The Glorias Collection team appraises, buys and sells historical documents from around the world. This exceptional collection is a heritage that you, customers, new owners, must protect. It is very important to keep your documents in a protected place, with adequate light, humidity and temperature conditions. Documents must also be protected from the risks of fire, water damage and theft. There are preventive materials and procedures to ensure the good conservation of your collection.

Heuvath Alquimim, who carried out the restoration procedure, explains:

In the historical document in question, tears, gaps and fragility were diagnosed at various points of the support, caused by intrinsic factors - directly linked to the elements that make up the paper, its composition, type of fiber, chemical residues and metallic particles - and extrinsic to its construction material – directly associated with physical and biological agents: improper handling and packaging, ultraviolet radiation, humidity, atmospheric pollutants, among others.

In view of the damage identified, the treatment process adopted for this document complies with conservation standards. Mechanical cleaning was performed with a soft brush; for the grafts (complementation of missing areas) and patches (stabilization and reconstitution of tears) special papers and adhesives specific to the restoration were used. The final packaging was carried out in permanent, stable paper pulp, with the aim of delaying the processes of degradation of the paper supporting the document.

Such procedures will provide greater stability and longevity to the document, once treated and in ideal storage conditions.

We would like to thank and recommend Heuvath Alquimim for her high quality work, and Camila Nascimento, author of the photographs that illustrate this article.

Graduating in Conservation-Restoration of Movable Cultural Assets at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Heuvath is part of the team of the Vivo Memory Graphic Museum and the History of the Book Laboratory, projects developed at the UFMG Cultural Center in Belo Horizonte – MG. Currently, he has also been providing restoration assistant services at the Memória do Pão de Santo Antônio project, in Diamantina – MG.