foxing

{{short description|Age-related process of deterioration occurring on paper products}}

Image:Comstock 1832 title page.jpg of an 1832 textbook]]

Foxing is an age-related process of deterioration that causes spots and browning on paper documents such as books, postage stamps, old paper money and certificates, and on textiles such as clothing and artists' canvasses. The name may be a variant form of the English West country dialect term foust and Scots foze, to become moldy.{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DIjAQAAIAAJ&dq=foxed&pg=PA128 |title=Folk-Etymology: A Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions Or Words Perverted in Form Or Meaning, by False Derivation Or Mistaken Analogy |last=Smythe Palmer |first=Abram |website=Google Books |date=1890 |access-date=10 October 2024}} Alternatively, it may derive from the fox-like reddish-brown color of the stains.{{cite web|url=http://www.conservation-wiki.com/w/index.php?title=Foxing_(PCC)|title=Foxing (PCC) – Wiki|website=www.conservation-wiki.com|access-date=1 February 2018|archive-date=9 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109100752/http://www.conservation-wiki.com/w/index.php?title=Foxing_%28PCC%29|url-status=live}} Paper so affected is said to be "foxed".

Foxing is seldom found in incunabula, or books printed before 1501.{{Cite journal |last1=Iiams |first1=Thomas M. |last2=Beckwith |first2=T. D. |date=October 1935 |title=Notes on the Causes and Prevention of Foxing in Books |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4302211 |journal=The Library Quarterly |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=407–418 |doi=10.1086/613729 |jstor=4302211 |url-access=subscription }} Decrease in rag fibre quality may be a culprit; as demand for paper rose in later centuries, papermakers used less water and spent less time cleansing the rag fibres used to make paper.{{Cite book |last=Dard |first=Hunter |title=Papermaking : the history and technique of an ancient craft |publisher=Dover |year=1978 |isbn=0-486-23619-6 |location=New York |page=154 |language=en}} An early work of art to have been affected by foxing is the Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk, a drawing on paper by Leonardo da Vinci.{{cite journal |last1=Piñar |first1=Guadalupe |last2=Tafer |first2=Hakim |last3=Katja |first3=Sterflinger |last4=Flavia |first4=Pinzari |name-list-style=amp |date=2015 |title=Amid the Possible Causes of a Very Famous Foxing: Molecular and Microscopic Insight into Leonardo da Vinci's Self-portrait |journal=Environmental Microbiology Reports |volume=7 |issue=6 |pages=849–859 |doi=10.1111/1758-2229.12313 |doi-access=free |pmid=26111623 |issn=1758-2229|pmc=4959533 |bibcode=2015EnvMR...7..849P }}

Foxing also occurs in biological study skins or specimens, as an effect of chemical reactions or mold on melanin. Textiles, such as articles of clothing, so affected may also be said to be foxed.{{cite journal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01971360.2019.1674604 |title=Foxy Underpants: Or the Use of Chelators and Enzymes to Reduce Foxing Stains on Early Nineteenth Century Men's Linen Underpants |last=Mina |first=Laura |date=1 November 2019 |journal=Journal of the American Institute for Conservation |volume=59 |pages=3–17 |doi=10.1080/01971360.2019.1674604 |access-date=10 October 2024|url-access=subscription }}

Aside from foxing, other types of age-related paper deterioration include destruction of the lignin by sunlight and absorbed atmospheric pollution, typically causing the paper to become brown and crumble at the edges, and acid-related damage to cheap paper such as newsprint, which manufacturers make without neutralizing acidic contaminants.{{Cite web|title=The Deterioration and Preservation of Paper: Some Essential Facts – Collections Care – Resources (Preservation, Library of Congress)|url=https://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/deterioratebrochure.html|access-date=2020-11-25|website=www.loc.gov|archive-date=2015-01-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150120175215/http://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/deterioratebrochure.html|url-status=live}}

Causes of foxing

The causes of foxing are not well understood. One conjecture is that foxing is caused by a fungal growth on the paper.{{Cite web|last=Arai|first=Hideo|date=October 2000|title=Foxing caused by Fungi: twenty-five years of study|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248436693|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=November 24, 2020|website=Research Gate}} Another is that foxing is caused by the effect on certain papers of the oxidation of iron, copper, or other substances in the pulp or rag from which the paper was made.{{cite web |url=https://kelseyconservation.com/what-causes-foxing-staining-in-paper/ |title=What Causes Foxing and Staining in Paper? |date=21 January 2023 |last=Kelsey |first=Marianne |website=Kelsey Book and Paper Conservation |access-date=10 October 2024}} It is possible that multiple factors are involved. High humidity may contribute to foxing.

Repairing foxed documents

Foxed documents can be repaired, with greater or lesser success, using sodium borohydride,{{cite web|url=https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/bid/230209/how-to-prevent-and-reverse-foxing-in-rare-books|title=How to Prevent and Reverse Foxing in Rare Books|first=Kristin|last=Masters|publisher=|access-date=1 February 2018|archive-date=9 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109100754/https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/bid/230209/how-to-prevent-and-reverse-foxing-in-rare-books|url-status=live}} proprietary bleaches, dilute hydrogen peroxide or lasers. Each method risks side effects or damage to the paper or ink.

Another method is to scan the image and process that image using a high-level image processing program. This can usually remove the effects of foxing while leaving text and images intact.

In biological specimens

It is generally not advisable to repair study specimens, except perhaps for mechanical damage. Type specimens should – if at all possible – not be altered in any way. If foxing affects the study value of a specimen (e.g. in bird or mammal skins or in insects, where it may affect diagnostic coloration), this might rather be remarked on the specimen label. Color standards{{sfn|Smithe|1974}} can provide a means of documenting coloration before or in the early stages of foxing.

References

Cited Sources

{{cite book|last=Smithe|first=Frank B. |title=Naturalist's Color Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6gXAQAAIAAJ|year=1974|publisher=American Museum of Natural History|isbn=978-0-913424-04-9}}

Related Works

Smithe, Frank B (1974): Naturalists' Color Guide Supplement. American Museum of Natural History, NYC. {{ISBN|0-913424-04-8}}.

Smithe, Frank B (1975-): Naturalist's Color Guide. American Museum of Natural History, NYC. {{ISBN|0-913424-03-X}}.
Smithe, Frank B (1981): Naturalist's Color Guide Part III. American Museum of Natural History, NYC. {{ISBN|0-913424-05-6}}.
{{cite book|last1=Roberts|first1= Matt |last2=Etherington|first2= Don|title=Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology|year=1981|publisher=Library of Congress|location=Washington, DC|isbn=978-0844403663|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iTU4rgEACAAJ}}

External links

[https://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/paper.html The Library of Congress: 'Preserving Works on Paper']
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170704082955/http://mywingsbooks.com/coll-terms/fxt_.shtml Foxing]

Category:Book collecting

Category:Materials degradation

Category:Papermaking

Category:Philatelic terminology