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Restoration
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Causes of decay and methods of intervention
Only in the last thirty years has the issue of preservation of seals attracted adequate attention to the need to protect a vast, but often neglected, cultural heritage.
Seals are artefacts with two inseparable parts – the matrix that impresses an image, and the impression a matrix creates – that can be found in museums, libraries or archives.
Restoration and conservation of seals is made even more complex by the variegated nature of the materials used to construct them.
Seals can contain various materials. They can be made of metal (papal bulls), wax, sealing wax, paper and gold, the cords attaching them to documents are generally made of textiles, and their protective skippets are made of tin, wood and brass.
Therefore, it is evident that a monothematic restoration approach for such items can cause, and has caused, more harm than good.
Today, new horizons have been opened in the conservation of seals. Modern technologies offer multiple possibilities of conservative intervention to arrest the causes of decay by adopting suitable materials, recreating the missing parts and joining up the fragments. Moreover, the introduction of a far-reaching policy to improve environmental storage conditions can achieve excellent results.
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