Monitoring effects of RH fluctuations on leather based cultural heritage objects

Leather based cultural heritage objects can take the form of leather used in the form of bookbindings and in historical wall coverings . Our work in previous EU projects has focussed on the state of preservation of collagen in leather. We have observed that ageing produces a differential mechanical response to fluctuations in RH and this leads to physical deformations in the objects. Our studies have also included AFM of leather fibres and some preliminary small angle scattering to determne the D-banding of collagen and how this varies with ageing and RH fluctuations.