Rubber cement stains

Miriam A. Kilmer <miriam [at] risingdove__com> writes

>Does anyone know of a safe and effective way to remove rubber cement
>stains from paper?  Robert C. Morrison wrote in 1995: "To my
>knowledge, there is no solvent for rubber cement [made from natural
>rubber]."

I agree generally with Jon Derow concerning the problem of removing
rubber cement stains.  One has to keep in mind the different stages
of aging and solubility of rubber cement stains.  Robert Feller and
D.B. Enche's experiments "Stages of deterioration..." published in
the 1982 Preprints IIC, inform us of the characteristics.  R. Ann
Sheldon and I published our findings in Restaurator in 1992 ("The
discovery of hidden drawings by backing removal: Three examples
including a Charles Keene," v. 13:1-22) on the removal of stains
from a number of conditions of stains on different papers and paper
bases.  We also included a bibliography of other peoples' work to
remove such stains and variations in aging by S.B. Murphy in
Symposium 88.  Bathing in 1:1 hydrogen peroxide (2%) and alcohol
(isopropanol) gave excellent results in many cases.

Niccolo Caldararo
Director and Chief Conservator
Conservation Art Service


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:20
                  Distributed: Sunday, October 7, 2012
                       Message Id: cdl-26-20-003
                                  ***