Book Repair by Hand Before & After Photos of Books that have visited our workshop

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Royal Cookery Book by Jules Gouffe, British, mid- to late-19th Century decorated cloth binding.

Boards had separated from the book and the rear board was quite warped by moisture. First signature was loose. Loose signature sewn back along with new, cloth-reinforced end papers. Spine title was carefully removed and the book was rebacked. We were able to salvage the warped rear board and coax it back into shape before we recovered it along with spine and hinges, carefully worked around the trimmed decorative title on front board. Ultimately the trimmed spine-title was replaced. Book is sound and beautiful once again.

Woman's Favorite Cook Book by Mrs. Gregory & Friends, American, early 20th Century, pictorial cloth cover.

The first photo describes a common fate of old, well-used books: cover eventually separates from the main text block, itinerant repairs made with tape. In this case, there were handwritten notes on the inside front and rear covers and free endpapers which the client wanted to save, if possible. We were able to photographically reproduce the notes from the pasted endpapers and re-integrate them with the repaired case binding. As the original covers were quite soiled and damaged, we opted to save only those parts of graphical importance, as the client was interested in having the book made once-again useful, as well as preserving it's sentimental value. Again, loose signatures were resewn along with the reinforced-hinge endpapers, spine rebacked and rear board, spine and hinges recovered with book cloth. Modified spine titles replaced and remaining cover art cleaned.

Holy Bible - Family Heirloom edition
American, late 19th century. Heavy boards covered with leather and decorated with ornate gold stamping.

As is common with this kind of bible (please see my article, The Naked, the Dirty, & the Spineless) the heavy cover boards have separated from the book, and in this case the leather from the spine is missing completely. Signatures at the beginning and end of the book have loosened with the separation of the covers from the book block.
The loose and/or separated signatures were repaired as necessary and sewn back into the book block. Cord supports were extended and the boards laced in. Inner hinges were reinforced. A new, hollow spine was constructed and covered with leather. The mighty tome was cleaned up and is ready to take on another century or more of family enjoyment.

Holy Bible (in Arabic) Lebanon, 1940s, Quarto, full black calf, blind tooled.

This well-traveled family heirloom finally suffered a separation of text and spine. Loose signatures tightened up with sewing and a few torn leaves repaired. Old spine cut out and boards reattached with new calf over rebacked spine. Inner hinges reinforced and new endpapers laid in. Old, tooled spine title trimmed and replaced over new.

Pied Piper of Hamlin Vellum over boards, gold stamped decorations with inset sterling silver relief plates. Folio, limited edition.

On arrival, this volume needed a new spine and reinforcement of inner hinges to support the heavy boards. Additionally, the vellum had pulled the boards a little out of shape and overall the outside was rather soiled and dull-looking.

The "before" picture shows the beginning of the cleaning process. As usual in this case, a new spine was constructed and built in with golden-colored leather to compliment the tooling. Inside (not shown) the hinges were reinforced with bookbinder's cloth, disturbing the decorated endpapers as little as possible. A thorough cleaning of the vellum and careful polishing of the silver accents brightened up this family treasure just in time for their holiday celebrations.

Biblia Sacra Venice, 1583. Illustrated throughout with woodblock prints.

The "before" picture shows the book in tattered and brittle limp vellum covers which were separated from the text block. The custodian of this volume decided upon a new, full-leather cover over stiff boards with raised (false) bands. In addition to the work of installing support tapes for the new boards and construction of a new, hollow spine (which in this case allows for greater ease of opening this very thick book) details such as hand-sewn headbands, extended false-bands and gold-leaf tooling were added to enhance the character of this very old volume.

Land of Oz early edition, cloth with pictorial (paper) cover board.

A familiar malady of the well-loved children's book. The owner of this book wished to pass it on to his grandson in a condition that would enable the grandson to hand it down to his own grandchildren. In this case, the covers and spine were so far gone that a new case binding was constructed. The original print from the old covers was redeemable, however, and was incorporated into the new covers. As the original spine titles were unusable, a paper label was made and attached.

P & O Pencillings, W.W. Lloyd, circa late 19th century, oblong quarto with beveled boards.

Cover boards were quite damaged with ancient worm holes, especially about the spine edge, corners worn and bumped, and the outside of the book was rather dirty. In addition, many of the pages needed various degrees of repair (see next section, Paper Mending, below).
In order to preserve the character of the book, and as much of the original decoration as possible, the damaged portion of the covers was removed, boards repaired, and the spine with some overlap onto the board faces replaced with navy-colored leather. Corners were repaired and capped. Cloth was cleaned and touched-up where faded. New additions were finished with gold-tooled lines.

P & O Pencillings, W.W. Lloyd, circa late 19th century, illustrated oblong quarto.

Photos show example of one of many page repairs made to this book. Here, the heavy, coated paper used for this lovely hand-colored book of prints has become brittle and split. The repairs were made with Japanese tissue throughout. While not entirely invisible, the mend is strong, making the book once again a functioning album.