Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/162

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136
THE MUSEUM

kunde, vol. Ill, p. 205. Jules Guiffrey, La Conservation et la Réparation des Tapisseries, L'Art, vol. LX, pt. 2, 1901, p. 341.) The Gobelins method is a bath of running cold water, but while the dyes used in making the old tapestries were marvellous, yet by this process a small amount of color is unquestionably lost. A much safer method is the use of bread crumbs and a soft brush. This is long and laborious but safer than the above. Certain up-to-date directors have tried to use a vacuum cleaner, but where they have done so it has been found that the friction and the pull of a strong cleaner took away small particles of the wool of the tapestry itself. The safest way is to use a hand machine. A cheese-cloth placed over the face of the tapestry will bear the friction and yet be open enough in weave to allow the dust particles to pass through. These same processes may be used for the care of brocades, velvets and other textiles.

Banners or flags that are in a delicate condition may be shown with safety if mounted between two layers of cotton net such as is used in ladies' dresses. The degree of decrepitude will indicate the quality of net to be used. The coarser the mesh the less prominently it will show. A very important and very badly worn flag can be mounted between layers of fine, thin chiffon. This