De-stabilization horror stories - any examples?

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

This doesn't compare to Julie's bending of a t206 Plank, but it's my first vintage horror story.

I bought a 1900-ish mounted albumen that someone had long, long ago glued another matt over the front (like we mount photos today).

I took it out of the package, and while holding it up to admire, contemplating whether or not to remove the semi-vintage outer matting, my left thumb pushed right through the left edge of the mat-board, removing a 2-inch long semi-circle-shaped chunk. At that point I decided I had to either trim down the newer matt, or remove it altogether. I decided to remove it.

The removal process started well enough, the matt-board coming off easily, but leaving some glue residue that I could later remove with a damp cloth. Then a large piece of the original matt tore loose, sticking to the new matt. Ugghh. The original matting was now ruined as well, so I decided to re-matt the photo using an acid-free cream-colored matt that would look better than the old gray one anyway. I was re-gaining hope.

As I was deciding how much of the photo to cover with the new matt, I noticed a slight vertical bend on the right side of the photo. I decided to gently remove the bend by pushing on the back of the matt....SNAP...the entire matted photo broke right in two. Albumen photos are so thin that they are basicall part of their backing board. The board was so crumbly, that there is no hope of hiding the rip. So now I have a two-piece photo.

Totally failed, ruined de-stabilization project.