QUESTION FOR PAPER CONSERVATOR

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Finest Fabric

Finest Fabric

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
May 20, 2005
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629
Loc
connecticut
Hi all -

I recently acquired two beautiful old maps (one from 1680 the other 1720) which had been drymounted to cardboard. I was able to remove them completely from the mounting board using low heat, but there is still residue from the dry-mount tissue on the backs. First question is what to use to remove this residue? Second question, if I leave them alone, can that residue cause any long term damage? These are mine, not a customers, and I'm comfortable experimenting on them.

Thanks -

Bryan
 
Hi Bryan,

It depends on the kind of drymount adhesive that was used. If it is yellow, it is likely shellac based, and you can use ethanol with cotton swabs.

If it is waxy, you can use odorless thinner to swell it and scrape it off with bits of matboard. Very messy. You can use baths too.

If it is a newer adhesive, I've had difficulties with them. Xylene works to some degree, but is quite toxic. You could try heptane too, but in my experience it isn't as effective as xylene.

In all cases you would want to work with good ventillation and safety equipment. All are flammable.

As for long term damage - shellac yellows, the waxy one seems to be reasonably inert, the newer ones - I don't know.

Hope this helps,

Rebecca
 
I am not offering any corrective advice because I am not current on standards and procedures but can you get any clue as to when these were glued to the board. If they were done before the seventies there is a good chance that an animal hide glue was used.

Animal hide glue is very horrible stuff on artwork but commonly used before the seventies.

Rebecca may be able to give some more insight on that.
 
Thanks Rebecca - this seems to be the waxy type - but its yellow too, perhaps from discoloration from the bad board though. Can't use any type of bath because these have original hand-color - I'll try the thinner & scraping on a corner & see if it works.

Hey Jeff - I know the old hide glue very well, have seen it used on these beautiful old things too many times to count - but of course they didn't know back then - This is definitely a "modern" dry mount tissue - if I had to guess maybe 15 yrs ago - whoever did this one should have known better!

-Bryan
 
Finest Fabric said:
Hey Jeff - I know the old hide glue very well, have seen it used on these beautiful old things too many times to count - but of course they didn't know back then - This is definitely a "modern" dry mount tissue - if I had to guess maybe 15 yrs ago - whoever did this one should have known better!

-Bryan
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Thank goodness it is the lesser of two evils. At least you stand a chance of getting it back to near original condition. I could just hear the old scrape, scrape, scrape that haunted my sleep for so many years.
 
The handcoloring shouldn't be affected by odorless thinner bath (though ethanol can certainly affect certain watercolors), and ot probably wouldn't affect printing ink, but your strategy for testing at edge is a prudent one.

I generally soften and scrape as much off as I can and then do the bath to get as much as possible out. In any event do keep in mind the toxicity.

As Jeff mentions, animal glue has often been used in the past for wet mounts. For me these are (99 times out of 100) easier to deal with than the drymounts.

Rebecca
 
Rebecca, which tissues and films do you find the most problematic in reversing both current and past.

I think a lot of framers could benefit from your expertise on this one. Manufacturers are so quick to stamp something as being archival nowadays. While many of these products may not be causing deterioration to the artwork the manufacturers don't explain the work required to reverse the product.

True conservation techniques are always best but in many cases the customer/artist has visual aestetic appeal as the primary concern. Given an instance where the piece must be mounted, what would be your preference of tissue or film?
 
Hi Jeff,

I have found that the newer drymount tissues are very hard to remove. I don't know their names because I don't use them myself, (T4 kind of sticks in my head, but maybe I'm mixing that up with thyroid things lol). I've found that the "working window" for these using heat and solvent (not together!) is very narrow.

The shellac types tend to self destruct on their own after a number of years, allowing them to peel off, and then the adhesive can be reduced mechanically and with solvent. The waxy ones soften more easily with solvent or heat, but it is impossible to remove all of the adhesive.

I am becoming a big fan of perimeter hinging when it is necessary to keep paper as flat as possible and/or one wants the edges to show. Sometimes I can flatten a piece, but after a week or more it goes back to its bad rippley habits. So I have resorted to applying strips of Japanese paper to the reverse edges (feathered edges, 1/8 - 1/4" pasted to the reverse edges).

If the paper is already flat one can just wrap the free ends of these strips around 4 or 8 ply and tape or paste the free edge to the reverse of the matboard.

