Mat conservation for a vintage Laura Gilpin print ??

[Drew Wiley]

A trick not discussed yet would be to slip a thin sheet of mylar with its own cutout window between the mat and print, if an incompatibility is suspected. It's a good barrier.

[Robert Opheim]

The other thing would be to keep it out of direct sunlight and replace the glass with conservation glass.

[Drew Wiley]

Any kind of glass (versus plexiglas) is a poor thermal insulator and susceptible to backside condensation under certain circumstances. The problem in this case was due to humidity. Keeping prints out of direct sunlight or other high UV sources is important regardless, but the potential migration of nasties between a less than ideal matboard and the print itself can occur in total darkness. But if that kind of risk exists in this case would have to be determined by someone capable of identifying the specific kind of paper involved with each component. The backing might not be ideal either. But one can't just jump in feet first. Lots of "archival" materials are artificially buffered slightly alkaline;
and alkalinity is not always a good thing. It all depends.

[FrancisF]

Thanks for all the helpful thoughts about options. I ended up going to see Brian Flax at his framing shop on Wabash Ave in Chicago. The glass was broken so I replaced it with a UV protection glass. The mat "board" was just paper. It was warped as a mentioned and also has some water staining due to condensation from improper storage. So I went with the option of mat board on top that has a cut out for Laura Gilpin's signature on the original matting. Inside I also found her label. It refers to the print as "Gaveluxe" print.
I have found no references on line for this type of print. Has anyone heard of this?

[Vaughn]

In the powerful photograph, "Sunburst, The Castillo, Chichén Itzá," 1932, Gilpin contrasted the corner of a massive, stone hewn temple on the left of the photograph with sun rays streaming through the clouds toward a flat, undifferentiated landscape. Printed it as a silver bromide print on Gavelux paper, the photograph has an especially rich tonality.

from: https://www.andrewsmithgallery.com/e...auragilpin.htm

In the same article, she preferred platinum papers and textured silver papers.

An interesting article -- probably a different paper from the same company:

https://www.artic.edu/articles/696/e...al-photo-paper

Sounds like it was a textured silver bromide paper by Gevaert Photo-Producten NV, who merged with Agfa in 1964.

[Drew Wiley]

Her paper preferences are discussed in Enduring Grace. Some were fragile to handling due to an almost velour surface.

[Vaughn]

My second link above is about the Gavaert velour paper Laura Gilpin used-- shows the paper surface magnified, repairing the fragile surface, and also a short video that should be boring but is somehow interesting..."Removing fibers with tweezers"