Preservation of antiques

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odinz

Posts: 407
Joined: May 26 2010
From: Sarpsborg,Norway

Preservation of antiques

Hey guys, this has nothing to do with flamenco or guitars but about psalm books and old photo albums.

These are dated as far back as 1797 and are family heirloom.

Very ornate and beautiful but they are detoriating and are very brittle....

I have no idea what to do with it, but I want the next generation to be able to see these things as well.

Anyone got any ideas?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 12 2011 17:40:05

Pimientito

Posts: 2481
Joined: Jul. 30 2007
From: Marbella

RE: Preservation of antiques (in reply to odinz)

This is the biggest problem facing every museum in the world. Basically everything around us is slowly degrading naturally all the time. Sunlight and Oxygen are the biggest culprits. After that is damp, mould/fungus and then insects. Handling the documents puts sweat onto them. Sweat is a mixture of water, oils and acids all of which degrade documents. Very rare documents are kept in hermetically sealed low oxygen environments and constant temperature and humidity in diffused light.

Obviously this isn't practical at home. If you keep books on a bookcase, there should not be direct sunlight on them. This deteriates the spines very quickly.
Simply pinning a piece of bed sheet or a printed fabric over the front of the bookcase really helps a lot in preventing sun damage.
Handle your rare books with disposable latex gloves. This prevents sweat contacting them. Be careful about storing them in a cardboard box somewhere. Although this keeps them in the dark they can get damp or invested with mites, roaches, moths or moulds that eat paper. You will need special storage boxes if you want to preserve them properly and I think they are kind of expensive.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 12 2011 18:41:02

odinz

Posts: 407
Joined: May 26 2010
From: Sarpsborg,Norway

RE: Preservation of antiques (in reply to Pimientito)

I will check if i can find some good boxes for this then.. I even went trough it(with gloves on my hands) I found some very old music sheets for the organ, and alot of other cool things, I just recently got my hands on this, but paying to have it safer is no problem.. A newly found treassure, thank you for the tips Pim!

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 12 2011 19:34:30

estebanana

Posts: 9358
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Preservation of antiques (in reply to odinz)

I agree with all the tips Pimientito gave you. I've worked in museums myself.

Get a consultation from a paper conservator. Some museums have times when you can bring objects in to show them and get a consultation. Some charge for this service and some do not. Check with historical societies and other museum or archives that hold social media and history.

Photos should, especially old ones, be interleaved with acid free paper. There are envelopes available from archival product suppliers that you can buy. There are also acid free storage boxes. Here is a one in the US but there are others in Europe. http://www.gaylord.com/lobby_gaylordmart.asp?

You could go to the Rare Book Collection of your local university or city library and ask the librarian for leads on where to go for this information. They may even be interested in looking at your collection and giving you advice. Archivists are usually pretty cool, if you run into one with an attitude go elsewhere. Have your collection checked out, you may have some historically valuable things that a scholar somewhere was just waiting to surface! Mainly learn about what you have because there may be other books in rare book collections that are similar to yours and you will gain an understanding of the social placement and values of those items in the times they were made. The more you understand about your family archive the more information you can pass along.

What a fascinating situation to find yourself in, a family mystery to work on. You may learn a lot of new things about your family history.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 13 2011 18:11:51

odinz

Posts: 407
Joined: May 26 2010
From: Sarpsborg,Norway

RE: Preservation of antiques (in reply to estebanana)

Thanks for all the info Stephen!

I find it very interesting myself, I dont worry about paying to take care of these things.

Its allready worth alot more to know more about my family, found out my great great great grandfather was an organist and an organ builder for example, I want to see if I can find some part of what he built.

Ill try to contact a museum and ask about consulting for all of it, Thanks again Stephen, for all the info!

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 14 2011 11:53:54

Ruphus

Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010

RE: Preservation of antiques (in reply to odinz)

There´s a guy who made a fortune within no time, maybe ~ 12 years or so ago, after introducing a way to conserve antique books and prevent insect grub.
He since sends out teams to museums all over the world.

His patented method is rather simple.
Dense plastic bags are taylored / pulled together to demand, covering whole book shelves. Then they will be deflated with vacuum and sealed.

In the meantime the same principle has been brought to the market for storing away textiles / preventing damages through moths.
It´s plastic bags ( of the size of a suitcase ) that can be attached to your common vacuum cleaner, functioning like mom´s vacuum bag device for the freezer.

Getting yourself those bags for textiles to put the books in, and then storing the whole thing away in a dark place should do, I suppose.

From what I recall my cousine saying the bags are even inexpensive.

Ruphus

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 14 2011 13:57:51