When the restoration work was being done, I recall hearing nothing but bad
things about the wax on the stone at Trinity - I pictured teams of workers
pouring molten paraffin and melting candles over the stone, sealing the
surface like a jar of fruit preserves.

FYI, it is _The_ Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eric Hammarberg
Associate Director of Preservation
Senior Project Director
LZA Technology
641 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10011-2014
Telephone: 212.741.1300 extension: 1016
Mobile: 917.439.3537
Fax: 212.989.2040
email:  [log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: Met History [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 11:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: waxing limestone


In 1904 the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art complained about "the
disintegrating of the stone of the exterior walls" of the new Fifth Avenue
wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (now the main entrance); "Anyone can
see what condition the exterior is in, however, and the necessity of action
of some kind", he said.

He said that he supported the plan of "Professor Doremus" [probably Robert
Ogden Doremus, an analytical chemist teaching at CCNY]  "to coat the
limestone with wax to preserve the stone", a technique frequently mentioned
in the period.

From modern eyes, were wax coatings beneficial, injurious or of no effect?

Christopher Gray