A Study on the Cleaning Method of Excavated Textiles

의영 전의이씨 출토복식의 세척방법에 관한 연구

The purpose of study is to find out a suitable cleaning method for excavated textiles of Jeon-ui Lee(1570∼1647). The textiles were excavated from her tomb in 1997, and her descendents put them in a box without any treatment and kept them in the warehouse since then. We used two kinds of silk as samples, non-dyed and dyed textile. The experiment was performed by 8 kinds of wet cleaning and dry cleaning methods, an ultrasonic cleaner was used in the wet cleaning, decane and perchloroethylene were used as solvents in the dry cleaning. The use of the ultrasonic cleaner in the wet cleaning method did not show any damage to the fibers of the textiles and it not only cleaned well but also was safe for the fugitive dyes. It resulted in more effective cleaning when the detergent was used together. Therefore, it is effective to use the ultrasonic cleaning on the delicate historical textiles and helpful to the operator's safety and environment.