Tag Archives: conservation

A librarian’s new favorite teaching tool? A historical book model!

A before image of the original Book of Hours, open to the center. The image shows that the sewing is broken and leaves are detaching.

In February 2019, the Lab received a unique item at the special collections’ meetings for the UC Libraries, a Book of Hours (ms.37) from 1475 from the Archives and Rare Books Library.  I was so excited when this book came into the Lab.

This 15th century Book of Hours was in poor condition and in need of conservation treatment. Not only was the binding structure failing and the text block broken in half, but this book was also heavily used as a teaching tool at the ARB library, and in its current condition it could not be safely handled. This was the perfect project for Ashleigh and I to collaborate.

From the beginning, it was decided that in conjunction with the conservation treatment of the Book of Hours, I would create a book model like the original Book of Hours, to be used as a teaching tool in the ARB library collection. In addition, the model would have a leather chemise, a common feature in some Book of Hours of the time.

Image of the book of hours model closed. The chemise is attached to the lower board, but not the upper board.
The Book of Hours MODEL with a removable chemise.

Now here is where this story begins with the model of the Book of Hours. Often, here in the lab, we all create book models for various reasons: to learn about a new treatment, test different treatment options, to understand how some materials work together, and as teaching tools.

As a teaching tool in the ARB library collection, this model needed to resemble the original Book of Hours in its structure and materials used.

The primary goal for this model was to show how a Book of Hours was historically built, its sewing structure, the materials used, and also to provide the ARB library with a book that could be easily handled by students and scholars.

Once the treatment for the Book of Hours was fully established and confirmed with the ARB curator, I was able to start working on the book model. I will save you form reading about all the different steps of making the model, but here are the main features of model:

Text block

  • Primary support – Khadi paper white cotton rag
  • Endsheets with leather hinge – Two bifolios of calligraphy goat parchment skin wrapped along the spine edge with a hinge of Allum tawed leather (later would be used as pastedowns)
  • Sewing – Sewn on three double raised cords with a linen 18/3 thread. The dimensions of the text block and sewing holes, were guided from the original sewing holes of the Book of Hours.
  • Endbands – Primary conservation endband with the bead on the spine, and secondary endband with the bead on the text block.
  • Spine linings:
    • Reversible layer of Usu Gami thin and Zen Shofu wheat starch paste.
    • Slotted Airplane cotton cloth with flanges to be used as board attachments.

Cover

  • Boards – Oak wood
  • Board attachment – Boards were laced with the sewing supports through carved channels
  • Covering material – Full alum tawed leather binding with removable chemise
  • Clasps – Brass tension clasps (these were created in-house by Chris Voynovich, and he did an amazing job).
Overall image of the model
Upper cover.
Overall image of the model
Lower cover with the tension clasps (created by Chris)

There was no evidence that the original Book of Hours had clasps, but the curator requested tension clasps for the book model. Clasps were common in the 15th century bookbinding, and this would provide the students with the experience of handling a book with clasps and allow them to understand their function.

Image of the spine of the model
pine with three raised bands, bottom weighted.
Image of the fore edge of the model
Tension clasps were common in the 15th century. Chris created these using brass plates.
Image showing the interior of the upper board with the pastedown not attached and the wooden board exposed.
As a teaching model, the interior of the upper cover was left exposed to show how the boards were laced and what material was used.
Image of the interior of the lower board, showing that the pastedown is attached.
On the lower cover, the pastedown was adhered. An alum tawed pastedown was not very common for the time of the Book of Hours.

The curator also requested that one of the pastedowns be kept unattached, so the students could see how the boards were attached to the text block and that they were wooden boards.

In addition, I created a removable chemise, also requested by the curator of the ARB library. In some Books of Hours, it was common to have a leather chemise, but most often they were not removable. The chemise was created from a vegetable tanned goat split skin.

Image of just the chemise
Removable suede chemise
Image of the book of hours model closed. The chemise is attached to the lower board, but not the upper board.
Book model with the chemise attached on the lower cover.
Gif of the chemise on and off the model.
 The chemise in action.
Video tutorial of how to put on and remove the chemise from the model.

Stay tuned for a future blog post where we will dive into the conservation treatment and research we did on the Book of Hours (ms.37).

Catarina Figueirinhas (UCL) —- Assistant Conservator

Photographic Documentation by Catarina Figueirinhas and Jessica Ebert

Two ways to compensate for loss. Textblock loss, that is.

