Cleaning copper book plate prints 150 years old or so?

[Exhibitman]

I recently obtained a book ca. 1840 containing several dozen copper plate prints. The condition varies, with some of the prints having stains. I want to keep a few for my collection and clean them but was quoted $40-$50 each by a restorer, which is a budget buster on these prints. Anyone have any success in the past with similar items?

[Michael B]

Adam,

If they are engravings there is a fairly easy process. Assuming you are pulling the book apart for the engravings you can do tests. I would do it on Civil War engravings from the 1860's and 1870's. I am talking about the ones that are printed on the page in black ink only, no colors.

You take a pyrex baking dish. I like the casserole dishes that are about 11x14 or so. You make a solution of about 9-1 warm water to regular laundry bleach. I would not use the no spill type as it has glycerine in it and I am not sure how it would react. You take the print by two adjacent corners and slide it into the solution. You can let it sit there or gently rock it back and forth, much like you would do in a darkroom when developing photos. After a few minutes you will see the paper lighen and the stains disappear. You then take it out by a corner and hang by one corner using a binder clip and let it air dry. You can also put it in a plain water bath before hanging, but there is so little bleach that the smell dissipates quickly.

You may get a small stain in the corner that the water dripped off of, but it is usually very small. One thing you must not do is touch the black of the engraving. It will smear as it is softened while soaking. You may wish to use distilled water. I have used regular tap water and distilled water. I have done it for many engravings and never had a problem. If you want to experiment take a regular printed page from the book to get the process down.

[Exhibitman]

I will give that a shot. Thanks. There are some pages that are beyond salvage, so I will play with one of them.

[vintagesportscollector]

I am not that familiar with engraving methods, and wasn't even sure what a "copper" bookplate was, or how it was different than other engraving methods, as I didn't even know that engraving plates were made out of copper. Did a quick search and found this helpful link...

http://www.antiqueprints.com/Info/engraving.php

...in case anyone else finds its helpful.