented a technique that served as a formation of his advancement in the later period.
This technique was occasionally used in conjunction with other methods of leather binding,
which I mentioned before, like xabi and soaked or beaten or stamping.
(07:47):
Soon after the pair sport replaced leather as the most popular material.
Scenes at the paint applied onto leather, often flaked off and split.
So this also allowed the production of a range of binding covers in various hues and patterns.
So this is also a one off the Bodleian Library Leather,
(08:12):
which is actually the lacquer was their protective layer was over the leather and you can see the flaking off of the parts.
In cities like Isfahan Enterprise in the 16th and 17th century,
painters notebook binders were responsible for adopting the technique and its development and enormous popularity.
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Its peak popularity has during the 1819 century and budget period.
While the leather bookbinding continued to play a prominent role throughout the Ijaw dynasty,
the construction of leather bookbinding gradually decreased.
This is also one of the a beautiful example of the lacquer in the late Safavian early order period in the Islamic Art Museum collection.
(09:07):
Now we move to the terminology, the term bookbinder Slacker, which has been used to describe the lack of Islamic countries,
is applied to both lack of binding and other three dimensional objects.
The binding of these goods, including pen cases, mirror and inspectors, Case and other caskets were made.
(09:28):
This piece of paper added one on top of the other with the outside layer of these sheets being elaborately painted and varnished.
This is called Kieny, like her pen box, which shows the royal audience and is one of the example of the three dimensional lacquered work.
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As a terminology. In Persian, we have a different terms for lacquer binding.
We call it jelly roll candy or the binding or gel, the zero, any underlier old binding or Gildersleeve low key lacquer bonder layer binding.
So these are all terms has been used for in different period of time in the lacquer book binding to be addressed.
(10:20):
Now we move to the subject matter. As mentioned,
the lacquered bookbinding technique has advantage for producing a variety of books with various topics objects in multi-colour and design.
The lack of bookbinding, craftsmen and painters were greatly affected by the design and production methods of
(10:40):
miniature painting and illuminated manuscripts when deciding on the team for the production.
This is also one of the beautiful work of art Bookbinding from Islamic Art Museum,
Malaysia and the subject matter, which in general we can categorise them in eight is floral.
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We call it Calabar Flower and bucket, collaborative flower and botanical galore more geometric shape animals,
human portrait, marble and cloths, inscription and calligraphy.
And you can see the range of the different subject matter in lacquer bookbinding.
All these through the time of the history. If you do a research, of course we can see some of the motifs have been used more in earlier period,
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like Safavi and some in Zand, and Ijaw is more popular in different motifs.
For example, Medallion Goldberg and more is very popular in Safavi period, whereas the Paisley Live,
Arab and Islamic in Haiti and also great cross there are Lily Flower and also Shamar.
(11:55):
You know the figures are very, very popular in the period in late 18th and 19th century.
I show you some of the examples of the beautiful collection of lacquer Bookbinding of Bodleian Library.
The first one in the left is the a nice example of flower on bear gold work.
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And in the right side is a Flaubert. I leave Goldbach, which is belonging to 18/19 century.
This is also an example of Flaubert and Bouckaert collaborating and a calligraphic
inscription around the border from the Islamic Art Museum collection.
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And Lily Bucket and also Medallion with the lie track and slobber on bird design.
It is also in the right side that you can see from Tehran, Goldston Palace, Library and Museum.
These are also another example of the lack of mining.
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This is a beautiful work of Fateh Ali Shah and Nasreddin Shah in 19th century order period from the Islamic Art Museum collection.
And you can see how beautifully it has been depicted, the colour there and what the figures and drawings like a miniature painting.
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And as I mentioned, there are human and portraits also was very popular during Bhaijaan period.
And also the animals was sometimes in the part of the story which you can see the example here from Islamic Art Museum collection.
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Also Paisley Leaf Medallion and some kind of ivory impression is style in Central Medallion also is the example of that period in jar,
which is quite interesting. And also it is very nicely the design and the motif and structure has been depicted.
(14:15):
Now we move to the renowned lacquer book binding artist.
Iranian book commanders typically avoided using their name and sign on their work.
