Surface dry cleaning with ground rubber and eraser for heavily soiled areas. 

Paper surface has a layer of dirt.

Adding the ground rubber to the delicate paper surface and using a soft brush.

Ground rubber being gently worked across the surface to lift the dirt.

This engraving print took several soft applications of ground rubber to fully lift the dirt and not cause any damage to the tears.

Here we can see how much dirt is removed with each application.

Close up of carefully cleaned area.

Dry clean process complete surface dirt removed.

Aqueous wash to remove dirt, acid from lignum and stains. Ink is pre tested for stability.

The wash relaxes the paper fibres helping the yellowing come out and removes glues from backings.

Lightening process helps neutralise the acid and removes more yellowing.

Targeted lightening process to remove heavy stains.

Removing glue from previous backings.

Reverse showing glue removed a visible tear for repair later and a loss for filling.

Cleaned, lightened and pressed to remove cockling and wrinkles.

Finished process with colour chart ready to have losses filled, weak parts consolidated and tear repaired.