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The Chester Beatty Library in Dublin with the continued support of The Sumitomo Foundation in Tokyo, have now commissioned Restorient to conserve three more of their most treasured Japanese paintings. Dating from the early 17th century this set of hand scrolls chart the epic tale of "Hunting the Ogres" It will be possible to follow the conservation of these magnificent hand scrolls here on this blog. We at Restorient are delighted to have the opportunity to share this remarkable project, and to offer some insights into this type of specialist conservation.

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Tuesday 1 June 2010

The hand scrolls arrive in Leiden



After a lot of planning and patiently waiting for the Icelandic ash cloud to clear, the 'Tale of the Bamboo Cutter' hand scrolls have finally arrived in the Restorient studio in Leiden, The Netherlands. Kristine Rose, senior conservator from the Chester Beatty Library delivered them safely over from Dublin. 

The first task will be to record  the current position of all the paintings and the calligraphic panels, (there has been the suggestion from Japanese scholars that the order in some places is not correct so further investigation will be necessary before we finally re-assemble the scrolls) followed by writing an appraisal of the condition of the two hand scrolls, noting all previous damage and repairs before our work begins. This invariably means taking far too many photographs under a range of lighting conditions such as transmitted and raking light as well as UV.

Its going to be a long journey (28.88 meters to be exact!) over the next two years and we will keep you posted as we progress. 

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