Glassine Paper

Hello,
I wanted to ask, when or whether at all, it's important to use "Glassine papers" for the tipped in Illustrations in youre fine press books ?
I noticed that Lyra's Book is using them for "The Picture of Dorian Gray" & "A Christmas Carol". (I only own those two)
I don't saw any other publishers using them so far.

Thank you for youre time and have an relaxing Sunday.

>1 Pax_Romana: these glassine/tissue guards are sometimes used to prevent a phenomenon called offsetting. This is where the text or, most often, illustration from a page causes uneven browning on the facing page. You can see an example here:
https://www.marshallrarebooks.com/all-books/all-books/a-narrative-of-the-adventu...

The guard acts as a barrier between the two pages to prevent this.

>2 ubiquitousuk:
That's very informative. Thanks.
So should I include some glassine paper myself as preventive measure?

As long as the paper is acid free, nothing can happen, right ?

>3 Pax_Romana: Offsetting can happen regardless of whether the paper is acid free. It happens most frequently with images because those are often quite heavily inked. For example, I had glassines in a copy of the Allen Press "Genesis," particularly for the pages with illustrations (or hand-colored initials). Many copies of that title unfortunately did not, so it's not an uncommon facet of that edition. I still have one or two other titles from other presses that are essentially worthless because of the extent of the offsetting of the images.

>4 DenimDan: I think Pax Romana’s query is whether there is any likelihood of problems using glassine as long as it is acid free. My answer to that is there seems to me to be no viable reason why an acid-free paper used as a separation sheet to stop offset should be detrimental to the paper in the book it is being slipped into.

I have not had any issues using acid-free tissue in this way, and I have not seen any other fine press book adversely affected by using the same, or similar materials.

The glassine is inserted by the publisher as a precaution. If you receive a new book from a publisher with such sheets laid in, you can either leave them in there, or remove them. If the book is already several years old, the sheets have served their purpose and can be removed. If the book doesn't come with such sheets inserted, I myself would not bother with adding my own, as there would be no point to it.

>5 ChestnutPress:
Exactly ! I should have sayed more clearly what I wanted to know. It's my fault.

>6 Glacierman:
Couldn't it be that over time, the colour of a tipped in illustration would spread some colour to the text block,
so it would be wise to guard those pages with glassine sheets?
Like >2 ubiquitousuk: showed . . .
Though if the danger would be very high, the bookbinder would insert some glassine paper themselves, one would think.

I would like to better understand how offsetting occurs. I get the impression that there is a distinction between a simple case where the ink "rubs off" onto the facing page, which should be a short-term problem until fully dry, and the kind of thing seen in>2 ubiquitousuk:. This latter type of offsetting looks more like an uneven browning of the page rather than the transfer of ink and it leads me to wonder if it's caused by some sort of long-term chemical reaction when the facing page is in contact with the ink. In that case, a permanent tissue guard would have some utility.

I know some publishers bind their tissue guards into the book, so there must be a reason to keep them around.

>8 ubiquitousuk: It is a reaction between some inks and the paper. So tissue guards are a very good idea

I do wish more publishers used them. I've seen several old books with this kind of transfer or rather browning to opposite pages and wonder if it's got something to do with acidity?

>10 SF-72:
Aren't fine press books today and older are printed on archival, acid free papers ?
Otherwise which sense would it make to buy those books ?

I think I read somewhere that a good acid-free paper can survive the time up to 100 years.
The UK government print important stuff for archival usage still on genuine vellum, because it survives way way way longer then the best paper out there.

Please correct me of I said something wrong here.
Very interesting topic !

>11 Pax_Romana:

I wasn't thinking of the papers but of the inks used for the illustrations. I've got an old edition illustrated by Arthur Rackham that has this issue - that one was probably not fine press - but also an old German book that I would definitely expect to fall under fine press. But the illustrations have left brown impressions on the opposite pages without glassinine paper as protection. That's a real shame, the book is gorgeous otherwise.

P. S. I've seen drawings by Rembrandt that are slowly eating up the (good) paper he used because the brown ink is acidic. There are already brown spots and holes, and sooner or later they will be destroyed unless new conservation methods are found. The same goes for some fascinating medieval books on parchment that was died black before being written on. They look beautiful, but this is deadly to the died material.