Meredith,

Without seeing this object it is awfully hard to judge what is going
on - it could just be a really heavy parafin coating (wax) or many
layers of a degraded organic oil or something else. Since you said
that it turned sticky then I'm leaning towards some sort of wax. The
fact that the mineral spirits did have an affect also suggests
possible wax. The degraded organic oil that I found on that stove top
figure hard was extremely hard and really did not soften or swell
appreciably.

Adding wax over a sticky surface will just make it worse.

Why don't you send me some digital photos of this thing with some
close-ups of the area where you have tested the mineral spirits and
we'll pursue some other ideas off of the list.

I know that my many friends and colleagues on here are probably
fascinated by all of this but sometimes the back-and-forth
communication about an object needs to be more focused without 3000
people listening in.

Cheers!
Dave

Conservator
Los Angeles

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