Foxing

Description

Yellow, red, or brown discoloration spots on paper. Foxing stains are thought to be caused by the waste-products of microorganisms. Another possible source of the stains is from iron impurities in the paper matrix that rust in high humidity. Foxing usually occurs in machine-made paper from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Synonyms and Related Terms

foxmarks; fox spots; bruine vlekken (Ned.); roestvlekken (Ned.); piqûre (Fr.); rousseur (Fr.); taches de jaunissement (Fr.); Stockflecken (Deut.); macchie di ruggine (It.); manchas rojizas de humedad (Esp.); fuktfläck (Sven.); mögelfläck (Sven.)

Resources and Citations

• Mary-Lou E. Florian, Fungal Facts, Archetype Publications, London, 2002.

• AIC Book and Paper Group Catalog, Chapter 13

• Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)

• Hermann Kuhn, Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art and Antiquities, Butterworths, London, 1986

• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982

• Book and Paper Group, Paper Conservation Catalog, AIC, 1984, 1989

• AMOL reCollections Glossary - http://amol.org.au/recollections/7/f/htm

• Multilingual Glossary for Art Librarians at http://www.ifla.org/VII/s30/pub/mgl.htm