Perspectives on image reintegration

Summary Toning and re-touching are techniques that replace missing elements of an image. At the beginning of the twentieth century there appears to have been a consensus amongst paper conservators with regard to the understanding and practise of these techniques in the United Kingdom. The approach taken generally replaced the majority of elements missing from the image to a level that would today be described as ‘facsimile’. The twentieth century witnessed a radical change in attitude to image reintegration and consequently a significant body of practitioners now consider the techniques to be largely inappropriate. However since very little dialogue on the issue has been reflected in publications from the period it is not altogether clear why these changes came about. This paper considers some of the influences on paper conservation practice and how changes during the twentieth century have had a direct impact on image reintegration. It is hoped that the paper will be the beginning of a much wider debate regarding our understanding and practise of reintegration within paper conservation and contribute to both our care and interpretation of collections.