Materials characterization of albumen prints from Calouste Gulbenkian´s memories album

Abstract

The present investigation gathers the results of the characterization and scientific analysis of a memories album with albumen prints from the end of the 19th century, belonging to the art collector Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian. The study has focused on different analytical techniques, such as optical microscopy (OM), energy dispersive X-ray micro-fluorescence (ED-XRF), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total reflectance (ATR-FTIR), Raman microspectroscopy (μ-Raman) and Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy (μ-FTIR). The use of these different and complementary techniques allowed us to collect important information about this album, namely some organic and inorganic components present in the photographic prints and its conservation condition, data about its manufacture and to make an approximation to its historical dating.