The Vienna Genesis: An Example of Late Antique Purple Parchment.

The investigation and conservation of the Vienna Genesis, a Late Antique manuscript on purple parchment, included the study of parchment production and purple dyeing in the sixth century. The process of parchment making and of purple dyeing was recreated and compared with the Vienna Genesis and other manuscripts from the sixth and eighth centuries. Parchment made from the hides of young lambs and dyed with orchil resembled the folios of the Vienna Genesis.

Searching for blood in Chinese lacquerware: .

The study gives an overview of the tests and analyses undertaken in the past 20 years to establish the presence of blood in the foundation layers of Chinese lacquer artefacts and also shows the development of analytical methods over that period. When undertaking the conservation of lacquer objects it is crucial to know the type of binding medium as this influences the selection of any consolidants that may be required in the treatment. Microchemical tests to identify blood using benzidine and luminol, various chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques and DNA analyses were assessed on selected Chinese lacquer objects, and the results gained are summarized.

Analytical investigations on the Coronation Gospels manuscript.

The Coronation Gospels or Krönungsevangeliar is a manuscript kept in Vienna at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, datable to the end of VIII century A.D. and produced at Charlemagne court.

Methodology and application of gc-ms to study altered organic binding media from objects of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Within the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM), Vienna, three off-line GC-MS analytical procedures for the identification of natural organic media have been refined, tested, and validated on a series of reference materials (partly artificially aged) to apply this knowledge for investigations of original, historic works of art from the museum's collections. At first, a set of artificially aged mockups has been prepared and a reference database has been built up for the identification of drying oils, resins, waxes, proteins and polysaccharides. Some interesting observations concerning the alteration of the composition of these organic media during different ageing steps are presented in the following text.