Investigation and Conservation of Burnt Albumen Prints: The Bauduin Collection at the Rijksmuseum

ABSTRACT

Antoon Bauduin (1820–1885) was a doctor and amateur photographer who lived in Nagasaki between 1862 and 1870. With his brother Albert (1829–1890), he collected prints by other photographers that depict the locations they travelled to in Asia. In 2016, descendants of the Bauduin brothers donated 121 albumen prints from that period, which were partially damaged by a fire in the 1980s, to the Rijksmuseum. In 2017, for her bachelor’s thesis in conservation, Elisa Carl researched a practical method to render the burnt albumen prints safe for handling. In preparation for the exhibition Early Photographs of Japan in 2022, the collection was treated and is now accessible to the public in the Rijksmuseum’s reading room. This paper discusses the research and experiments necessary to develop the conservation treatment of these burnt photographs. It also demonstrates the potential of Macro X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) scanning in recovering pictorial information from charred photographs.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Antoon Bauduin (1820-1885) war Arzt und Amateurfotograf und lebte zwischen 1862 und 1870 in Nagasaki. Gemeinsam mit seinem Bruder Albert (1829-1890) sammelte er auch Fotografien anderer Fotografen von Orten, die sie beide in Asien bereist hatten. Im Jahr 2016 gelangten im Zuge einer Schenkung durch Nachfahren der Brüder Bauduin 121 Albuminpapiere, die aufgrund eines Brandes in den 1980er Jahren teilweise beschädigt waren, an das Rijksmuseum. Im Rahmen ihrer Bachelorarbeit im Jahr 2017 im Fach Konservierung suchte Elisa Carl nach einer Methode, um diese Fotografien sicher zu hantieren. In Vorbereitung der Ausstellung Early Photographs of Japan im Jahr 2022 wurde die Sammlung restauriert und ist nun im Lesesaal des Rijksmuseums öffentlich zugänglich. In diesem Beitrag werden die wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen und Experimente erörtert, die für die Restaurierung der verbrannten Fotografien erforderlich waren. Außerdem wird das Potenzial der Makro-Röntgenfluoreszenzanalyse (Makro-RFA) für die Wiederherstellung von Bildinformationen aus verkohlten Fotografien aufgezeigt.

KEYWORDS:

• Albumen prints
• fire damage
• burnt photographs
• consolidation
• macro-XRF

SCHLÜSSELWÖRTER:

• Albuminpapier
• Brandschaden
• verbrannte Fotografien
• Konsolidierung
• Makro-RFA

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank:

• University of Applied Sciences Berlin (HTW-Berlin)

• Nagasaki University Library

• Rijksmuseum, especially Idelette van Leeuwen, Dionysia Christoforou and the other colleagues from the Paper & Photographs Conservation Department, Hans Rooseboom, Giulia de Vivo, and former employees and interns, including Clara Tomasini, Judith van der Brugge-Mulder, Kayleigh Kunst-van der Gulik, Natasha Kung and Stephanie Diaz

• BrinkmanKuiper Art Handling & Exhibition Support B.V., especially Diaz Kleefstra

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Suppliers

• Baker Hughes Co., 2001 Rankin Road, Houston, TX 77073, USA, www.bakerhughes.com (X-ray device Seifert ERESCO DP453, X-ray tube: 280 MF)

• Baker Hughes Co., 2001 Rankin Road, Houston, TX 77073, USA, www.bakerhughes.com (X-ray device Seifert ERESCO DP453, X-ray tube: 280 MF)

• Balteau NDT SA, 12 Rue Voie de Liège, 4681 Hermalle-sous-Argenteau, Belgium, www.balteau-ndt.com (X-ray device Baltomatic X-ray system with generator Baltograph XSD160/4KW with X-ray tube Baltograph TSD100/0 and Control Unit Baltograph LS1)

• BELO Restaurierungsgeräte GmbH, Wiesenstraße 14, 79585 Steinen, Germany, www.belo-restauro.de (vacuum table chamber: BELO UT P bel. 150/114)

• Bruker Co., 40 Manning Road, Billerica, MA 01821, USA, www.bruker.com (XRF unit used in 2017: ARTAX µ-XRF spectrometer)

• Bruker Co., 40 Manning Road, Billerica, MA 01821, USA, www.bruker.com (MA-XRF unit used in 2022: Bruker M6)

• Fujifilm Manufacturing Europe BV, Oudenstaart 1, 5047TK Tilburg, The Netherlands, www.fujifilm.com (gelatine: FujiFilm sample 3, alkaline treatment, Type B, 7.0 mPas)

• GMW, Wilhelm LEO’s Nachfolger GmbH, Kasseler Str. 84b, 34246 Vellmar, Germany, www.gmw-shop.de (wheat starch: Shofu, Isinglass)