However, some of the sources and still we can trace the renowned artist, for example,
in Safavi we have an of Iraq or Ali earlier drop it or Kaka which is very very
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popular and during the Safavi period and in our period also still we have
a number of the like our bookbinder like Musa by Aboutalebi materials and also of Iraq in the tattoo period also in early time and Mohammad Zaman.
So these are also some of the names. Of course, there are other names which we cannot go to in detail today.
(15:11):
And now we move to the main topic of our subject, which is material and techniques of Persian lacquer bookbinding.
Let's start first with the raw materials. The raw materials.
The first layer is paper board, which we call it boom, or more of law.
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The second layer we'd be on, we call it boutonniere, which is primer or filler.
The third is going to be all or the Spirit Varnishes or Rogue on Common or not.
And of course, there are many, many different layers, which I am going to explain each of them with different techniques.
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And of course, in the top, the paint dyes and pigments.
And again, Warren is in there over the whole thing.
So if we start with the boom and we'll have what the two different types of board used in the structure of the bookbinding,
either wisely, which is created by layering water, the base paper sheets with adhesive.
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And the second technique was called committee pasteboard, which is created by needing pieces of paper or cloth,
and then moulding is made under pressure to give the cardboard texture.
And this is a strength. Both methods involved some adhesive which the main is syringe which enemy roofs a popular
(16:47):
vegetable adhesive to bind the paper layers to reach the appropriate thickness of the pasteboard.
The second layer after you have the paper support, then we have a filler or primer, which is by to name a button.
It is one of the most significant traditional fillers that was utilised for the initial layer in most paste boards and then minerals like Tong.
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We like, for example, white clay and chalk are combined with the water based gum or ADC, which mentioned a series.
A white filler known as meal is created.
So in Persian this layer is called milled. So this smell is a combination of the filler and ADC and recent scientific investigation.
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It was revealed and found that white calcium sulphate,
sometimes known as a plaster of Paris or gypsum, was employed as a filler and mixture of animal glue.
Right. Silicone and grape syrup was occasionally used in place of series, which was emerus.
So there are you can expect different kind of adhesive to be mixed for there making the mill, making the filler.
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Another very important ingredient is oil.
And this spirit launches in Persia, The traditional ingredient used to coat objects with a protective layer was an oil known as Roman.
Come on. Mixture of linseed oil, which we call it in Persian or kind of outside and sun.
The which is we call it sand narrows. The mixture was initially used to coat the bows used in archery and that is archery in Persian is common.
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So that is some people actually believe that this name has come because it's derived from the archery protection, which was called Rowhani.
Come on. And Rowhani come on was used in different, as I mentioned before,
also in wood on a different in the bone and even in the metal for different purposes.
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Rouhani Come on in Persian historical treatises is very much discussed and the ingredients is proportioned and is manufactured,
is very, very well documented.
Like, for example, double hair number by initial it is in 12th century.
Golisano junior by moon ship will meet in 16th century, all known also bar and casual or year 16 and 19th century.
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So the I would like to just show you an example of Poland when I was over there, saw the big offshore talking about how to make raw money.
Come on. Which is the oil used for these lacquer bookbinding beautifully in poetry.
I just recite two couplets, Big a sun that will apart each man is between ship and war, which can be diggy know cannot be conjured on board,
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book on batik, done on the ball or the bat on YAF rules or attach a tease Zeppelin duties attached.
My part he's just is very politically as usual that the lot of recipes is in Persian.
It sounds like a love kind of a message.
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It is there. So it is a take one man pure sandrich break it with a hammer to the size of hazelnuts.
Take a few pot that can fit all, heat the empty pot over its stove and so on.
So all the details has been recited, has been organised and composed, a beautiful rhyme which they could actually memorise it easily.
(21:03):
So however, all to the use of a and sand roots was reference in early Islamic bookbinding treatises, and both were well known to 15th century artists.
Their creative potential was not fully achieved until much later.
So prior to the 16th century, their primary source appears to have been sun rose or sun rose rather than like.
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So if you do analytical work in earlier period, like in Tomb Re or earlier,
even you might find more sun the roots rather than lack in the in these techniques.
And Rouhani. Come on. Or this all spirit is applied on the pasteboard in numerous layers.
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You can imagine how many layers. Sometimes it goes 12 layers.
And each layer you'll have to wait for like maybe one month or one and a half months.
