Over the Winter break a group of UC students worked with Ian Batterham treating two Egyptian movie posters from the 1940s. Involved in the project were Zeb Marshall, Robyn Victory, Mona Soleymani and Hakim Rahim.
The posters are part of a project Ian is working on relating to the life of an Egyptian actress who went by the name ‘Camelia’.
The posters are highly rare and one, for the film ‘The Red Mask’ was badly water and rodent (?) damaged.
Over the course of 4 weeks the posters were washed and deacidified and then backed onto a fine cotton cloth. ‘The Red Mask’ was attached to a wooden stretcher, which had a foam-core insert.
This poster had major losses. The losses were filled with Japanese paper and then they were inpainted with gouache to match the missing content.
The project was highly successful, and gave students an unusual treatment experience.