• HBM Machines, Louis Dobbelmannsweg 12, 2742 Waddinxveen, Netherlands, [email protected] (Airbrush compressor)

• Hiromi Paper Inc., 9469 Jefferson Blvd Suite 117, Culver City, CA, 90232, USA, www.hiromipaper.com (Japanese papers)

• Jansen-Wijsmuller & Beuns BV, Veerdijk 44, 1531MS Wormer, The Netherlands, www.jwb.nl (PAT-certified cardboard; Evacon-R™, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer emulsion; TST nonwoven polyester fleece)

• Kremer Pigmente GmbH & Co. KG, Hauptstr. 41-47, 88317 Aichstetten, Germany, www.kremer-pigmente.com (Aquazol^® 200; ethanol, min. 99.8%; isopropanol, 98-100%; Klucel^® G: hydroxypropylcellulose 300 mPas)

• Opus Instruments Ltd, New Road, Norwich NR9 3LZ, United Kingdom, www.opusinstruments.com (IRR camera Osiris A 1 152x152, with InGaAs array sensor)

• Schott AG, Hattenbergstr. 10, 55122 Mainz, Germany, www.schott-ceran.com (Schott Ceran heating plate CK111)

• Zentrum für Bucherhaltung GmbH, Mommenstraße 7, 04329 Leipzig, Germany, www.zfb.com (ultrasonic mister: Aerosol Generator AGS 2000)

Notes

1 The Nagasaki University Library collection can be viewed online (Nagasaki University Library, 2008).

2 All solutions described in this paper were mixed weight·weight, and the water used for all solutions was demineralised.

3 This is a standard conservation procedure, and its detailed description is therefore beyond the scope of this paper. Further details can be provided by contacting the authors.

4 PAT – Photographic Activity Test, ISO 18916 (Venosa & Burge, 2015).

5 Osiris A1 152 × 152 infrared camera, with InGaAs (Indium gallium arsenide) array sensor; operation wavelength 0.9–1.7 μm; 150 mm lens, aperture f 16, distance between camera and object: 75 cm.

6 Measurements were taken close to the object.

7 Device operated with a Mo anode, set to 50 kV and 400 mA.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elisa Carl

Elisa Carl is currently working as a conservator at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in Berlin, after being there as a research assistant in advanced training in conservation for two years. Her focus is on building the infrastructure for the conservation of the Nationalgalerie’s time-based media art collection. Elisa studied conservation and restoration with the specialization ‘Audiovisual and Photographic Heritage’ at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin. She connected her BA thesis with an internship at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2017. Subsequently, she completed an MA degree in conservation and restoration with the specialization ‘Modern Materials and Media’ at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern.

Rosina Herrera Garrido

Rosina Herrera Garrido studied art history and paper conservation in Madrid. From 2002 to 2005, she worked at the General Archive of the Administration and the Natural History Museum, both in Madrid. In 2005, Rosina moved to Rochester, NY, to take part in the fourth cycle of the Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation at the George Eastman Museum and the Image Permanence Institute. She was then an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art in New York for three years. From 2014 to 2023, she worked as a conservator of photographs at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, combining her job with research and teaching. Currently, she resides in Valencia, from where she continues to develop her professional career.

Martin Jürgens

Martin Jürgens is a conservator of photographs at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Prior to moving to the Netherlands, he ran a conservation practice in Hamburg. He studied photography and design in Germany in the 1990s, then participated in the Certificate Program in Photographic Preservation at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. He received an MS from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MA in Conservation from Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. His areas of research and publishing and his teaching have covered historical and contemporary photography and digital printing. Following a scholarship at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, in 2006, the Getty Conservation Institute published his book The Digital Print. Identification and Preservation in 2009. Martin is currently a part-time PhD candidate at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK.

Lénia Oliveira Fernandes

Lénia Oliveira Fernandes obtained her MA in Conservation and Restoration from NOVA School of Science and Technology in Caparica, Portugal, in 2008, specializing in photographs. Her thesis was connected to an internship at the Image Permanence Institute in Rochester, NY, and the development of the GraphicsAtlas.org platform. She is currently researching colour slide film in Portuguese collections for her PhD at NOVA University Lisbon. From 2014 to 2022 she worked at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, and she has also worked at institutions such as the Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln and the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft in Berlin, as well as the Arquivo e Biblioteca da Madeira. She is a member of APOYOnline – Association for Heritage Preservation of the Americas and has been an Assistant Group Coordinator of the ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group since 2019.

Magdalena Pilko

Magdalena Pilko is a conservator of photographs at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. She holds an MSc degree and a Professional Doctorate (PD) in photograph conservation, both from the University of Amsterdam. Prior to this, she completed a BA in photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. After her studies she worked for the project Collection Knowledge 2.0 by the Dutch Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (SBMK), focusing on the identification, terminology, and preventive conservation of contemporary photographic materials.