So it is a quite tedious process when you want to have a proper, high quality lacquer bookbinding.
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Sometimes I've been troubled. Each layer takes a month.
Yes, because. Because each layer needs to dry.
Then another layer, then another layer.
And sometimes, of course, two, three layer may be there, but it has to go.
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I will show you the process. It takes quite time to to be a proper lacquer.
So the colourless lacquer, which is colourless, but it is it sometimes they tinted it.
And I will show you some of the example that the lacquer was tinted using both organic dyes and
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inorganic pigments to produce a translucent or transparent surface in various colour tones,
such as red and green. Actually,
the recent scientific studies on this with all of our lacquer collection at the Harvard Art Museum have indicated that Cushing oil
is the primary organic dyes organic red found for colouring the colourless lacquer and copper salts are used for the green hue.
(23:32):
So this also is another process for certain techniques, which I'm going to show you later on.
But because I was working with the traditional living artists and of course some of the material is changed mainly Robyn,
come on, is a quite tedious, difficult process to do.
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They it was used to do in the outside the village because it was so smelly.
It was it was a firing and all this was quite a difficult process.
So now due to Rowhani, come on, challenging preparation method,
current traditional artist frequently use commercial all varnish that are sold in the market and industrial old one each with their name.
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Kupol is one of the popular oil varnish used by modern traditional craftsmen to create lacquer bookbinding.
Another important ingredient is, of course, lack and shellac.
Female like insects secret. A red resin is thick, like from which like dye and the shellac raising are obtained for dyeing.
(24:48):
The colourant is separated from the receipt.
It is then referred to as lac extract, which is red dye extract from the scale insect like if higher lacquer is produced.
So this light might have been used also for tinting the or the raw on come on or in different process.
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And shellac which was the regime is also used to make from this product the
teak sticky shellac is then dried into a flat sheet and broken into flakes,
then crushes into a fine powder and mixed with a tide.
Alcohol before used to dissolve the flakes and make liquid shellac.
(25:33):
According to traditional artists in Persian lacquer bookbinding pasteboard,
The final coat on the paint layer is either all of our initial uncommon or a spirit varnish such as shellac.
So both of these media are actually you can expect to be involved in the Persian lacquer bookbinding in different stages and in different layers.
(26:00):
And we move to the dyes and pigment which is used for the painting.
A variety of diverse palettes of natural and synthetic pigments were used by Persian lacquer artists.
Sampler centuries and Sammy later period during the 19th century, with the development of new synthetic pigments in European market,
(26:24):
a natural mineral pigment like lapis lazuli, blue colour and red, and also yellow or demand, for example, traditional synthetic.
Of course, everybody know that is a red led vermillion and led white and the later synthetic pigment
which actually is found based on the some of the scientific analyses is emerald green,
(26:49):
yellow led chromate and composed of copper, arsenic and acetate.
No. Let's move to the different techniques of pasteboard.
So for like a person, like or bookbinding, we have a different type of board, the pasteboard we call it.
(27:11):
So either it could be plain, which is booming Saudi, it could be marsh, which is a market site.
Or it could be golden, which is Tallahassee or Undertone Gold Papali'i.
We call it Zadok, smoking marbles and maybe a lawn painted or with all these technique to be painted.
(27:37):
So let's move each passport and the layer of how it is actually constructed.
White, female or male was prepared from a mixture of white mineral, as I mentioned,
and vegetable garden with water, bass, gum or other seafood such as Irish.
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It was make a gesso paste. So gesso was applied on the primary board and after it was dried,
it was polished and burnished with emery or sandpaper to actually come up with a very smooth surface.
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After polishing and cleaning the surface layers of all varnish were applied after the layer of oil is dried completely.
It was polished again, if necessary, followed by the application of varnish layer.
So we have a primary board, then we have a varnish, then we have a gesso and then again varnish.
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So you will get maybe few layers to reach to that.
Not the Zionist that artists once. There is a very, very well known pasteboard, we call it Marcus, a sparkling pasteboard known as Boom.
(29:01):
And Mark actually is created by applying a layer of fine particles of an iron rich mineral directly over this thick,
a ground layer followed by an oil varnish application.
So we have a plain board, then varnish, then mark as a particle, and then again once.
So these are actually the there is a stone, which actually I have brought the example for the conservation lab.
