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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;2manybooks, post: 1248757, member: 8267&quot;]Taking care of such samplers can be a challenge. To preserve them, the best thing is to unframe them and store them flat, in archival materials, kept in the dark. But usually people want to enjoy and display them. So the simplest first step is to hang them where they do not receive any direct sunlight, or strong artificial light. </p><p><br /></p><p>Another problem is that they have often been framed before the use of archival materials became common, and so may have backing materials that are harmful. You may&nbsp; find that the cloth has been wrapped around a backing board and tacked/stapled (if you are lucky) or glued (not so lucky). So replacing a backing board with a safer material is not always straight forward. Selecting the proper archival materials is made more complicated by the fact that the samplers usually combine cotton or linen cloth with wool or silk embroidery threads. Archival materials that are suitable and safe for cotton/linen (&quot;buffered&quot; materials) are not necessarily the best choice for wool/silk (preferably &quot;unbuffered&quot; materials). </p><p><br /></p><p>If re-framing, you will need to decide if you want to retain the original wooden frame. Sometimes these may be contemporary with the sampler, and of some historic interest in themselves. </p><p><br /></p><p>Washing a sampler to remove the degradation products and brighten the colors is best left to professional conservators. They would be able to test the various dyes, and use methods that reduce the risk of distortion during the drying process.</p><p><br /></p><p>One conservation lab that I know has a lot of experience with samplers is The Textile Conservation Workshop in South Salem, New York:</p><p><a href="https://www.textileconservationworkshop.org/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.textileconservationworkshop.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.textileconservationworkshop.org/</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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