During the nineteenth century, chemists were involved in conservation treatments of polychrome artworks. Appropriate methods for the cleaning of easel paintings, for instance, were sometimes done in consultation with chemists. In the field of archaeology, paint samples were extracted from historical objects and wall paintings with the aim to perform chemical analyses of pigments. This paper will show that the methodology and tools used by chemists for such analyses, agree with the standard chemical practices of the period. It also investigates the motivation behind the increasing engagement of chemists in the nineteenth-century field of archaeology. It has been argued that the main interest of chemists involved in the analysis of antiquities was not the preservation of objects, but the characterization of materials. In this paper it will be argued that, to the contrary, nineteenth-century primary sources reporting chemical analysis of pigments, show that chemists were also concerned about the physical integrity of historical and archaeological objects and their preservation. Such concern can be observed particularly in the extraction process of the paint samples used for chemical examination of pigments and binding media. The focus is on the nineteenth-century English context, since during this period the country held a leading position in the field of conservation practice.