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It is it going to be powdered and then applied, which is this is the picture of the hall.
It looks the mark outside the mark large the stone.
And then when you grind it, it becomes like a sparkling kind of a work, which when you put it on the board and then when you warm the sheet,
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it becomes as some kind of a beautiful, beautiful, sparkling nice colour on, on your work.
And then of course you can put a paint on it later. But the background is a marsh.
So contemporary icons refer to the use of Marcus side and period, also known as Fool's Gold,
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both with the same same chemical formula of items will fight with different crystal systems.
Analysis of samples from selected lacquer was recently revealed the presence of haematite and iron oxide minerals.
So if you analyse the markers you might find mean the pasteboard which looks like mark.
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I might find fool's gold or mark outside spirit.
So you you should expect that in your analysis.
Now we move to the golden pallor. Your passport.
For obtaining golden passport. The sheets of gold were made.
Traditionally, gold metal was beaten between their skin or leather to get a flat fine sheet of gold.
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Then warnings such as come on,
oil and shellac or animal glue solution can be applied on the primary plane board to create a sticky surface to apply the gold layer.
Then the gold sheet were applied and smoothened with hand or burnished carefully with agate stone, followed by coat of varnish.
So we have a plane bought here and then oil or spirit.
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Roll on, come on. Or like. And then for the gold, sometimes you expect that they use the animal glue and then the gold sheets again the ones.
So in this a Bodleian Library University collection, you can see a beautiful golden pasteboard,
which on the top it has been painted very finely with the high quality work.
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Then we have another kind of a pasteboard. We call it Undertone, a gold pathology, which for obtaining this pasteboard,
the same process as the golden pasteboard, was followed after the gold sheet was applied on the dried varnish.
Primary layer tinted varnish was made by adding dyes such as black and other shades of colour,
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such as green, blue and red to the varnish and applied on the surface.
So if you look at this beautiful colours, it is actually on top of the gold, which is done by tinted warns.
And again, this is the example of how the pathology looks on the paint over it.
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This is sometimes the technique is Meek's with Marcus and Tatler for making Medallion, for example.
So this is a marriage board which they put they would like to have.
For example, the medallion, the gold pattullo medallion.
So the gold was pasted on the page on the board, and then the tinted varnish has been applied over.
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Now another passport, which sometimes is confused by marriage because it's quite tricky.
Sometimes if you look you can distinguish is Zarek.
Zarek is a while. A sparkling effect is created by marsh technique with Zarek is smooth, gold background is achieved.
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So for obtaining Zarek the golden pasteboard or tallow was quoted and varnish followed by the spreading
gold or brass flakes on the whole surface to obtain a sparkling gold after it was completely dried.
Number of layers of varnish were applied on the surface to seal the metallic layer.
(34:00):
So this is actually the effect which you have a gold layer and then the Zarek ee There could be the gold particles or a lot.
We have seen brass flakes which also give that kind of an effect.
Of course, it will give also the deterioration factors, which that is our concern later.
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Another technique is Smokey. Do the.
Four opinion marbled kind of pasteboard.
The primary board was coated with a layer of light shape colours such as oak.
After the boat was completely dry, the common oil was applied over it.
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Then, with the use of oil that can create smoke such as cotton, oil, paraffin or wax,
with the help of lamp and funnel that is placed below, the pasteboard designs were made with careful movement.
Finally, the pasteboard was coated with varnish and was led to dry.
So this is the beautiful example of this technique.
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And you can see here that smoky or marble or do they call it in Persian is created by this technique.
But then the paint is applied over it.
We have another is paper or marbling for obtaining marble pasteboard mucilage after a garcon or
(35:36):
Katie raw or fenugreek seed to mention barley or rice is starch was obtained and placed in a vat.
Then different desires. Shades of colours were applied to the surface, like the same technique as paper marbling.
The plane pasteboard was placed on the surface to transfer the design.
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This is what we did in the workshop, which we had in butter,
and we did actually a technique to to experiment with the pen box and using the marbling technique for this.
And this is the historical lacquer bookbinding of this technique, which the pasteboard was completely after, is dried, the varnish was applied over.
(36:28):
So there you can see the marbling technique here.
And this could be also the varnish on the top layer.
And finally, we have a painted pasteboard.
But there is is some trick and some kind of interesting process.
