Abstract
Abstract Undyed barkcloth is generally stable during storage in museum conditions. However a small group of reddish‐brown coloured barkcloths in the British Museum's collection have deteriorated badly. Samples of modern dyed and undyed barkcloth and extra old samples were obtained. The samples were characterised by recording their appearance, condition, pH, and when possible, their iron and tannin contents. It was found that all the degraded barkcloths fell into one of two categories, being either black and containing high concentrations of iron, or reddish‐brown and containing chemically reactive tannins. The deterioration of the first type of sample has already been seen in several types of fibrous material e.g. black‐dyed New Zealand flax and similarly dyed banana fibre. The second type had not hitherto been recognised as a problem and merited further investigation. A very badly degraded sample of the reddish‐brown kind, was tested for drying oils but these could not be detected. It is possible that th...
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