Connecting to Collections Care

We have a recent donation of a 1920s soda bottle. It was found buried in a yard and they cleaned it up, but there is still dirt and grime on the inside of the bottle. What type of bottle brush would work the best to clean it up? I don't want to utilize anything that could scratch the inside, but would like to get the dirt out. Any advice is appreciated! 

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Melissa Morgan
Curator, Manatee County Agricultural Museum
Palmetto
United States
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Hi Melissa,

Thank you for your question. A soft brush with natural bristles is recommended for cleaning. Choose one with a plastic handle to avoid any scraping from metal ferrules. You can also find curved brushes which make it easier to reach all of the interior surface of the bottle. Scientific supply companies are a good source for these. Natural bristle paint brushes are also a good option and widely available, though they may not be as easy to use given their straight handles. Again, just be careful to avoid those with metal components to prevent scratches.

Best,

Jen 

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Jen Hunt Johnson
Special Collections Conservator
Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
jhuntjoh@nd.edu
Connecting to Collections Care Monitor
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Hi Melissa,

You can fully wrap a thin wooden dowel with sterile cotton and gently swab the interior of the historic bottle. You may encounter loose glass particles, thus in this situation, a soft sable hair brush carefully inserted in the bottle, can be used to gently pull up the soiled material if possible. Make sure your implement handle is fully covered in a soft archival material so as not to scratch the object. Of course all original glass material should be maintained even in a deteriorated form.

Hope this is useful,

Best

Kim E Hewitt

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Kim Hewitt
Brooklyn
United States
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In addition to the advice provided, I wanted to let site users know that there is an excellent, short video presentation on the care of glass in storage by glass conservation expert Steve Koob. the video is part of an online C2C Care course on Keeping Collections Safe in Storage. Steve's overview on glass preservation including his thoughts on cleaning, is part of the 4th video in the series recorded on 11/10/2022. The section on glass begins at about 18 minutes into the video.  In order to view the video you will need to "register" for the online course but it is freely and should be easily accessible to anyone already registered for this online community.   

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Rachael Arenstein
A.M. Art Conservation, LLC
rachael@amartconservation.com
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