The Guild has been asked why, going back to before anyone was aware of
acid-free issues, was lace traditionally stored in blue tissue paper? Â This is
in the UK, Â was it a common practice worldwide? Â
Our curator (who probably knows the answer) is on holiday, so I thought I would
ask
I would suspect for the same reason people put bluing into their wash water
for whites - the colour blue was held to make whites look whiter. You would
think they'd use white tissue, of course, but maybe they figured that if some
kind of colour transference happened they'd want it to be blue.
The blue tissue myth is probably related to 19th C. advice from
well-meaning experts. This is why I always warn not to use outdated care
instructions and products.
In the 1980s, when I started taking every museum-sponsored
conservation/restoration course I could find that applied to
