Central & Southern Europe with the Mediterranean Sea 

Identification and bibliographical details

Title/descriptive signifier: No.7: Central & Southern Europe with the Mediterranean sea 

Artist: Not known

Date of work: 1864

Technique: black ink-printed 

Dimensions (mm):  499 (w) x 382 (h) (Landscape)

Composite materials: light-weight machine-made woven paper 

Provenance: City and Guilds of London Art School Archive

Historical context and details of research:

This map of Europe and the Mediterranean highlights the growing network of transportation routes, such as railroads and improved roads, across the continent.

It includes three locations that are particularly important geopolitically in the world. The Mouth of the River Schelte appears in the upper right, and the Road of Odessa on the lower left shows the railroad to the Ukrainian port on the Black Sea. The Valetta on the island of Malta is described in detail.

The map was published by Longman & Co in London, and engraved by Sydney Hall. 

Description

This is a map of central and southern Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, rectangular in shape, and has a maximum approximate size of 499 x 382 (mm). The material is a lightweight machine-made white paper.

Condition

The substrate is very thin and in pretty fragile condition, and it was folded, which caused four big (150mm) vertical tears along the folded edges. There is a previous conservation attempt along the tear lines with Japanese paper, but most of them have fallen off. All the edges are chipped, cracked, discoloured, and many are lost. The bottom part of the print is folded and wrinkled, which caused more cracks and loss. Half of the left edge is trimmed from the bottom. There is a vertical discoloration on the right margin of the print. The year “1864” is written in pencil on the left top corner. 

Treatment description

1. Dry surface cleaning 

The print has been dry-cleaned using a soft Japanese brush and a smoke sponge to remove loose surface dirt. This was done very gently to avoid creating more tears.

2. Wet surface cleaning

The object was humidified to introduce moisture and flatten the paper by spraying the recto with distilled water. This enabled smoothing out the creases without force on the right corner of the object. 

Then the print was immersed in warm water supported by a blotter to reduce soluble deterioration products and flatten it before the lining process. 

After washing, the object was pressed overnight. 

3. Lining

The Japanese paper was placed on the wooden board, and its surface was humidified by spraying clean distilled water. The gum tape was then adhered along the edges to hold the paper as it dries. Wait until it fully dries. 

The surface of the object was placed on polythene (face down) and sprayed gently. It helped hold the object on the polythene sheet. Then, the verso of the object was pasted out on the polythene. 

Polythene was placed on stretched tengujo paper and carefully rolled up from the right corner to separate the object and the polythene sheet. The print was positioned very carefully because there were large tears. 

When the paper is placed on the lining paper, leave it until it completely dries. Next, the lined print was separated from the wooden board by trimming the edges. 

4. Toning & Infills 

First, Tengujo paper was colour-matched to the object with watercolour.  Then, the loss was infilled with toned Tengujo paper. 

5. Trimming 

The extra margin of the lining paper was cut off. 

After Photo-documentation

Requirements/ future recommendations

The print should be mounted on museum boards or stored in the Melinex pocket for safe storage and display. The print should be kept away from direct sunlight to prevent fading or discolouration. The relative humidity should be between 45-55% RH.