After the final coat of varnish was applied on the surface of desired pasteboard and it was completely dry the excess of oil.
(36:57):
Because you put oil or the varnish, the excess of oil was removed by a technique called voxel.
So this wash technique is actually using animal grou or silicone to make the surface
ready for the painting and to remove the excess of the oil from the surface.
(37:20):
So this is a very, very trick on the actually to get the good paint on the surface to make sure that there is no oil, excess of oil on the board.
And then, of course, designs were transferred, followed by paint with the brush and layers of varnish over the paint layer.
(37:43):
Design could be transferred from paper to a template in three different thickness by pricking, punting or drawing with freehand.
So all these three technique, as usual, could be used on the top of the either you have a totally,
either you have a marsh or Zadok or whatever the pasteboard you have.
(38:05):
You have this freedom to make the paint, whatever design you would like to have it over.
So that is the beauty of Persian lacquer bookbinding, because you have a freedom to create whatever you imagine.
Now let's go to conservation issues.
(38:27):
Okay. So I hope everybody's still here.
Okay. Yeah, well, as imagine how many layers is involved in the person like or bookbinding from paper support,
primer filler, all on the spirit varnish Metal layers.
(38:53):
If it's Zarek or if it's, you know, Golden Talalay or stone and all spirit varnish again.
And then paint. And then once again.
So you see how many layers is involved in this.
And then, of course, the complexity of these layers means that several different chemical processes may occur at the same time.
(39:23):
So the damages, of course, it could be chemical, physical and biological deterioration.
Natural ageing, light temperature and relative humidity affect a layer of lacquer, bookbinding and cause damages such as separation of layers,
croaking haze, clotting and bloom, physical damage, corrosion of metal, old and improper restoration is always there in any artefacts you will face.
(39:57):
The natural ageing. Several chemical changes may occur at the same time in ageing process of materials that are used in the lacquer technique,
oil and spirit varnishes that were used, namely common oil and shellac, will create a film on the surface differently and of course quite differently.
(40:19):
Also, the ACT, the total result of these changes will increase in solubility and in brittle element of the coating resin.
All if it has been used goes through oxidation process exposed to air, causing the molecular chain to cross-linked and for shellac.
(40:41):
The mixture of lack and spirit goes through the process of volatile ization, so that actually make a lot of challenges in the layer.
This is the one or two examples of the University of Oxford Bodleian Library Collection, which natural ageing has occurred,
(41:04):
and of course the light have also a very big effect on the deterioration increase the rest of the oxidation and cause discolouration,
accelerate the process of different chemical changes in the materials due to photo expedition oxidation resulting.
The polymerisation. Also UV exposure may cause the breaking of the molecular chains, colour change and non reversible discolouration and yellowing.
(41:34):
This is another example of Persian lacquer bookbinding charred army which has faced the very serious light damage in this work.
Another issue is, of course, temperature and relative humidity cause tension.
(41:55):
And just so part the layer of gesso used in the filter and primarily layer is a mixture of water based material,
whereas the oil and the spirit varnish use as coating have some resistance to water.
However, the water soluble glue enlarges or does not.
So when the one layer is water soluble and another layer it rises on the water, it make pension and flaking.
(42:22):
So water penetrating through the surface will soften the glue, causing the surface to lift and simply flake off.
This is some of the example of separation of paint, a layer of magnified AJA Persian lacquer, bookbinding and the separation of layer.
(42:43):
When these two surfaces move at different rates,
it eventually causes the layer of separation occurs due to the tear active interface between the coating and the substrate.
So this is also a good example that you can see the different layers in the deterioration factor.
(43:04):
You can see the different layers are flaking off layer by layer.
This is also another example of beautiful works of Bodleian Library Collection with the flaking issue.
And this is also another and actually you can see there are some kind of a metal sparkling here.
(43:31):
Might be. We have to go to a more closer. It is seen that it might you you sometimes you can see even the layer of metal in the in the work.
Another very, very big issue is haze, clothing and blue, cloudy appearance of oil.
(43:51):
And the spirit vanishes due to water absorption. Opaqueness of surface layer due to moisture,
condensation from dust attraction bloom caused by oil varnishes that are not
completely dried during the varnish application repeated in several stages.
