Preserving the Banners
As no two banners are alike, conservation work is invariably slow, and as it is such specialised work, can be very expensive. On average, it costs £10,000 to conserve a banner. This is because the banner may have been made from several different fabrics, perhaps silk and linen for example. It may have been painted using several different types of paint. This presents a conservator with a number of difficulties. The painted surfaces need to be conserved like paintings, but the fabric needs different, but similarly specialised conservation.
All banners, old and new, need to be cared for carefully to ensure they are preserved for the future. Ideally banners should be stored flat. However, large banners are usually stored rolled on large acid free cardboard tubes, interleaved with acid free tissue paper and wrapped in a final protective layer of calico. The banners are then stored on purpose made racks.