Very old prints

I have found a couple of very old prints approx 9x 12 of relatives. Guess taken around 1900. In good condition except the black areas have "silvered". I intend to frame them, but the silvering is distracting. I might copy them and reprint, and would certainly copy them before trying any restoration, but is there any known way to remove the silvering?

Resilvering is caused by insufficient washing when the prints were made together with their age. You can bleach them using a rehalogenating bleach and redevelop them. That should remove the silvering. If they are sepia toned then use an indirect sulfide toner (bleach then tone).

It's over 40 years since I worked with a museum restoring/conserving old prints and negatives, I used a very weak ammonia solution to remove the silvering. A few years later I had to save and stabilise many of my grand-parents photo's which were stored in a cellar, unknown to anyone there was a stream underneath, below a flagstone, and it had flooded, the images were moldy , silvered etc.

The secret is small tentative testing.

Ian

Gerald C Koch said:

Resilvering is caused by insufficient washing when the prints were made together with their age. You can bleach them using a rehalogenating bleach and redevelop them. That should remove the silvering. If they are sepia toned then use an indirect sulfide toner (bleach then tone).

Click to expand...

It can be caused by atmospheric attack by pollution, it's best to steer well away from re-halogenating bleaches unless there's no alternative.

Ian

Ian Grant said:

It can be caused by atmospheric attack by pollution, it's best to steer well away from re-halogenating bleaches unless there's no alternative.

Ian

Click to expand...

True but I have had photos stored together for decades where a few have silvered but the majority have not. So it is not just the environment.

There was a post awhile back about a man in Japan who makes a living restoring old photos. It included a video of him restoring a photograph. The process used was bleach and redevelop. The bleach used was a permanganate one from the color of the solution being used. It was obvious from the video that his service is very important in a culture that reveres the past.

Thanks guys. I think I will just copy them. They're mounted on board as well, so best left as they are methinks. Once I copy I'll post the results.

You might want to contact someone in Conservation, such as Mark Osterman for a professional opinion before you start. He can be reached at George Eastman House or now George Eastman Museum.

PE