First Aid for Art

"When disaster strikes, the first few hours are critical to saving art, artifacts, and important objects. This handbook, written by highly regarded professional museum conservators, outlines procedures and techniques to help improve the chances of rescuing artworks, photographs, books, memorabilia, textiles, and furniture from catastrophic damage. Although not a manual on formal art conservation, this handbook will help you to organize material, time, and tasks, and to make decisions when triage is the only option. Presented with graphic clarity, this hand publication will provide welcome guidance to nonspecialists and professionals alike. Treatments are organized into twelve chapters, each dealing with a particular medium. Pared to the essentials, the chapters begin with an introduction about the properties and treatment of common materials. This is followed by a description of what to anticipate and how to determine immediate and deferred action. Suggestions for stabilizing materials until professional assistance is available are outlined. Concluding each chapter is a brief list of supplies. The book includes an appendix of professional resources."--BOOK JACKET.