Sarah:
In fact it's a good question.  "Salamader oil" is said to be a "restorative 
treatment" for oil paintings to help clean and brighten the original 
painting.  Manufactured by Weber paints as I recall from my painting days. 
Their website should tell you more about it, but I strongly suggest you 
contact a conservator to get their opinion.  Certainly the oil would not be 
an appropriate substitute for a conservator's cleaning, however, being a 
realist about economic situations if it does no harm and does some gentle 
cleaning it may be worth a try.  Inpainting is a more serious situation and 
really should be performed by a practiced conservator with available 
research materials for the particular pigments involved, otherwise 
considerable damage can occur.

Best of luck!
Tom Bennett
Alaska Museum of Natural History
and Palmer Museum of Haitory and Art



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sarah Wood-Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2007 7:45 AM
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Painting Conservation


> Hello All,
>
> I have what may be a dumb question, but here goes...a friend has a  couple 
> of nice aging oil paintings (early-mid this century) that need  some 
> attention (cleaning and inpainting), she lives in a rural area  and does 
> not have access geographically or budget-wise to painting  conservators 
> and has turned them over to someone who has promised to  go over them with 
> Salamander Oil and varnish them. I don't know what  varnish, and I seem to 
> remember earlier in my career equating  salamander oil with snake oil or 
> worse.  What does this stuff  actually do?  Will it harm the painting?
>
> Oh, thank you in advance.
>
> Sarah
>
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