Czech mosaic pioneer Viktor Foerster and the mortars of his mosaics

0562171 - ÚTAM 2023 RIV SI eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Bauerová, Pavla - Kracík Štorkánová, M. - Frankeová, Dita - Slížková, Zuzana - Keppert, M.
Czech mosaic pioneer Viktor Foerster and the mortars of his mosaics.
Proceedings of the 6th Historic Mortars Conference - HMC 2022. Ljubljana: University of Ljubljana, 2022 - (Bokan Bosiljkov, V.; Padovnik, A.; Turk, T.; Štukovnik, P.), s. 40-49. ISBN 978-961-6884-77-8.
[Historic mortars conference HMC 2022 /6./. Lublaň (SI), 21.09.2022-23.09.2022]
Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) StrategieAV21/23
Program: StrategieAV
Institutional support: RVO:68378297
Keywords : Viktor Foerster * outdoor mosaics * mortars
OECD category: Ceramics

Mosaicist Viktor Foerster opened the first local mosaic studio in the Czech Lands at the beginning of the 20th century and by 1915 he made more than 30 outdoor mosaics. The original mortar beds of four his funeral or sacral works were characterized by SEM-EDS, x-ray powder diffraction and thermal analysis. Based on the results of this study Foerster seems to have used cement to fix his works from the very beginning of his mosaic career. All investigated mortars contained sand and hydraulic binders with abundant clinker residues. Apart from the cementitious binder (probably early Portland cement), crushed brick shards and other admixtures were identified in two samples. In one of these samples, cement and bricks were combined with gypsum, in the other sample the binder is a mixture of cement, lime and crushed bricks.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0334584