If the paper is not flat one can humidify them minimally (if safe for the art, this would not work for heavy silkscreens for example), stretch dry them (something like the Kraft paper technique for flattening oils on canvas), and when wrap the edges around the matboard as above.

Perimeter hinging is very easy to reverse, and allows the paper to move so that it doesn't have an unnaturally flat look.

I guess perimeter hinging is to paper what loose lining is to paintings.

Hope this helps.

Rebecca
 
Rebecca said:
I am becoming a big fan of perimeter hinging when it is necessary to keep paper as flat as possible and/or one wants the edges to show. Sometimes I can flatten a piece, but after a week or more it goes back to its bad rippley habits. So I have resorted to applying strips of Japanese paper to the reverse edges (feathered edges, 1/8 - 1/4" pasted to the reverse edges).

Rebecca
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Rebecca -

Help, I am confused

By "perimeter" hinging are you saying that the strips of Japanese mulberry paper (or like) are adhered to the entire edge (perimeter) in contrast to "regular" hinges with only two small attachments along the top (the strip being 1 inch wide attached at to the art on one end 1/8 to 1/4 inch) and perhaps sides near the bottom of the art?

Or am I reading too much into the word perimeter?

thanks
 
Hi Jeanne,

Yes, despite my incorrect grammer (!), you interpreted correctly.

Sometimes I back the entire piece with Japanese paper and wheat starch paste and, when it is dry, wrap the edges of the backing paper around matboard cut just slightly larger than the art. But it dawned on me that one didn't need to back the whole artwork (unless it is fragile and needs it), one could just apply continuous strips of Japanese paper along all of the edges, or perimeter) of the art to get the same benefit, without going the whole nine yards of a full backing.

I'd used perimeter hinges for flattening uncooperative things before, but had removed the Japanese paper strips after the art was dry. This was a variation on a technique used for flattening oil on canvases. Now I often keep the Japanese paper on, and use them as perimeter hinges.

Hugh has written about perimeter hinges in PFM; I'm sure he didn't have to go through the flattening/backing evolution that I did ; ) Syncronicity.

Rebecca
 
Rebecca, have you had the chance to inspect anything that had been mounted to Bainbridge Artcare Restore?
 
No Jeff, I never have. I know Rick Bergeron has done some tests and felt comfortable using it. I think I have also read here that the formulation seems to have changed, and it is not as easy to reverse as before. It's a proprietary formula, so the exact ingredients aren't listed, and the ingredients can be changed at any time.

So sorry, I can't offer a worthwhile opinion on it one way or the other.

Rebecca
 
I was curious about the Restore because with resin coated photo paper the pieces look best when mounted. Perfect Mount is popular because of no heat but sticky board is still sticky board.

I think one of the biggest challenges these days is that there a gazillion people manufacturing printing paper for the giclee market. The major manufacturers have been rated by independant laboratories for longevity but they haven't been around long enough to have experienced the actual aging process.

Back in the old days we had a clue as to what we were working with because there were so few people in the paper market. Now when we take in a piece of art for the most part we have no way of knowing the paper manufacturer or the printing process and ink used.

One thing that I find shocking is the number of so called professional printers and labs that use laser printing and call it a professional process.

Have you had the chance to work on laser prints and if so what can you tell us about them. My experience is that they age so quickly that I wish professionals would get serious and stop using them.
 
Jeff Rodier said:
...Have you had the chance to work on laser prints and if so what can you tell us about them. My experience is that they age so quickly that I wish professionals would get serious and stop using them.
Click to expand...

What is the "age so quickly" issue with laser prints, Jeff? Is it about the technology itself, or is it more about the quality of papers & toners typically used?

Laser-printed images generally lack the richness of color, fine detail, and depth available with inkjet printing, and I always thought those were the main drawbacks to laser printing for art-quality images. Laser printing uses pigmented toner in a heat-set process, which presumably would be more permanent and fade-resistant than the cheaper inks used in inkjet printing. No?
 
Jim, the ink in laser printers uses wax which evaporates out of the ink. The printed images age very quickly and lose image quality. Home ink jet priters for the most part are not good. Art Printers such as the Epson and others are the way to go.

Try doing a scan on a quality scanner of a laser print. You will see the striation swirls thoughout the image. The ink is layed on the paper in a string like pattern.
 
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