Anyone familiar with paper restoration / conservation?
 

Hello all!
Has anyone run into this type of defect in what I am guessing is 120 gsm paper? Approx. 60 years old, obviously stored folded, and virtually identical front to back. Surface is raised on both sides, with bulls-eye staining.

Any insight? Have checked with a couple of pros who, understandingly, were willing to give a guesstimate to the cost, but not the diagnosis or treatment. (ranged from $475 to $900. Or more!)

FWIW, I have never had anything "conserved" before, mainly because the amount invested usually results in a break evenish value proposition.

Come on experts!
Thanks, Jim

more data
 

I take it this is about a boxing piece...best guess is it doesn't seem to look like water damage...more like a drop of some kind of chemical caused it...could create more interest if you posted shots of the whole piece front and back...thanks for the post...restoration/conservation is always an interesting subject...just would be nice to see what it is...

Here is full scan. You can see where it was once folded in quarter(edit: eighths), but it was stored folded in half for many decades. Nothing else that was stored with it has any noticeable issues. There were some photos from the 40's - 60's, but not sure if that would cause any reaction like this.

nice piece
 

pretty cool piece....what's the dimensions...yeah if you're gonna frame it you pretty much have to get rid of that...maybe someone was eating lunch while spread out on their desk and dripped something acidic...a restorer could probably cut it out and wheat paste in a patch and air brush it...would take a pro...guess $300 - $400 to fix...thanks for posting...

Rare signature! Yea you can do all kinds of stuff with paper - just depends on what you want to spend! focus on just the stain on the image. Do not spend money on the back! Cutting the signature would be ok as well if wanted to, would not take away too much value.

Jimmy

Thanks!
 

Carlton, That's more the range I had naively guessed, and I think one of the companies may have estimated for repairing folds and such as well. I think someone could still be OK with it as is, as long as it is inert and not still progressing. But I don't know if it has been like this for 1 year or 30. :)

Prettied up and stabilized for $3-400 I think would be on the table as opposed to "restored" for $900.

It is a little over 6" x 3.5" and was given out pre-signed to autograph requestors to save time AND face, as he was illiterate and not comfortable signing.

Jimmy, that is the problem! It really isn't a 'stain' as much as an accretion of some sort. It may not look as bad because of the black ink is sitting on top.

And yes, making it a cut would be easy. I would just hate to destroy a scarce piece.