Der sogenannte Mantel der Heiligen Elisabeth Rekonstruktion der Restauriergeschichte anhand textiltechnologischer und farbstoffanalytischer Untersuchungen

The so called cloak of St. Elisabeth of Thuringia underwent an intensive examination and conservation at the Institute of Conservation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The variety of threads used for earlier repairs was documented during the initial preliminary research; at least five different phases of restoration could be found. Because of the strong contrast to the original fabric and the extraordinary brilliant colours of the repair threads it was thought that those must be synthetic-dyed. A dyestuff analysis should prove that the repairs were executed as early as the beginning of the last third of the 19th century. To gain clarity analyses with HPLC-PDA were made at the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency. The results indicated that two of the threads used had been coloured with synthetic dyes, thus giving us a terminus post quem for the date of the last phases of repairs. The analyses did not hint at the date of the old repairs, however they confirmed the results of the conservation-scientific examinations. Once again, this project demonstrated the great importance of collaboration between different disciplines in collating research and information.