Glassine has varied a lot over the years, along with its method of
> manufacture. It has to be made translucent, either by the addition of
> chemicals and or simply by pulverizing the fibers until they are very very
> short. Either method makes the glassine extremely hygroscopic (and thus
> translucent due to high moisture content), which is a problem in itself when
> used as a storage material in direct contact with photographs.
There is lots of information on the web about glassine. I have an old bible with glassine interleaving over the pictures. It is embossed and likely does not contact the artwork. No problems, yet. In those days, bibles and other books were manufactured using high quality materials.
It is interesting that when you Google glassine, you will discover that many archival companies sell glassine for archival storage. But, who knows how accurate they are. Like I said, my personal experiences do not indicate glassine is a problem. My three minutes with Google indicate that glassine is also used for preserving rare documents, plant specimens, and other sensitive materials. Granted, a weed is different than a photograph. I know that storing philatelic materials for decades in glassine is not a problem; it would be in the case of stamps with perfect gum. Gum disturbance can be a serious financial issue with some materials.
It is likely that there are "good" grades and "bad" grades of glassine.
Bob
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Received on Mon Feb 13 13:59:42 2006
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