Permanent blue caused by condensation trapped within the water niche due to sudden cooling during the application of a new varnish.
(44:21):
Hayes is caused by the lamination due to the application of inappropriate varnish over the original and the aerospace between the layers.
And also Claudia appearance on the surface due to network of extreme find cracks.
To just answer your question about why did they wait so long for each layer?
(44:45):
Because of this, sometimes the application of the work so fast.
Different layer to put different layer over layer. You may compromise a lot in this later that the deterioration factors which accelerate quite a lot.
(45:07):
This is an example of some issues with cracks,
stress caused by different rates of expansion and contraction between two layers
due to a continuous cycle of high and low humidity caused cracks in failure.
Quality and technique of paint application also can face cracks.
(45:28):
The difference between pigment particles and their absorption in the binding medium during drying also could cause the cracks.
Use of LED light as the ground layer.
Also, it is another issue that might face the kind of a crack because of the nature of the light, while by itself.
(45:52):
Premature drying of the paint and varnish layer and ageing and the loss of flexibility
of the paint and varnish layer due to drying oxidation and polymerisation.
This the left side here, you can see the cracks in border due to the pigment particles and their absorption in the binding medium during drawing.
(46:18):
This is the example of use of late white cause.
The cracking and fine curved crafts due to premature drawing of the paint on varnish can cause this type of cracks.
So each crack has its own story with a different kind of a pattern in the cracks.
(46:40):
Of course, physical damages, pressure, transportation, improper storage can make compromise the the quality.
And then in the in the wrong long run you may lose some of this pine or pressure
and so many different kind of a deterioration based on improper storage
(47:04):
like this is some of the works of each physical damage can be seen in the in
their work and one of the most important is deterioration of associated metal.
Of course, if you use the gold sheets on gold powder, pure gold flakes, you don't face that issue.
(47:26):
But if you replace it with brass or tin or other metals, then the, for example, in your period after other metals have been used.
But insofar sapphire, it is more into the pure gold.
So we see some of the corrosion of the metal in the in the different period because of the using of brass and other materials.
(47:52):
So this is then magnified of showing brass flakes in the zodiac pasteboard.
Do you remember the zodiac, which we use the particles of gold or brass?
And here you can see some of the, you know, corrosion of the metal here and there, which of course, that is because of the the metal layer.
(48:17):
And old improper restoration.
And sometimes you can see and you get so annoyed, you know, just put the tape on the like your bookbinding is is so, you know,
sad and some improper inappropriate coating during the conservation in the earlier period or some using kind of inappropriate female for example.
(48:49):
So these are the the some conservation issues which you might face in the old an improper restoration.
Let's move to the my conclusion. Our study shows the commitment of contemporary bookbinding artists to the traditional way of the masters.
Techniques have been enhanced and new materials have been mindfully adopted while the old ways have been preserved.
(49:16):
Persian Lacquer. Bookbinding has a complex structure with multilayer components that face different conservation issues,
and it needs a total knowledge of the material technology of each layer to make the right decision to their preservation.
To share the knowledge of understanding the layers of Persian lacquer, bookbinding and its conservation challenges.
(49:40):
We did some workshops and conducted in different institutions, museums and libraries.
This is during 2019, when we had a workshop on Persian Lacquer Bookbinding with the living artist Mr. Dr. Hamid Maliki,
on which we could actually go to the different pasteboard and reconstructed by the
(50:03):
staff of the library to see what is the different technique and its challenges.
This project, I would like to acknowledge, was made possible thanks to the generosity of donors and sincere thanks to Dr. Hamid Mallikarjun,
an expert living traditional Iranian artist and concentrator for sharing his knowledge and his
(50:29):
contribution to this project and active participation on the organisation of the workshops.
And there are different bibliographies which I have been use.
Actually, this is going to be published soon if anybody's interested.
And I would like to end my presentation with a beautiful poetry from this earlier Salafi, which he is in our 19th century.
(51:01):
Say it was say I say you do Sophia Hosseini with a beautiful couplet, a whole treatises is poetry and how to make the different mind is amazing.
So one of them,
which I love it is saying that before it become oral that are power which are let Bosch will make one jump it after bringing together all heart,
(51:25):
all the scattered pages, be like a book that binds the disparate pages.
Thank you very much and open to any question.
Lisa.
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