After a review of the various materials that were used for coating old tracing papers, the authors showed that for a certain number of the products, it was possible to detect their presence on microsamples. The products were identified through the application, before and after degradation, of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) on fragments containing characteristic ions. A model experiment was conducted on tracing papers coated according to old techniques and artificially aged. These results allowed the study of about 60 old transparent papers of known place of origin and dated 1800 to 1950.