Super Size Me: The Book Conservation Variety, Part 3 (of 3)

In our final post of this three part series about this conservation treatment, we will review covering the book in leather, reapplying the original label, and blind tooling a panel on the front and back covers. Previously mentioned in Part 1, The Royal Commentaries of Peru (RCP) by Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616), published in 1688, arrived in Preservation Services having already received a number of repairs. For that reason, it was determined that the best way to stabilize and improve the function of this book was to remove it from the original binding and rebind it in a new leather cover.

The Royal Commentaries of Peru before and after treatment

And, as mentioned in Part 2, there are many steps to preparing a book to be covered in leather. In the case of RCP, those steps included mending almost all of the pages, resewing the text sections on cords, adding new endpapers, resewing endbands, and several other time-consuming tasks. (See Part 1 and Part 2 for those steps) This is the sort of work we very much enjoy doing but for which we do not always have the time.

The dampened leather is adhered first to the spine
and worked around the raised cords before
smoothing onto the covers.

One of the first steps for covering a book in leather, after the many steps mentioned in Parts 1 and 2 of this series, is to pare the leather. A piece of leather, in this case, calf leather, is cut to the size of the book plus about an inch extending beyond the head, tail, and fore edge of the book (top, bottom, and edge opposite the spine). The leather is then pared with a special knife to bevel or thin the edges to aid in turning the leather in around the cover boards. For a quick video on what leather paring is, click HERE to see conservator and toolmaker Jeff Peachey (to see Peachey's tools, click HERE) demonstrate on a scrap piece of leather. Once the leather is pared, paste is prepared and all the necessary tools are set out in easy reach of the binder. The binder needs to work fairly quickly once the leather is pasted out, so it is helpful to have all the appropriate tools at hand.


The leather is moistened with water using a soft sponge or cotton on the hair side (the side that had hair on it when it was sourced from an animal). On the flesh side of the leather (the side that faced the inside of the animal from which it was sourced), paste is applied, scraped away, and reapplied in stages. The moisture from both the water and the paste makes the leather more malleable as it is applied to the book. However, it also makes the leather susceptible to scarring or bruising while it is dampened, so the binder must take care not to damage the leather in the binding process.

The book rebound in new leather before the decorative panel was inscribed

The leather is first applied to the spine of the book and worked down around the raised cords. From there, it can be laid down on each cover. The binder then works at the head and tail of the book, with the covers open and the textblock upright and perpendicular to the table surface, to turn the leather in around the edges of the boards and form the endcaps (a bit of leather that protrudes at the head and tail of the spine and curves over the text minimally to protect the end band). It is difficult to document covering a book in leather while doing so as the binder must stay focused and work quickly. For a rough overview of the process, click HERE to watch a video of covering a book in leather.

The original label was readhered to the new leather spine

After the book was covered in the leather and had ample time to dry, the original label (that was lifted as the book was removed from its original cover) was reapplied. While the facing tissue is still on the label, the label can be adhered to the new spine leather. Once dry, the facing tissue was removed with a thin coat of Klucel-G (a leather consolidant that worked like an adhesive to hold the tissue to the face of the label without damaging it).

The final step was to create a panel pattern on the front and back covers similar to the design on the original covers. A simple way to create a design on leather is to take advantage of the issue mentioned earlier: leather is easily scarred or bruised when dampened. After determining the basic rectangular design, a cardstock template was created to simplify the process of keeping the design parallel to the edges of the book. The cover was dampened, the template laid in place, and a bone folder was used to impress the lines in the damp leather. Once dry, the lines appear slightly darker because the leather was purposefully bruised with the folder while damp. Once one cover was dry, the book was flipped over and the same design was applied to the back cover.

A template was used as a guide to impress decorative lines on the cover while the leather was dampened

After its extended stay in Preservation Services for stabilization and rebinding, The Royal Commentaries of Peru was returned to our Rare Books collection and will be available for use by researchers and classes for many years to come. To read more about the process of treating this book, visit Part 1 and Part 2 of this three part series.

The cover leather was dampened to impress the lines. On the left,
it was still very damp. On the right it was beginning to dry

Restoration of a Marbled Leather Binding

The Seasons contains a series of four poems written by British poet James Thomson (1700-1748). Thomson began the series with Winter, which was published in 1726. He published Summer and Spring in the two years following. The final poem in the series, Autumn, was published as part of the complete edition in 1730.

