"British Museum" old formula for leather preservation and why it isn't used anymore

[Aventurine]

In the past I used cedar oil on vegetable tanned tooled leather.  Cedar oil was one ingredient in the British Museum curation formula which was used by curators and archivists from at least the 1940s to the 1970s.  It later became seen as problematic, though not, as far as I know, because of the cedar oil per se.  The idea is that oils of all kinds exclude water, which the leather needs in some amount in order to remain flexible.  It seems to me that inclusion of some kind of inert humectant in the formula should get around that problem, but the current wisdom in museum curation is to use no dressings at all.

Wikipedia article on the British Museum dressing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum_leather_dressing

This article from the Alaska State Museum bulletin illustrates why current practice is not to use any such dressings. Though, the fact that anyone was ever dumb enough to put Wesson oil on a kayak leads me to suppose that they might be retreating a bit too much in sheer panic at how badly things might turn out. 
https://museums.alaska.gov/documents/bulletin/bulletin58.pdf

@SUP I wonder if the cherry gum in the formula we were discussing acted as such a humectant?

[SUP]

@Aventurine That is an interesting idea. Hold in whatever moisture that is present while preventing more from entering into the leather and damaging it.