Ginger,

I have seen the white accretions / efflorescence on harness and saddles
before. If it is a waxy deposit then it is probably due to old saddle soap
or dressing oils that may have bloomed due to a change in environmental
conditions. It could also be salt efflorescening from horse sweat but that
would be in a logical place where it was in contact with the animal. I have
also seen objects that were treated with renaissance wax that also exhibit a
white accretion in crevice areas where the wax was not buffed. Try to look
at these deposits using low-power magnification and bright light. As leather
ages it can lose collagen through hydrolisis and will often turn brittle and
form a cracklure into islands. There isn't much you can do about that except
have a conservator perform a consolidation treatment and have the fragile
object on a good museum mount in a controlled environment.

As far as how to handle the white material. It depends on what it is.
Contact me off the list with some digital photos (close ups if possible) and
I may be able to give you more specific thoughts on this.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Senior Conservator and Museum Consultant

On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 9:55 AM, Ginger Frembling <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> I'm a little rusty on conservation, so I needed some advice.  I'm working
> at a small museum and found something growing on a few leather artifacts in
> one case.  I pulled the items for conservation today and was looking more
> closely at them.  I thought it was a mildew of some sort, but I'm not
> entirely sure.  On one item, it seemed like clear - white crystals, small in
> clumps.  When I touched it with my glove, the crystals transferred to the
> glove.  Not powdery, like I though it might be.  It's not all over the item,
> but definately in one location.  The other item is more white, powdery
> looking in spots and in crevases.  More of I expected mildew to be.  So my
> first question is...is the crystals a form of mildew?  Secondly, how do I
> clean them?  In reverting back to my original training, I was going to brush
> off the mildew the best I can, using a foam brush and maybe pointy q-tips
> for the crevasses.  Then maybe use some Renaissance Wax to clean it.  And
> just leave it out for a few days while I track down the humidity/temp
> problem in the case.  Does this sound like a good plan?  Also, one piece is
> a collar for a horse and some of the leather is cracking quite bad.  Should
> I use the wax on this piece?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
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