The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I think it's just the lighting, Brandon. The paper seems to have about the same color tone as before.

This is great. I love his caricatures. There were several framed on the wall of the Edward Johnson Building ( yes the one who recorded for Columbia ) at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music . I always used to think " But if I grab them and run , they'll never give me my degree.."

JRT

Hi Adam,
Yes paper work can be expensive, but it is often risky for the one who does it. The process uses an industrial lab grade of bleach that is mixed with water and couple of other stabilizers. Once the item is dry it goes through a process to deacidify the paper. Older items have much more stabile inks than we have today. Inda ink which is probably what this was done in can take a lot of chemical before it will run. Early color printing not so much, and water color is very tough to do but I have done some good work on them with methol alcohol.
Today we have much better paper, but a lot is being done with inks that have a very short track record and many of them fade very quickly. While there are some that are very good we simply have not figured how to work on them ...Yet!
It is great that you had it done and it not only looks better, but it will stand the test of time much better now as well.

Well done
Abe

A wonderful thing to have and the restoration is excellent. Congrats!

Clay

Adam,

Wonderful original Caruso caricature! Truly splendid.

Best regards,
Scott