Conservation and restoration of plastic objects

Plastic household items

Conservation and restoration of objects made from plastics is an activity dedicated to the preservation and protection of objects of historical and personal value made from plastics. When applied to cultural heritage this activity is generally undertaken by a conservator-restorer.

Objects made from plastics were created mostly for artistic, technical, and domestic uses. The act of conservation and restoration strives to prevent and slow the deterioration of the object as well as protecting the object for future use.

Further reading

• Shashoua,J.Conservation of Plastics,London 2008.
• Keneghan,B.;Egan,L.(Eds.)Plastics: Looking at the Future and Learning from the Past,London 2008.
• Quye,A.;Williamson,C.(Eds.)Plastics: Collecting and Conserving,Edinburgh 1999.
• Shashoua, Y & Ward, C. (1995) "Plastics: Modern Resins with Ageing Problems" SSCR Resins: Ancient and Modern, pp. 33–37.
• Shashoua, Y (1996) "A Passive Approach to the Conservation of Polyvinyl Chloride" in ICOM-Modern Materials Working Group: 961-966.
• Winsor, P. (1999) "Conservation of Plastics Collections", MGC Fact Sheets: September 1999. Museums and Galleries Commission: London
• Young, L. & Young, A (2001) "The Preservation, Storage and Display of Spacesuits", Collections Care Report Number 5, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Washington, DC.
• Blank, S (1990) "An Introduction to Plastics and Rubbers in Collections", Studies in Conservation 35 (1990): 53-63.
• Martuscelli,E. 'The chemistry of degradation and conservation of plastic artefacts' , Florence 2010.
• Martuscelli,E. 'Degradation and preservation of artefacts in synthetic plastics' , Florence 2012.

Links

• POPART: an international collaborative research project about the preservation of plastic artefacts in museums
• Conservation of plastics
• Safe Handling of Plastics in a Museum Environment
• Deutsches Kunsstoff Museum
• Dokumentation Restaurierung einer Celluloseacetat-Tasche
• PlArt museo
• Conservation of rubber
• THE CONSERVATION OF A PLASTIC MASK BY MARISOL
• Care of plastics:Malignant Plastics
• Los plásticos en el arte y el diseño hasta 1945: historia, tecnología, conservación e identificación
• Care of Objects Made from Rubber and Plastic
• Martuscelli,E. The chemistry of degradation and conservation of plastic artefacts
• Martuscelli,E. Degradation and preservation of artefacts in synthetic plastics