Goodman, Liz; Saunders, Jill; (2013) Medieval textile sleeve: Discovery, conservation and treatment assessment. In: Wet Organic Archaeological Materials 2013. Proceedings of the 12th ICOM-CC Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Conference, Istanbul 2013. (pp. pp. 323-326). International Council of Museums, Committee for Conservation (ICOM-CC): Istanbul, Turkey.

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Abstract

Two pieces of a rare example of a medieval sleeve were discovered during the conservation of hundreds of textile fragments from a Thames riverside revetment site: Three Quays House (TEQ10). Many items including the sleeve pieces were crumpled and covered in a black tarry deposit, perhaps pitch, indicating a secondary use as caulking material. The sleeve consisted of woollen twill outer, a linen tabby-woven lining and twelve fabric-covered buttons attached with thread. The survival of linen in the archaeological record for London is rare, with only a few fragments present within our collection. It is likely that the pitch enabled the linen to survive in the damp burial conditions. The sleeve was minimally wet cleaned as the object was vulnerable to physical damage and to retain the resin impregnation. It was then immersed in a 4% v/v polyethylene glycol (PEG) 200 solution for four weeks then frozen and vacuum freeze-dried. A number of waterlogged samples were analysed using a Philips XL-30 ESEM on an environmental setting to confirm piece association and identify key fibres prior to treatment. These samples were retained and were compared with new samples from the treated object to assess and provide a record of different treatment aspects. This enabled the comparison of the various treatment stages.

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