Summary
In literary sources of the 18th century the recipes for modelling wax suggest the addition of various resinous materials which serve as plasticisers and hardeners. The determination of such additives in case of the anatomical models created by Felice Fontana and Pietro Mascagni, which are displayed at the “Josephinum” in Vienna is presented in this paper. The identification of the resins was accomplished by comparison of the gas chromatographic pattern of diterpenoic resin esters. The addition of Venetian turpentine was verified. The degradation products of aged bees wax were identified by combined GC-FTIR-MS (gas chromatography — Fourier transform infrared spectrometry — mass spectrometry).
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Kenndler, E., Mairinger, F. Examination of the diterpenoic resin components of anatomical wax models from the eighteenth century by gas chromatography. Fresenius J Anal Chem 338, 635–640 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00324024
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00324024