Katrina Victim Restoration

A cloth binding came to me out of New Orleans. It was badly damaged from the flooding. I had to dismantle the cover; soak off pages that were stuck together at the front and rear of the book. Tissue repair throughout the book. Resew the text.
Rebind it in a new cover. www.book-restoration.com

Childrens Book Conservation/Restoration

Most childrens books that come to me are in terrible condition. The pages have been scribbled on. The cover torn and extremely worn. The text usually has to be resewn.
This Uncle Remus is a First Edition Cloth Binding. It required a complete dismantling. Page repair, section repair, resewing. New hinges, relining of the spine, cloth reback with matching cloth. The final product is a solid binding. The only thing I don't mess with too much is the discoloration on the cloth covers. Acrylic paints dabbed on can even out the problem. I prefer to leave the discolorations as it gives the book character and keeps its antiquarian charm.
Please visit my website at www.book-restoration.com Go to the examples book and you will enter my photo gallery. I have a cloth restoration before and after section you will enjoy.

Cloth Binding Conservation

Many times when I am Conserving a Cloth Bound Binding, I have to match the original cloth. There are two important points of consideration when doing this. The material should match exactly or very closely, and the color needs to match exactly. I almost always have to dye the cloth to match eventhough I have an extensive antiquarian cloth selection to choose from. Usually there is a original spine I can relay but in the case of this book there wasn't one. A 22k gold tooled leather label is sometimes the way to go, especially if there is a lot of gold embossing on the cover. In this books case, I found that a hand tooled ink/paper label would look better. The final product is a beautiful, solid little cloth binding ready to be sold or saved in ones collection. Please go see many of my Cloth Conservation before and after photos at my website at www.book-restoration.com

Restoration of Rare Historical Books

I just finished Restoring/Conserving a very Rare 3 Volume set from the first woman to write a historical book about America, dating back to the early 1800's. (Warren's America) The volumes were in terrible shape. The spines were completly deteriorated. I did leather restoration rebacks on all of them. I conserved the boards and endsheets. (The boards were crumbling and one was missing a corner, which I reconstructed. I recreated the spines to match the originals as much as possible. The second volume was apparently rebound for the Whig Library at some point, so it was a slightly different size. It is tricky matching up spines when any of the volumes don't completly match. You have to measure from the tail going up. They came out very well and suitable for reselling. I can only post 2 pictures on this Blog, but if you go to my website at www.book-restoration.com under Leather Restorations I have all the pictures posted.

New Cloth Binding for Museum Album

This leather bound album from a Museum in Kentucky arrived in need of a new cover. The original leather binding was completely ruined from red rot and fire damage. The options were a new leather cover or a new cloth cover with inlay from the original binding. They opted for the cloth cover. For more examples of my work please go to my website at www.book-restoration.com

Moldy Heirloom Bindings Resurrected

I recently completed 3 heirloom bindings of the religious order. They had been stored in a box in a damp area for too long and were completely covered in mold in the text and the covers. I first disasembled the covers and went through the texts removing mold with a water and bleach combination. The two smaller books I had to put new cloth fine bindings on. The Bible I had to put a new full fine leather binding on. For more photos and information about my work please go to www.book-restoration.com