The Seasons by James Thomson, after treatment

This copy of The Seasons, held in the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives at UNCG, was published in 1837 by publisher Andrus, Judd, & Franklin of Hartford, Connecticut. It is a small binding of about 4 x 6 inches, which was easily held in the hand or tucked in the pocket of its owner. The book has a decorative leather binding known as marbled leather. The effect was created by pouring acidic solutions across the leather to create striated areas of color resembling marble. For more information about decorative leather binding terminology and techniques, click HERE.

We recently had the opportunity to treat this lovely little binding in Preservation Services. When we received it, the front board was attached only by its cords. The leather was split at the hinge on the front and back covers, a natural result of regular handling of an old, brittle leather binding. 

Both images are before treatment, on the right: the PVA-type adhesive
at the fore edge corner from a prior treatment

The fore edge corners and the hinges had previously been treated with a PVA-type adhesive (common examples of PVA adhesives are wood glue, white glue, or school glue), which created a clear, plastic-like coating that may have provided some protection but also may have contributed to further damage as the adhesive was stronger than the aging leather.

In process (L to R): mending the outer hinge with Japanese tissue, recreating a
missing endband, mending the endcap with Japanese tissue

Other than some water damage staining at the spine edge of the pages, the text block was in relatively good condition. A folio in the first section of pages was loose and the interior hinges at the front and back were split just as the leather was split on the outside of the hinges.

The split hinge at the front of the book allowed for access to the spine edge of the first section, so we were able to sew in the loose folio. The interior hinges were repaired with Japanese tissue and rice starch paste. The exterior hinges were repaired with brown Japanese paper and then further toned with watercolor to more closely resemble the original marbled leather. Once toned, the Japanese paper was sealed with a coating of Klucel-G/SC6000 which consolidates and serves as an added layer of protection as well as matches the sheen of the original leather.

After treatment: the outer hinge was mended and toned
to more closely resemble the original leather

This copy of The Seasons by James Thomson was returned to Special Collections and is now available to be shared with researchers and students interested in 18th century British poetry, blank verse poems, or perhaps marbled leather bindings.

Innovative Storage Solutions: A Clever Clamshell Box for a Fragile Binding

Recently, the Preservation Services staff had the opportunity to treat a copy of Henry Noel Humphreys’ A Record of The Black Prince, published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans in 1849. This volume is held in the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections of UNCG’s Walter Clinton Jackson Library. It is beautifully illustrated and has original molded papier-mâché covers, likely meant to mimic carved ebony. 

Before treatment - both covers are perforated to reveal red endsheets.

The book is full of colorful illustrations. For more detail about the binding, click here.

The item was in good condition but with weakened hinges due to the heavy weight of the covers and a broken and partially detached spine. The textblock is double-fan adhesive bound, meaning there are single sheets of paper adhered together at the spine as opposed to folded sheets sewn together at the spine. The original adhesive was quite brittle and had begun to fail, resulting in the textblock being in two pieces. 

Before treatment - the hinges were cracked and part of the spine was broken and worn.

Before treatment - the adhesive at the spine was so brittle the textblock was split in the gutter.

The original spine and linings were removed prior to consolidating and relining the spine. The original spine was remounted and restored using Japanese paper and wheat starch paste followed by a coat of SC6000/Klucel-G mix to consolidate and further protect the leather and Japanese paper as well as to match the sheen of the Japanese paper to the original leather.

After treatment - the spine was reattached and restored.

Due to the heavy covers, this binding is somewhat weak at the hinges by design. In order to allow patrons to view and enjoy this lovely volume, it was deemed necessary to construct a protective enclosure with an integral book cradle that allows both hands of the viewer to be free for turning pages. The book can now rest open in its cradle and is restricted from being opened too far so as to avoid putting too much stress on the spine or hinges. This clamshell box with integral book cradle was built according to a design by Jeff Peachy.

The clamshell box created for protective storage.

After treatment - the mended book resting open in its cradle.

Book conservation is often about finding creative solutions to unique problems. In the case of Henry Noel Humphreys’ A Record of The Black Prince, we were able to restore some of the original beauty of the book while also constructing a protective enclosure for storage that includes a clever support to more easily share this distinctive volume with library patrons.

After treatment - a clever clamshell box for a fragile binding.