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Fine Art, Alphonse Mucha, theatrical poster of Sarah Bernhardt in Hamlet, 1899. Poster came in framed and mounted to a linen substrate with a cardboard backing. There were numerous hairline cracks running through the image, predominately around the top half of the figure and two areas of major paper loss. In addition, a varnish had been applied to the whole poster. |
| Poster was demounted by stripping the cardboard off in layers. The poster was then washed and rinsed. A hollytex facing with isinglass gelatin was applied to the front of the poster and it was soft mounted face down on a melamine board so that the linen substrate could be removed.
After the poster was temporarily mounted to the board and the linen was removed, it developed air bubbles in the center of the image and several areas of the border began to lift off of the hollytex facing. Liquid gelatin was reapplied. Due to the varnish, this second application did not evenly penetrate the poster. We were not able to stop the lifting of the poster from the facing with this measure. We successfully redid the facing the next day.
After the poster had dried it was remounted to a Masa substrate and linen backing. The varnish was then removed using acetone.
The poster was then sent to prep where the holes were mitered in using vintage paper and the cracks were filled using colored microfill. These areas were then restored using airbrush and water color paints and pencils. |
| To view the detailed procedures performed along with progress photos, please follow this link to our blog:
http://postermountain.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-mucha-masterpiece-at-poster-mountain.html
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