Preserving Advertising Posters
by Bob Brooke

Antique and vintage advertising posters can be valuable. Preserving them should be top priority if that value will hold in the future. Preserving them properly doesn’t have to cost a lot and in the end will enhance the poster’s value.

All posters were created to be disposable. And because of this, printers often used the cheapest quality ink and paper. The poorer the quality of the paper, the easier it was for posters to get damaged. Advertising are highly collectible. In fact, the older they are, the more important it is to preserve them properly. And a poster’s value will continue to rise if it’s protected from the elements that can destroy it.

Some of the things that are harmful to any type of paper collectible include moisture—both humidity and water damage—heat, which makes paper brittle and brown, light, which fades colors, acidity, which disintegrates paper, and insects which can eat through it. You must protect your posters from all of them. Any weakness in any of these areas will affect the value and longevity of your collection.

First, you need to decide if you intend to frame it for display or just store it safely.

Preserving a Poster by Storing It
If you just want to safely store your vintage posters, it's good to keep them flat, in acid-free sleeves. Acid-free sleeves preserve your posters from dust, moisture and critters. Storing them rolled up is another option, particularly if you don’t have the space to store your posters flat. Be sure to use acid-free tubes to preserve the rolled-up posters.

Don’t store your posters stacked deep unless you seal them together with plastic like shrink-wrap. Remember posters left open will accumulate dust and moisture which will damage them.

Preserving a Poster by Framing It
Light is one of paper's worst enemies. So to preserve your poster in frames, use UV-resistant glass or Plexiglas to eliminate most of the damage sunlight and florescent lights will cause.

Always use acid-free matting and backing when preserving a poster in a frame. Regular matting and backing with acid will actually eat away at your poster.

To preserve a poster in a frame without matting, use a molding to allow room for a “spacer” to keep the glass or Plexiglas off the poster. If a framed poster touches glass or Plexiglas, humidity can become trapped causing the poster to eventually adhere to the glass.

Preserving a Rare Advertising Poster
To preserve a rare poster, you can have it backed with linen by a professional conservator. You can also use this method to repair or restore a valuable poster.

Preserving a poster with linen backing can be expensive. However, if a poster has good linen backing it could increase the value significantly even if it was in poor condition before being backed.

A linen-backed poster is one that’s archivally mounted to acid free paper and canvas where it can be restored if needed. Fold lines and other defects become less noticeable, sometimes even invisible.

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