Page 215 - Copper and Bronze in Art: Corrosion, Colorants, Getty Museum Conservation, By David Scott

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P L A T E 45 Copper-alloy nail excavated in 198 5 from
the site of Kom Rabia at Memphis, Egypt. New Kingdom
(fourteenth to thirteenth century B . C . E . ) . The nail is
covered with a coat of sampleite, approx. 15 mm thick.

P L A T E 4 6 Photomicrograph of sampleite from a copper-
alloy nail excavated from Memphis, Egypt. The particles
appear pale blue under plane polarized light and show
strong birefringence with bright blue and gray white
when viewed under crossed polars (melt-mount R I 1.662 ,
magnification χ 217).
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P L A T E 47 Face Mask, Moche culture, Peru, second
century . E . Copper with eyes of bone and pupils of an
C
iron mineral that could not be conclusively identified
but that may be a muscovite. H : 22.86 cm; w: 16.51 cm.
The sampleite corrosion on the surface is mixed with
malachite and cuprite. Santa Barbara Museum of Art,
Gift of Wright S. Ludington.

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