Conservation skills : judgement, method and decision making /

This especially valuable, clearly written, and well-documented overview considers major cognitive issues that confront conservators of historic and artistic works. In this essential treatise written from a British museum perspective, Caple (Archaeological Conservation and Archaeological Sciences, Univ. of Durham) describes the nature of object conservation from the basics (adhesives, insect pests, cleaning, stabilization, and preventive measures) to scientific analyses to determine fakes and forgeries (gas chromatography and radiography), but emphasizes ethics and decision-making. The book has 14 chapters, 13 case studies, 40 figures, a 368-item bibliography, and a 10-page conflated proper noun and topical index. There are chapters on perception and judgment, why the past should be preserved, the history and nature of conservation, ethical codes and stewardship, data recording, cleaning, stabilization, restoration, preventive conservation, risk assessment, and decision making and co nservators' responsibilities. Superb examples range from Paleolithic cave art to cathedral mosaics, shrunken heads to Spitfire aircraft, and the Statue of Liberty to the Portland Vase. Caple's volume is a logical companion to A Conservation Manual for the Field Archaeologist (3rd ed., 1994) by Catherine Sease. Students through professionals. C. C. Kolb National Endowment for the Humanities