Question contact cement on art work

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woodcrafter

Grumbler in Training
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Jun 20, 2010
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I have a Norman Rockwell print that is over 35 years old that is mounted on a old type of paper board with contact cement ! I need some feedback as to geeting the print off of the backer board without harming the print? Looking for help!

the woodcrafter
 
Welcome to the Grumble.

Contact cement or hyde glue (rabbit skin)?

In any event, this isn't a job for a picture framer. What you need is a paper conservator. Here is a link to a resource that will help you locate a conservator.

You might first want to do some research on the nature of the print. There were several editions of Rockwell's images, and some are quite valuable while others are not. I have had some of his images brought to me that were purchased from the Rockwell Museum in the same time frame as the piece you have. They were wet mounted to chip board and had very little retained value.
 
woodcrafter

Thanks for the help this is my new start up business as of april of this year. I welcome all the help .

sincerly the Woodcrafter
 
Unless they can afford the cost of a professional restorer, it's better to leave well enough alone.
 
I have found that once you tell the customer that a guess on the cost is in the several hundred dollar range you will save yourself thousands of hours of needless work figuring this stuff out during your framing career. At this point you will get one of two responses, most commonly it will be that there is no way they would ever spend the money. If that is the case as Ralph says leave well enough alone and frame in a manner that causes no additional harm. If they do not object to spending several hundred then it is time to track down a conservator.
 
Backing removal is one of the most hair-raising (for the conservator), and expensive jobs paper conservators do -it's all done mechanically, with maybe some chemicals involved only at the very end. And they make it look so easy...Usually, you're talking at least a thousand, not hundreds of dollars....
 
Jeff Rodier said:
...once you tell the customer that a guess on the cost is in the several hundred dollar range you will save yourself thousands of hours of needless work figuring this stuff out during your framing career.
Click to expand...

Several hundred? At that figure, some customers may want you to investigate further, and a few might actually buy the treatment. On the other hand, if you tell them right away the cost is in the several thousand dollar range, you may never have to do that work.

Seriously, rather than try to discourage customers by guessing high, why not send a few digital photos to a conservator and get an actual proposal? There should be a small charge for that (enough to cover packing/shipping and the time invested) and in my experience, some treatments cost only a few hundred or less.
 
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