Digital BW, The Print

Thanks for the ideas about ob's, paper components, and lignin. I thought Hahnemuhle was 
coming out with a Photo Rag that was OB free. The new one is not that.

I used to work in a museum where I was able to hold Rembrant etchings, 18th Century 
European lithographs, and Durer renaissance engravings in my hands and look at them 
closely. In the case of the Durer etchings, they were produced around 1500 and showed a 
little darkening, but not what I would describe as yellowing. The Rembrant's were a very 
slight warmish value, possibly from the very beginnig, but also not what I would describe 
as  yellowish. I assume these and the other hundreds of ink prints from that collection 
were printed on a cotton based rag type paper, even in an era when almost nothing was 
known about conservation. They held up very well indeed.

Similarly, in Asian art, the standard media was usually so called "rice paper" which was 
usually made from bamboo stalks, and later mulberry tree fiber. There are thousands of 
examples of prints in China and Japan done with carbon pigment in brush calligraphy 
paintings that have held up extremely well, in many cases without real staining, even in 
harsh, moist, and who knows what  revolutionary conditions for many hundreds, if not 
thousands of years ( of course they didn't have the same air pollution that we contend 
with.)

Wouldn't it  be nice if conservators could analyze the artworks from both Western and 
Eastern sources that have survived well and outline for us what the properties are that 
make some more stable than others. Storage conditions would certainly contribute and 
would have to be factored in, as you suggest with your silver prints in the drawer.

John