Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/97

Rh of textiles which follows will apply. Four is by far the most satisfactory, convenient, but expensive method for use in picture galleries and may be rendered as safe from fire danger as any by the use of asbestos covering for the wooden backing or by impregnating the wood with one of the fire-proof chemicals placed on the market for this purpose. If this same chemical is to be used on the textile, it will affect the color; a small piece, therefore, should be tested before the gallery is hung. Care should be taken, however, that such a chemical, if used, is not of a character to injure the works of art which will be placed near it. In certain galleries of the Chicago Art Institute asbestos paper has been used without any textile above it, simply tinted in water color, and has proved a perfectly unobjectionable temporary makeshift.

TEXTILES What are the requisites in a good wall covering? First of all, it must be adapted to the objects for which it serves as background; second, it must be durable; third, it must be of a sufficiently close weave so that the dirt will not catch; fourth, it must not show nail holes; and fifth, it must not fade, or, if it does fade, it must fade to some agreeable tone.