Archiving Fountain Pens For Future Generations

[PenBuyer1796]

Question for those who are well versed in historical conservation techniques, what is the best way to archive fountain pens? I have gathered that leather cases are not a good method due to the off-gassing of the materials, similar with wood trays and fabric liners. So for those who have concluded a solid method, do you use archival boxes made of Polyethylene or paper? Or another solution not listed...

[AAAndrew]

I'm sure others will know much more than I. From my limited exposure to museum methods decades ago, my two-cents would be to remove any rubber sacs or diaphragms and try to avoid the main enemies of conservation: off-gassing, acid, moisture and temperature fluctuations. I doubt bugs are much of a problem with most pens. Removing rubber sacs and using ph neutral and inert materials will help with the acid and off-gassing. The rest is where you store it. Air circulation and steady temperature helps a great deal. Oh, and UV light. So, storing your pens in a new, clear, plastic, sealed container on your car's dashboard is probably not a good idea.

Edited April 6, 2016 by AAAndrew

[ppdiaporama]

Maybe put it in a Foodsaver bag to limit contact with air? Just be sure not to crush anything while removing the air.

[AAAndrew]

I wouldn't seal it. You don't want to seal in moisture. let it breath.

[PenBuyer1796]

Anybody have a better solution than a Foodsaver bag?

[AAAndrew]

Don't seal them up. You want stable temperature and humidity and circulation of air. Acid-free storage boxes lined with acid-free paper accordion folded into "v's" to act as storage slots. That's about as archival as I can think of.

 

I used this as a liner for a pen chest I bought last year and it works beautifully.

 

Here's a picture in that thread.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/291130-superb-pen-chest-at-giveaway-price-of-40-available-online-and-in-stores/?p=3378466

[PenBuyer1796]

Don't seal them up. You want stable temperature and humidity and circulation of air. Acid-free storage boxes lined with acid-free paper accordion folded into "v's" to act as storage slots. That's about as archival as I can think of.

 

I used this as a liner for a pen chest I bought last year and it works beautifully.

 

Here's a picture in that thread.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/291130-superb-pen-chest-at-giveaway-price-of-40-available-online-and-in-stores/?p=3378466

 

Very nice! I was hoping to hear from some dealers to get their opinions of if they are using such a method, but I may have posted in a bad sub forum that doesn't get such views.

[AAAndrew]

In a former life, I spent a fair amount of time in art and archaeology museums working on research, so I saw how they store objects. They very rarely ever seal anything up. Instead they focus on climate control of the whole room, and for that to work the objects have to have access to the climate controlled air.

 

They also prefer to store objects as simply as is consistent with the safety of the object. They use a lot of archival-quality paper, tissue, and cardboard. If I were to construct some boxes for storing pens, I'd use flat boxes with one layer of pens per box, or construct a separator between layers that doesn't touch the pens but allows for free flow of air. I think the folded paper works quite well as it allows for air above, and below the pen, so the pen is not sitting on material except along a thin line on each side of the pen.

 

I suspect most people aren't that interested in storing their pens as carefully as a museum. What I would suggest is to go to a pen show and find the really serious collectors and ask them. Much more than dealers, they're thinking about long-term storage. I bought a pen from a dealer who had bought one such collection. It is a Parker Vacuumatic and all rubber was removed from the interior of the pen prior to storage. It now needs a complete new set of rubber to get it back into writing shape, but the pen is pristine and gorgeous.

 

Good luck, and stay away from the sealed bags.

[PenBuyer1796]

In a former life, I spent a fair amount of time in art and archaeology museums working on research, so I saw how they store objects. They very rarely ever seal anything up. Instead they focus on climate control of the whole room, and for that to work the objects have to have access to the climate controlled air.

 

They also prefer to store objects as simply as is consistent with the safety of the object. They use a lot of archival-quality paper, tissue, and cardboard. If I were to construct some boxes for storing pens, I'd use flat boxes with one layer of pens per box, or construct a separator between layers that doesn't touch the pens but allows for free flow of air. I think the folded paper works quite well as it allows for air above, and below the pen, so the pen is not sitting on material except along a thin line on each side of the pen.

 

I suspect most people aren't that interested in storing their pens as carefully as a museum. What I would suggest is to go to a pen show and find the really serious collectors and ask them. Much more than dealers, they're thinking about long-term storage. I bought a pen from a dealer who had bought one such collection. It is a Parker Vacuumatic and all rubber was removed from the interior of the pen prior to storage. It now needs a complete new set of rubber to get it back into writing shape, but the pen is pristine and gorgeous.

 

Good luck, and stay away from the sealed bags.

 

Thank you!!!

 

From what I have read and from who I have talked to it seems like they are not into preserving their pens much either. They have wood cabinets, which are nice, readily available and cheap compared to archival boxes. That is the problem, wood off-gasses and is not the best material to store Bakelite, hard rubber, celluloid, plastic and other materials. Even if one were to buy a wood pen box, and store their pens on a pH neutral and archival grade material, would that truly help with all the off-gassing happening around the pens?!? I don't believe it would. I have also heard putting holes in the box for circulation helps, but not sure how much that truly helps... So the conclusion I have gathered is, should a collector just buy a wood pen cabinet and use archival grade pen trays and call it quits, or should he use archival storage boxes for his pen collection (not as appealing). I definitely see one option more so then the other.

[AAAndrew]

I suspect that most of these pens will be fine in most cabinets for a while. It depends on whether "fine" is good enough.

 

Have you contacted David Nishimura of Vintagepens.com? He's got an amazing collection, and deals in some very nice and very old pens. He may be able to tell you what he does with his collection or has seen with others' collections.

 

If I really wanted to be totally on the careful side, I'd go with archival boxes with archival paper liners, stored in a climate controlled environment, like your house, as long as you don't let it get too hot, too cold or too humid. If it's comfortable for you, it's comfortable for the pens. Light Impressions has archival stuff, and I'm sure there are other places as well.