{"id":3772,"date":"2016-03-28T14:07:51","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T18:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/?p=3772"},"modified":"2016-03-28T14:07:51","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T18:07:51","slug":"previous-repairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/2016\/03\/28\/previous-repairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Previous Repairs in Leather"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite aspects of my job is getting to closely examine books\u00a0from our\u00a0collection and learn more about how they have been used and maintained over time. A binding’s current condition or the way in which it has been repaired can tell you a lot about\u00a0its value and use, but I am also very interested\u00a0in the variety of\u00a0the\u00a0techniques or craftsmanship found\u00a0in historical\u00a0book repairs. The history of book repair is as long as the format has existed, and the level\u00a0of proficiency can range from crude utilitarian (like this example<\/a>) to a more subtle sophistication\u00a0(such as our current standard of repair<\/a>). We have\u00a0shared examples of historical\u00a0repairs from the collection before<\/a>, but I found this next item to be very interesting in its execution and level of workmanship.<\/p>\n

This 16th century atlas<\/a> in a full calfskin binding has obviously been through a great deal and has been extensively repaired. The spine has been\u00a0rebacked in dyed calfskin, the corners have all been repaired, and large areas of loss have been filled with new leather.\u00a0I cannot say for certain when these repairs were done or even if they were all done at the same time, but suffice to say they are not recent. Several techniques have been used to blend the repairs with the original binding material and they are marginally\u00a0successful in this regard. Click the photos below to enlarge.<\/p>\n

\"Civitates<\/a><\/p>\n

New leather has been applied to the spine in the way of a typical reback: the original covering material has been lifted and new material has been adhered\u00a0underneath. Nothing unusual there.\u00a0The board corners and edges, however, have been repaired with onlays, or very thin pieces of calfskin adhered on top. Lines have been tooled in blind over the reback and onlays\u00a0to\u00a0continue the original decoration around\u00a0the boards.<\/p>\n

\"Civitates02\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The fore-edge corner of the lower board has been repaired with\u00a0a large inlay.\u00a0Inlays are\u00a0shaped pieces of leather of the same thickness as the original material, which\u00a0fill the area of loss. My favorite part of this repair is the decoration which attempts to imitate\u00a0the original\u00a0floral patterns\u00a0at the corners.\u00a0The image below shows an intact original corner with decoration on the left and the decorated\u00a0inlay\u00a0on the right for comparison.<\/p>\n

\"Civitates_Inlay\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The binder who executed this repair did not have decorative rolls or\u00a0stamps to match, so they just kind of made it up.\u00a0The\u00a0lines\u00a0in this corner decoration are quite rough and shallow, which makes me think they\u00a0were just\u00a0drawn into the dampened leather, rather than actually\u00a0impressed. Decorative rolls have been used around the outer edge of this corner, but they\u00a0are quite different from the other decoration on the book. The binding has been heavily dressed, resulting in a very shiny surface to the leather.<\/p>\n

It is apparent that a great deal of time and effort was put into this repair and it is successful insofar as it is still structurally sound and allows the book to function.\u00a0We would approach treatment for a similar item very differently today, however.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite aspects of my job is getting to closely examine books\u00a0from our\u00a0collection and learn more about how they have been used and maintained over time. A binding’s current condition or the way in which it has been repaired can tell you a lot about\u00a0its value and use, but I am also very … Continue reading Previous Repairs in Leather<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[121,324,325,326],"class_list":["post-3772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whats-in-the-lab","tag-book-repair","tag-leather-repair","tag-leather-tooling","tag-rebinding"],"yoast_head":"\nPrevious Repairs in Leather - Preservation Underground<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/2016\/03\/28\/previous-repairs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Previous Repairs in Leather - Preservation Underground\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of my favorite aspects of my job is getting to closely examine books\u00a0from our\u00a0collection and learn more about how they have been used and maintained over time. A binding’s current condition or the way in which it has been repaired can tell you a lot about\u00a0its value and use, but I am also very … Continue reading Previous Repairs in Leather →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/2016\/03\/28\/previous-repairs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Preservation Underground\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-28T18:07:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/files\/2016\/03\/Civitates01-821x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Henry Hebert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@DukePresDPC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@DukePresDPC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Henry Hebert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/2016\/03\/28\/previous-repairs\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/2016\/03\/28\/previous-repairs\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Henry Hebert\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/#\/schema\/person\/4f8da81d0a0413999e7adb83311cb8ec\"},\"headline\":\"Previous Repairs in Leather\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-28T18:07:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/2016\/03\/28\/previous-repairs\/\"},\"wordCount\":527,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/2016\/03\/28\/previous-repairs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/files\/2016\/03\/Civitates01-821x1024.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"book repair\",\"leather repair\",\"leather tooling\",\"rebinding\"],\"articleSection\":[\"What's In The Lab\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/2016\/03\/28\/previous-repairs\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/2016\/03\/28\/previous-repairs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/preservation\/2016\/03\/28\/previous-repairs\/\",\"name\":\"Previous Repairs in Leather - 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