Featured Original Currier & Ives badly water stained.

I felt sorry for Little Lizzie so i bought her for $5.00 and brought her home. now i am wondering why. has anyone here ever had any luck removing water stains from lithographs. this is hand colored by the way.14" x 18" dated to about the 1870's.

Mikey

 

Sorry.
I believe she's done for.
Enjoy her as is.

 

I'm always shocked and sad how people save things for a long time then banish them to a hostile environment.
-
I once bought a 2' stack of comics that would have done quite well.
I asked where they came from.
"Oh they were in the garage."
(In Seattle!!!!!!!)

They wanted stupid money.
I asked if they had looked at them.
"Well no."
'Show me one please.'
"Oh no!!!!"
(No kidding, all one block now, all the covers fused together.)
I think I paid 10. Salvaged what I could and kept what I wanted. The rest went to the comic shop which gave me $23.
Very sad.

 

Yeah but just look at those eyes. She is saying save me please save me.

 

Oh I know.
I'd keep her.
There was some discussion on this recently but I don't recall what was said.
Perhaps someone will recall.
I can't imagine I wouldn't remember a solution because I see and have lots of paper.

 

I thought she was saying: "Please buy my flowers", like a young Eliza Doolittle.

 

She's lovely, how sweet. Maybe an oval frame would hide some of the damage, Joy.

 

Good idea.

 

I concur!!!

 

Hi Mikey.
I spent over 50 bucks to have a litho cleaned after water damage. The restorer told me to NOT to use bleach as it would destroy the paper and all. She used Hydrogen Peroxide did not reveal the strength. It cleaned up all the brown foxing and dark stains. It cleaned up the whole thing a lot better than I ever thought but not as wonderful as I hoped.. How she kept the stuff from touching the colored area was her secret.
greg

 

Have you taken it out of the frame?

I don't think Currier and Ives prints are on coated paper, but I could very easily be wrong. If the paper is coated, then the print is probably stuck to the glass and you're done.

If the print comes out easily, then use a wet q-tip on some innocuous bit to determine if the color hand applied and water-based. Does the q-tip show a tiny spot of color after a very light rub?

After you've determined those things, it's a question of how much time you're willing to put into it. And money to some extent... there are supplies you would have to buy.

The fix wouldn't be quick, or easy, and you would probably be left with some staining under the best of circumstances. There a good chance the print would be destroyed, since you'd be doing potentially damaging stuff to it that you have never done before.

An interesting learning project, if you're into that kind of thing.

No guarantees of success.

I have several prints here that I'd like to remove stains from, but haven't quite got up the initiative to try yet.

 

I wonder what a bleach pen carefully applied would do.....
(yes I saw what Greg wrote)

 

Chlorine bleach is damaging and not recommended. All bleach is damaging. Hydrogen peroxide is what I have read as recommended, but it's bleach as well. Don't forget that.

 

I'll try a pen sometime on something unimportant.

 

Bleach will eventually eat away the paper. There are restoration supply companies, like Talas, that sell products to do this, . If you call or email them, they might be able to recommend which product would work best.

 

Problem solved.
I just sold it to my neighbor.

Mike

 

Hi KoT,
I have tried the bleach pen and RUINED several pieces!!!!!!!!!! I DO NOT RECOMMEND for any paper.

 

That should be marked "Best Answer".

 

And so it came to pass.