Paper Splitting: History and Modern Technology

Abstract

In the 19th century, restorers used paper splitting to separate recto and verso of double-sided prints or drawings. Today, the treatment is employed for strengthening weakened paper. Two German conservation centers are chiefly responsible for the development of the process to its current level of sophistication: over the course of more than 30 years, Günter Müller at the Thuringian University and State Library at Jena perfected manual paper splitting; over the same time period, Wolfgang Wächter, now at the Zentrum für Bucherhaltung in Leipzig, developed the paper-splitting machine. We outline the history of paper splitting and describe the contemporary processes from firsthand observations and interviews with the conservators at Jena and Leipzig. Technical evaluations of contemporary paper splitting are summarized, and some observations on objects that were split for the authors are documented (a 19th-century newspaper page, a 17th-century document written in iron gall ink, 17th-century book leaves). A short guide to the identification of papers that may have historically undergone splitting is provided. A bibliography can be found under “Web-accessible Projects“ at www.buffalostate.edu/~artcon/.

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