Can an inkwell leak into ink?
- X-ray fluorescence analysis, due to its non-destructive nature and ist suitability to work with historic objects in situ, quickly became one of the most important methods for the evaluation of iron-gall ink. The main advantage of this qualitative and semi-quantitative method is that it makes it easy to differentiate between inks, based on the assumption that the differences result from the manufacture of the ink.
This work explores the question whether the ink ‘fingerprint’ results strictly from the elemental composition of the basic ink ingredients even if it is stored in vessels made of metals or metal alloys. In addition, we tested and compared the performance of three different XRF spectrometers.
We prepared various lab-grade inks according to historical ink recipes and measured the metal content of the ink deposited on sized cotton Linters paper with three types of XRF spectrometers: a simple hand-held device with an interaction spot of 4 mm and two devices equipped withX-ray fluorescence analysis, due to its non-destructive nature and ist suitability to work with historic objects in situ, quickly became one of the most important methods for the evaluation of iron-gall ink. The main advantage of this qualitative and semi-quantitative method is that it makes it easy to differentiate between inks, based on the assumption that the differences result from the manufacture of the ink.
This work explores the question whether the ink ‘fingerprint’ results strictly from the elemental composition of the basic ink ingredients even if it is stored in vessels made of metals or metal alloys. In addition, we tested and compared the performance of three different XRF spectrometers.
We prepared various lab-grade inks according to historical ink recipes and measured the metal content of the ink deposited on sized cotton Linters paper with three types of XRF spectrometers: a simple hand-held device with an interaction spot of 4 mm and two devices equipped with poly-capillary Xray optics for line scanning and imaging. Since the exact elemental mass composition of the non-aged ink samples was known, we were able to evaluate the accuracy of the research procedure. Lab-grade inks were then aged in the metal jars imitating inkwells. The aging of the inks in the metal containers resulted in the significant change of the primary inks fingerprint as opposed to that of the control inks stored in glass containers. This effect was independently confirmed by the measurements conducted with every instrument we used. We will present a brief comparison of the results 43 achieved when using different spectrometers and a possible hypothesis explaining the processes that occurred.…
Autor*innen: | Grzegorz Nehring |
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Weitere Person: | P. Targowski, Ira Rabin |
Dokumenttyp: | Vortrag |
Veröffentlichungsform: | Präsentation |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Jahr der Erstveröffentlichung: | 2018 |
Organisationseinheit der BAM: | 4 Material und Umwelt |
4 Material und Umwelt / 4.5 Kunst- und Kulturgutanalyse | |
DDC-Klassifikation: | Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / Chemie / Analytische Chemie |
Freie Schlagwörter: | Ink composition; Inkwells; Iron-gall ink; Performance comparison; XRF |
Themenfelder/Aktivitätsfelder der BAM: | Chemie und Prozesstechnik |
Veranstaltung: | Konferenz -7th Meeting X-ray and other techniques in investigations of the objects of cultural heritage |
Veranstaltungsort: | Krakow, Poland |
Beginndatum der Veranstaltung: | 17.05.2018 |
Enddatum der Veranstaltung: | 19.05.2018 |
Verfügbarkeit des Dokuments: | Datei im Netzwerk der BAM verfügbar ("Closed Access") |
Datum der Freischaltung: | 01.10.2019 |
Referierte Publikation: | Nein |
Eingeladener Vortrag: | Nein |