Thoughts on Older Academy Boards?

For the past month I've been searching for period-correct paintings for my 1913-era home. Going in, I thought I would be looking mostly at paintings on canvas. Surprisingly, almost everything I've seen at auction from the period has been on an "academy board" or "millboard". Note I've focused on less expensive paintings that were probably less valuable at the turn of last century. This source argues Academy Boards were popular for quicker/informal works but were eventually superseded due to issues with warpage: JAIC 1999, Volume 38, Number 1, Article 3 (pp. 21 to 32) (culturalheritage.org)

Surprisingly, many of the Academy Board paintings I've seen have held up quite well compared with canvases from the period. Although some are fairly warped, they don't seem to develop as much craquelure and are more resistant to punctures and tears. I bought one from the 1870s that's in nearly perfect condition after spending days or weeks in a ditch in upstate New York.

What has your experience with academy boards been like? Is this just some sort of survivorship bias? Aside from warpage, are Academy Boards more durable in the long run?

 

Millboard itself seems to me to be quite stable, but a lot of stuff can happen to a painting over a hundred years or more. A lot depends on how it was prepared for painting. I don't know about the acid content of the paper. I think an assumption of brittleness is prudent.

I think it was particularly popular with amateurs, but I do have a mid-19th C portrait on millboard that looks professional to me.

There were also 19th C equivalents of factory art that would be done on millboard as cost-effective.

I doubt you will find many large paintings on it.

Buying online is always a crapshoot. Better if you can make your own personal assessment hands-on.

I once bought a print that was mounted to badly warped millboard. Pressing it for a very long period had no effect, the warp reasserted itself in no time. In that instance, I was able to remove the print from the board, but I wouldn't try that with a painting.