What would you do? I took a poster to Alain Bourgain, restorer here in London. When we discussed the restoration work for my poster, he said he will
bleach the paper to remove all the marks at the back of the poster. The marks are in light blue (see pic 1 and pic 2). I disagreed. He should remove the tape, but NOT the marks as those are part of the history of the poster.
Alain insisted that these should be removed because they could be seen from them front once it had been restored. The poster has a bright blue colour so I thought this would be very unlikely and also it would not be major concern for me.
Alain in the end ''agreed''and will just
de-acidify the paper, no bleaching. He made the valid point that it might be difficult for me to sell it in the future if the marks can be seen through the main body of the poster in the end. I am not buying to sell, so that's not a problem or a concern.
I am rather buying to preserve, and that's why I want the poster as close as possible to its original condition, if that means with marks then so be it.
So my Q to you is,
what would you do? Would you agree to bleach the paper?
Have you kept marks such as these shown below?Many thanks for you help with this. Any views would be highly appreciated!
PIC 1- STAMP 1PIC 2- STAMP 2PIC 3- FRONT BRIGHT BLUE COLOUR