About the service
Two decades at the conservation bench restoring cartographic and graphic works on paper — antique maps, botanical plates, architectural engravings, and estate prints — for private collectors, auction houses, and small regional archives. Every commission opens with condition photography under raking light and UV to chart foxing clusters, mold staining, and any prior amateur repair before a single fiber is touched.
Foxing and tarnish spotting are reduced with calcium phytate treatment and controlled, paper-specific bleaching rather than bulk chemical soaking that flattens plate tone and engraving contrast. Tears and losses are closed from the verso with hand-torn Japanese kozo tissue feathered to match the original sheet thickness, adhered with reversible wheat-starch paste — no pressure-sensitive tape, ever, and no infill a future conservator couldn't undo. Brittle, acidic sheets are run through a buffered deacidification bath calibrated to the paper's own pH before flattening, restoring alkaline reserve rather than just fixing appearance.
Mounting uses 100% cotton rag board with photo-corners or Japanese hinges only — nothing glued directly to the artwork — and framing guidance covers UV-filtering glazing, spacers that keep glass off the paper surface, and a portfolio of finished museum-style frames shared for reference before assembly begins. A single sheet typically turns around in one to two weeks depending on damage extent; multi-sheet atlas or portfolio commissions start with a written condition report and treatment proposal, so nothing changes mid-treatment without sign-off. Insurance-grade before/after documentation accompanies every finished piece.
Foxing and tarnish spotting are reduced with calcium phytate treatment and controlled, paper-specific bleaching rather than bulk chemical soaking that flattens plate tone and engraving contrast. Tears and losses are closed from the verso with hand-torn Japanese kozo tissue feathered to match the original sheet thickness, adhered with reversible wheat-starch paste — no pressure-sensitive tape, ever, and no infill a future conservator couldn't undo. Brittle, acidic sheets are run through a buffered deacidification bath calibrated to the paper's own pH before flattening, restoring alkaline reserve rather than just fixing appearance.
Mounting uses 100% cotton rag board with photo-corners or Japanese hinges only — nothing glued directly to the artwork — and framing guidance covers UV-filtering glazing, spacers that keep glass off the paper surface, and a portfolio of finished museum-style frames shared for reference before assembly begins. A single sheet typically turns around in one to two weeks depending on damage extent; multi-sheet atlas or portfolio commissions start with a written condition report and treatment proposal, so nothing changes mid-treatment without sign-off. Insurance-grade before/after documentation accompanies every finished piece.
