Caring for paper in India

Paper is tougher than it looks. Heat alone rarely finishes it. What ruins paper here is mostly damp, light and bad framing, and all three can be managed at home.

1. Damp is the main enemy

Conservators work in relative humidity, the amount of moisture in the air compared with the most it could hold. The Library of Congress suggests storing paper at room temperature or cooler and at around 35 per cent. Most Indian homes will not see that in July, and they do not need to. What matters more is avoiding the extremes and the swings.

NEDCC, the American conservation centre, notes that mould and insects are more likely when humidity is high, and that very dry air makes paper stiff and brittle. Paper expands and shrinks as the air changes, and a sheet that does it all year will ripple in its frame.

2. Before and during the monsoon

• Take works on paper off outside walls, and walls that share a bathroom or kitchen. These are the first to turn damp.
• Leave a gap between the frame and the wall. Small cork or felt pads at the lower corners let air move behind it.
• Keep paper out of basements, attics, storerooms with leaks, and cupboards that are rarely opened.
• Check the backs and corners of frames every few weeks in the wet months. Mould starts where nobody looks.
• If you store works unframed, keep them flat in acid-free folders, in a room you use.

A good frame buys time. NEDCC is clear that framing buffers only small, short changes in climate. It does not protect a work against a season of damp.

3. Foxing and mould

Foxing is the small reddish-brown spotting found on old paper. What causes it is still argued over. The American Institute for Conservation lists fungal activity, traces of metal in the paper, and a mix of the two. Most agree it gets worse when humidity rises. NEDCC considers foxing harmless in itself. Removing it is a job for a conservator, not for bleach.

Mould is different. It can look fuzzy or powdery, and the stains it leaves are usually permanent. If you see it, do not wipe or spray it. Put the work somewhere drier, away from other works, and call a conservator.

4. Light

Light damage is permanent and adds up. It cannot be reversed by any treatment, so the only remedy is less of it.

• No direct sun, at any time of day.
• Subdued light in the rooms where works on paper hang.
• Rest a work from display from time to time.
• UV-filtering film on windows helps. So does switching lights off in rooms you are not using.

5. The frame

A frame for paper has more inside it than the moulding. NEDCC’s guidance, in short:

• Mount: a window mount of 100 per cent cotton rag board, deep enough that the glass never touches the sheet.
• Backing: rag board behind the work, and a lignin-free board behind that. Not kraft paper or foam board.
• Fixing: small hinges of Japanese paper with wheat starch paste at the top corners, or photo corners. Never self-adhesive tape, and never glue across the back.
• Glazing: glass or acrylic that blocks at least 99 per cent of ultraviolet light. For pastel and charcoal, avoid ordinary acrylic, which carries static.

Ask your framer what each layer is made of. If the answer is “standard”, ask again.

6. Handling

Clean, dry hands. Hold a sheet by two edges, or slide a board under it. Never fold, clip, staple or tape it. Write on the back only in soft pencil, on a hard, clean surface, so the writing does not dent the front.

7. When to call a conservator

Tears, flaking paint, mould, water stains, old tape and paper stuck to the glass all need a trained hand. INTACH, the national heritage trust, runs conservation centres, among them the Indian Conservation Institute in Lucknow and the INTACH Chitrakala Parishath Art Conservation Centre in Bengaluru. Ask what they propose to do, and whether it can be undone later. Good conservation can.