I've published a lot of "process" posts, so it is about time that I catch up with some posts about finished treatments. As I outlined in my "Not Too Matchy-Matchy" post, I have been working on Thomas Jefferson's original1825 list of books to be purchased for the UVa Library. I recently finished the treatment, after washing, mending and sewing the pages.
I laced on the boards, pared and applied the leather spine as well as the marbled paper. The final step was tooling a decorative line on the leather next to the marbled paper.
hot tool on the left, final binding in the middle, practice leather on the right
My model binding had blind lines tooled across the spine, but with such a thin book that wasn't a possibility, also I didn't want the 1825 manuscript to be a replica of my model so much as look like it would be the next notebook on the shelf in Jefferson's library.
20th century "interim" binding on left, my conservation binding in the center, model binding on the right.
I'm really pleased with the way the binding turned out, not only is the laced-on structure stronger, but the materials are more in keeping with the time and place where the manuscript originated.
Conservation treatment is not about recreating the original artifact, and there is no way to really turn back the clock to make an old, well-used book look new. As I have mentioned in my posts about treating Micrgraphia or Il Quattro Libri de'll Archittetura sometimes there is not enough of the original binding to do anything but make an educated guess as to what the original binding might have been.
One of the books I'm working on now is Thomas Jefferson's 1825 catalog of books for the UVa Library, his "shopping list" that was used to create the University's first library. The book is actually two signatures from what must have been a larger blank journal. At some point (probably in the early 20th century) the signatures were sewn into a new binding with blank pages at the beginning and the end to bulk out the text block and a new cover of leather and marbled paper. It probably looked really spiffy back in the day, but the "new" binding did not have nearly the strength or archival soundness of the handmade paper from Jefferson's day. By the time I saw the book, the added blank pages were falling out and the front cover was starting to detach from the binding.
several Poe signatures!
Binding a thin book can be very tricky, but I think I've come up with a structure that works, so then the question becomes how do I want the final binding to look? Where does this catalog fit in to our Library collection? Since I am confident that the original signatures were once part of a blank book and I know that Charlottesville had at least one stationer (seller of blank books and stationery) in business in the 1820's, Ebenezer Watts, I was at first thinking I'd do another reverse-calf binding like I'd done for the First Minute Book. However, I looked through the Library's archival collection of record books from the early days of UVa and noticed that a number of the record books were simple reverse calf spines with marbled paper over the boards. So I decided that I would model the binding on the first circulation book for the library.
The library staff agreed with my concept, so then I had to track down period-appropriate marbled paper to cover the boards, which is not as easy as it sounds. There are many different styles of marbled paper and the brightly colored, combed and fanned types are much more popular today. But the good news is that that there are almost as many marbling nerds out there as book nerds and I was able to find a paper that fit the time period. The vendor offered to match any one of the marbled papers in our collection, but I didn't want it match so much as "fit in".
Given these examples:
I received these two papers:
I've placed them next to the leather I plan to use for the reverse goat spine. I like the one on the left, what do you think? Tune in next month for pictures of the finished product!
The other weekend I had an hour and a half to kill before meeting a friend for dinner, and I thought what a perfect time to cover those four double-fanned adhesive books I made the other week. I had decided that since these books were for my personal collection, I would do a simple cover of marbled paper adhered to the boards and spine. I love marbled paper and had some handy.
Of course, it's summer in Charlottesville, the window A/C unit in my apartment is doing the best it can, but it is still really humid. So when I went to check the grain direction of my paper to make sure it would align with the boards and spine of the book, the paper was very floppy and it was very hard to tell which way the grain was going. I posted my frustration on Facebook, got some sympathy and also a question from a non-conservator friend "Paper has grain?". Yes, Joe, paper has grain. It is one of the first things you learn about when you start to work with books. Paper folds easiest parallel to the grain, and can create problems when you try and flex it across the grain. When binding books, especially with machine made paper you always want to make sure the grain direction of your paper and board is in line with your spine, if all the grain is aligned, all the pieces of the book will work together.
You can test for yourself. Take a piece of paper from a printer or photocopier and fold it over (but don't crease it!) along the short side, with your hand on the curve, give the paper a little bounce and feel how much resistance the paper gives back.
Now turn the paper and fold it over along the long side, with your hand on the curve, give the paper a little bounce and feel how much resistance the paper gives back. Was it more or less than the other direction? Feel free to turn the paper and try the other direction again. In my example, the paper gives less resistance when folded over on the long side, so it is "grain long".
As it turned out, the marbled paper I wanted to use was grain long, which worked well for my project. I was relieved when I applied the glue and the paper started to flex in parallel with the grain which confirmed my guess. Phew!
