Abstract
A modified microfading spectrometer incorporating a linear variable filter is used to investigate the wavelength dependence of fading of traditional watercolour pigments, dosimeters and fading standards at a higher spectral resolution and/or sampling than had previously been attempted. While the wavelength dependence of photochemical damage was largely found to correlate well with the absorption spectra of each material, exceptions were found in the case of Prussian blue and Prussian green pigments (the latter includes Prussian blue), for which an anti-correlation between the spectral colour change and the absorption spectrum was found.
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Acknowledgments
The anoxic framing project was funded 2006-09 by the Public Sector Research Exploitation Fund (third round) and was supported by Tate. Charlotte Caspers who sourced materials and prepared the historically accurate reconstructions at Tate in 2008 was funded by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and supported by Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg during her masters research at the University of Amsterdam, all in the Netherlands. Anna Brookes was funded by the AHRC Professional Preparation Research Masters Scheme, University of the Arts, London, UK. Thanks also to David Saunders and Jo Kirby for their help and cooperation.
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Lerwill, A., Brookes, A., Townsend, J.H. et al. Micro-fading spectrometry: investigating the wavelength specificity of fading. Appl. Phys. A 118, 457–463 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8645-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8645-3