Deborah, everyone: Well, yes & no: You may not have seen anything that has
ever been treated with bread--the textile might have been eaten. The
specimen could have been damaged by insects--perhaps you have only noticed
the patches? and or perhaps the damaged textile was discarded entirely? Or,
the bread was eaten by the cleaner himself (herself) who proceeds to shake
out and beat the dusty blanket or tapestry rather than waste good bread.
These scenarios would be a function of the price of bread and the cost of
soap--both of which were much more expensive than today, as well as the cost
of labor (much cheaper then than now). From a practical point of view, this
bread treatment may well be a tale misconstrued--it is very difficult for
most textile conservators today to think of breadcrumbs as a practical
conservation treatment, any more likely than starching muslin. One of the
nice things about living in the modern world is that we can appreciate past
ingenuity without repeating the shortfalls. Best wishes, Mary Ballard

>>> [log in to unmask] 3/10/2006 10:12:39 AM >>>
Sorry to post again about this - I realized my last message was unclear
and
I would like to refine it.  What I was trying to say was that some of the
many textiles I have worked on over the years must have been cleaned with
bread sometime in the past.  I have never observed any damage that appears
to be attributable to this treatment.  I offered this observation because
there haven't been any controlled tests of the technique that I know of,
and
it seemed pertinent.  I am not expressing an opinion on cleaning of
textiles
with bread.

Deborah Bede