I have worked as a conservation consultant for a number of museums, and used to carry a conservation certificate from the Canadian Canservations Institute (CCI).
Got any old or even modern stuff you want to preserve (Photographs, Paper, collectables, or what have you… ask me)
Note - I will NOt give a dollar value on Items, I am NOT an appraiser.
On certain items I might be able to tell you how to get it honestly appriased.
Regards
FML
Should I remove the old scotch tape from original art (ink and marker on some sort of heavy paper) or just leave it there? It’s so old it’ll just flake off, but i’ve heard it eats away at paper.
I have some beautiful doll clothes made by my great grandmother for my grandmother in the late 1800’s (Oklahoma Territory). There are several pieces and some small, typed notes about each one (one dress was made for the doll to wear during a school play!) So far, I have just kept them in the cardboard box I found them in.
I’d like to display them, but think they may stay in better condition just being stored.
What do you think about how to display them and also how to best store them?
Thank you so much! This is a great idea for a thread.
I have a quilt made by my grandmother that I’d like to preserve until it is an antique. She made it in the early 1980s. It’s about the size to fit on a twin bed and it was on my bed as a kid. It’s gotten stains on it over the years, and my mom just washed it in a washing machine. It doesn’t have any holes or damage (yet :() but it does have an unfortunate purple mark from a fingerpainting accident of my brother’s.
There’s also the fact that…well…it was a kid’s blanket, and it’s been used by about 3 different kids and gotten sent back to me. There have been all kinds of bodily fluids on that thing. It’s been washed a lot, but I’m not sure if there’s anything I can do to make sure it’s perfectly sanitary without damaging it. Also, how should I store it?
I also have some embroidery from my great-grandmother (on cotton pillowcases–which are zipped up in an airtight bag in my closet), and quite a few afghans from my mother (we still use those). Again, none of these things are antiques yet, but I want to be able to pass them down when I have kids, and share care instructions.
I also have a few ceramic knick-knacks from my great-great-grandmother (probably purchased in the late 1800s). I’ve got them displayed on a bookshelf, and I’ve just been wiping them off with a damp cloth when they need it.
Cool thread! I think we have another museum curator or conservator here- DianaG, maybe?
I have a whacking great big coin collection from my youth. How do I store them?
How should the Bigfoot corpse be conserved?
Is it really safe to clean silver using baking soda and hot water in an aluminum pan?
Very cool thread-- and if you wouldn’t mind, would you be willing to talk a little bit about how you became a conservator, what sorts of experience + education you had to have? I thought for a while that I would want to do something like that for a living (undergrad degree in anthropology, fieldwork in archeology, etc., and my favorite thing was working in the archeological lab) and I would be very interested to hear about your experiences.
Getting back to the original question, I’m amassing a collection of Japanese hanging scrolls in various conditions, and I’d be interested to know what you would recommend. I know that they ought to be hung regularly, but not for too long at a time, and advice on storing them would be much appreciated!
Great idea for a thread. Here’s a question I’ve wondered about for some time:
I have a rare and rather expensive art print. It has slipped in its frame a little, and now is not square to the frame or the mat. I’d like to fix it (or have it fixed, if that’s the better option), but I’m unsure if I should attempt this myself, because I don’t want to damage the print itself. I’ve done DIY framing in the past, but never on something as valuable as this.
In your opinion, could I attempt this myself? If so, can you suggest something that will hold the print where it belongs (a kind of tape that will hold the print to the mat without damaging the print, for example)? Or should I find an expert and let him or her do it?
Tons of questions. I have an antique quilt that would look nice hung on a wall. How do I wash it and then preserve it? I know enough to not hang it in direct sunlight, but that’s all I know. Should it be rotated to provide equal tension on all stitches so there is minimal sagging?
Old photos from the 60s–some b and w, some color. How do preserve the colors and make sure the b&w doesn’t go all sepia? What about formal portraiture on rag paper (photos, usually sepia in tone or black and white, but grayed over, if you follow me)–how do prevent them from fading (more)?
Antique caned seated chairs: how to prevent breakage of the cane, but still use the chairs? (I know not to stand on the cane part).
Oooo me me me!
I have a Bible that was my great-great grandmother’s (maybe one more great in there, not sure). And its in OK shape but I know it needs some love and also I need to know how to properly store it.
An artist I corresponded with sent me, without warning, an enormous cartoon for one of his tapestries. The thing is 1:1 to the actual tapestry (3.9 x 3.5 metres) and is folded-up (it came folded) tracing paper. Do you have any idea what I should do with it?
A co-worker has a collection of hats from her MIL. They are stored in hat boxes with tissues to keep their shape. They have the original hat pins and tags and still look like new. Is that the best way to preserve them? She doesn’t have the space to keep them herself and is wondering how best to go about selling them?
Silverfish and book mildew- how to prevent either.
I have a jugendstil pewter dish. How do I clean it, but more importantly, should I clean it?
Suppose you could have, take home and keep any one item from any museum you ever worked at, what would it be? (Hypothetically, the sky's the limit, it's a reward for saving the museum milliions of dollars, something along those lines.)Wow, thanks for opening this thread, FML. I’m about to receive via FedX a wall clock from my parents’ house. It’s not an antique, but it’s apparently a fairly good quality clock. My sister had it packed by a clock guy (what do you call them?) and advised that I have a similar professional unpack it at my end and also check it over and supervise the hanging of the clock. Is there anything else I should do to preserve it and prevent any damage? I’m looking for general information - I know nothing at all about “fine timepieces”.
I also live in a seismically active area, so I know that I need to be careful to hang it securely (and hope like hell the whole house doesn’t shake down), but is there anything else I should know?
I have a hartebeest skin rug. It’s about 20 years old and it has been rolled up for about the last 8 years. What is the best way to store or display it? Does it need to be cleaned or otherwise maintained? Are there any legal issues involved in owning it? I inherited it some time ago and I know it was purchased legally from a well-regarded taxidermist.
Me! Me! Me!
I have an old japanese pen and ink drawing (I think from the 1800s). Do you think that a regular frame shop (especially Aaron Brothers) would do a good job on framing it or should I find a frame shop that specializes in conservation framing?
I have an old Gibson guitar of some sort (not sure where it came from) that lived under the bed for years in its case. Now its standing up in closet.
Which way should it be stored?
I have a silk top hat from the turn of the century. It is the kind that collapses and is in excellent shape. How should I store it?