With some regularity we preserve and restore charter collections. Often, they are folded up, have a lot of surface dirt and their attached wax seals are damaged. We house the charters in the so called ‘standard 3-d charter storage’.
Restoration
Firstly, we unfold the charters if this is possible. Then they are slowly humidified in a room where the relative humidity can go up to 80%. This will slightly soften the stiff parchment so we can unfold the charters fully and then flatten them under weights between blotting paper, cardboard and plywood boards. At the same time the tails to which the seals are attached, are flattened by clipping them between little pieces of cardboard.
Then the wax seals will be dry cleaned. Often, there’s a need of securing detached parts. This is done with toned wax and a miniature iron.