Posted By:
Greg ThebergeGreat Tobacco items above!! Love those lithographs. Thanks for sharing.
Restoration is a topic that seems to go better for some forms of emphera than others.
In collecting Brewery advertising over the years, we have certainly restored many unique lithographs, paintings and Reversed on Glass signs. Without a doubt, this has put them in a better state of preservation for the future than leaving them alone to slowly decay on their own. We've done things such as taking out water stains, repairing a tear in a painting and stabilizing flaking paint on reversed glass signs. We're certainly not trying to pull the wool over on anyone, we're doing it out of the respect for the piece of artwork. After all, every major museum does some form of preservation, just look at the Star Spangled Banner, etc.
We've never done anything on a small piece, nor have we repaired any paint on an old tray or beer can (which can be just as valuable as sports cards).
I guess there's things that should and shouldn't be touched.
As far as framing, we've framed lithographs or photos to show all their edges and we've framed pieces to cover the edges with the matting. It all depends on whether they look better one way or another.
Not that this has much to do with baseball, other than beer and baseball go together, but here are some pretty rare pieces from our collection. I hope the emphera people like to see this as much as I enjoyed seeing those great tobacco items. Sorry Leon, no rocks 
1900 PBC litho. No restoration, framed to show entire piece, including the edges
1897 Molter's Calender, framed to cover edges, restored to replace torn corner and water stains removed
1913 Original Oil Painting Hanley Brewing Company, restored to repair 2" tear in the UR corner, Frame placed with museum plaque to replace original
oh, here's a beer and baseball connection....a 1916 Braves, Red Sox, and Providence Greys schedule
There are many more, but I won't bore everyone
Oh, by the way, I disagree 2000% on "not spending a lot on a frame". If you are dealing with a 100 year old piece of paper, it needs to be mounted properly, in protective glass, against protective paper and mounted away from the glass itself to allow the piece to breath. If you put a valuable piece in some WalMart frame, you may not want to take it out and look at it very closely as time goes on.