Quote Ian P="Ian P"They rarely use any chemicals in preserving old documents as you need to know what sort of reaction you get from any film you put over it. The majority of documents are stored flat, dry and devoid of light and have been for centuries.
How do you think the Magna Carta has lasted so long or even the Doomsday book, the monks knew how to it even a thousand years ago'"
Having recently visited America and seen the Bill of Rights, Decleration of Independence, Louisianna Purchase, the various amendments and a 12th Century copy of the Magna Carta, and watched the video about the preservations and cleaning processes adopted I'd beg to differ about chemicals etc. not being used in preservation, you can argue that no chemicals are directly applied to the surface of the documents, but they are stored in frames made of gold and titanium in argon gas.
Anyway, wolfie isn't talking about preserving the contents of the frames, he's talking about protecting signatures on the exterior glass of the frame, the only way is to create a protectice barrier, a resin would do this. BUT you also need to remember that marker pen works by not just depositing ink, but also tiny fragments of material, when the ink dries the fragments of material flake off, which is what causes the signature to degrade.
IanP's point about getting signatures in pencil is a very good one, a good pencil (2b) will leave a lot of flakes of graphite on the page, it's also a good idea to use a decent paper, not just A4 or a programme.