Before the age of endless digital writing space, it’s easy to forget that blank paper was a commodity. Below are two fun examples of writing ledgers that remind me just how precious paper was.
While it’s possible that salacious writings were once written and removed from the back of these bindings… another theory is that the blank pages were no longer needed for their original intended purpose, and since they were going to waste… an opportunistic writer hastily cut and ripped out pages, seizing the goods for use elsewhere.

Half leather binding with cloth boards, Registry of the Leonard Hotel, 1886 – contains a page that features Grover Cleveland’s signature. Pages are lost from the back of the textblock. Fragments of pages remain sewn along the gutter where pages were removed.


So what does that mean for the ledgers left behind whose guts have been partially removed?
The covers no longer fit the pages inside.  The spines sag or pop off, and the covers extend beyond the fore edge of the book’s textblock – making both handling and long-term preservation problematic.

Registry of the Leonard Hotel, 1886, view of the head


Registry of the Leonard Hotel, 1886, view of fore edge and head


In order to relieve stress, conservation treatment can be undertaken to compensate for loss.  For extremely important bindings, treatment may entail replacing lost pages with new paper, resewing the sheets into the binding.
However, in the following two examples below, the textblocks were otherwise in fairly good condition, so the Lab explored a lower cost route by inserting foam spacers.
The Leonard Hotel registry (which contains Grover Cleveland’s signature from 1885!) was treated overall to reback and consolidate deteriorated leather.  A closed cell polyethylene foam was loosely inserted as a placeholder for the missing text. In this case, the foam can be removed at any time and the jagged edges of the page fragments can be observed.  Simple, yet effective!

After treatment, foam is loosely inserted in the back of the binding to help the textblock fit inside its covers.

Before treatment images are displayed on the left, after treatment images on the right:


 
A similar treatment taken a step further builds upon the treatment solution above.  The following ledger contains early Cincinnati baptismal, marriage, and funeral records that predate city records, dating to 1838-1885.  A large section of lost paper in the back of the binding has caused the stiff spine to pop off.  The loose covers no longer support the textblock pages.

Volume 2 of a collection of “Third German Protestant Church of Cincinnati Records”. Full suede leather springback binding with stiff board spine. Sewn on cloth/linen tape supports. Receiving stabilization treatment in preparation for future digitization.  A large section of the textblock is lost in the back of the binding.


Treatment was conducted by our senior conservation technician, Catarina Figueirinhas, to stabilize the ledger for digitization out of house, as well as long-term storage.  Rather than insert foam loosely, this book was in need of a rigid support that would not be in danger of becoming lost.  Therefore, foam was sewn into the back of the binding as if it was a gathering.  This was achieved by wrapping the foam in an archival e-flute cardboard.  Essentially, the blue cardboard was folded into a “u-shape” with sharp corners and treated as an outer folio.  The corrugated cardboard was then sewn through each fold onto the original sewing supports, as though the cardboard was two gatherings.  The foam was adhered inside the cardboard with adhesive.

Volume 2 of a collection of “Third German Protestant Church of Cincinnati Records” after treatment.


Because this condition issue is unique – it’s part of the object’s history, yet presents us with preservation challenges – treatment solutions are not one-size-fits-all.  Each book calls for solutions based on how it will be used and interpreted.
In these cases, the foam gatherings, both sewn and loose, functioned well in the back of the bindings while also retaining the history of use. The constructed gatherings helped to improve handling and support the bindings in a cost effective and reversible way (with differing levels of reversibility).  I imagine this will not be the last book to come across my bench with chunks of missing text; I am excited to be armed with these simple solutions.
Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer (PLCH) —- Book and Paper Conservator
Photographic Documentation by Jessica Ebert & Ashleigh Schieszer

Making the Perfect Wheat Starch Paste

As I’m sure anyone in a book & paper lab will attest, good wheat starch paste is key to most, if not all conservation treatments.  And achieving that perfectly smooth and lump-free paste is often easier said than done.  So when the Preservation Lab crew returned from UC’s winter seasonal days off, the first thing on the docket for our resident paste maker, Veronica Sorcher, was to make a brand new batch of wheat starch paste to start the new year off right!  My purpose in documenting her through this process was two fold: first, it’s been ages since I’ve made paste myself (because Veronica almost always does it – she loves it and we love her for always making it!) and I could use a refresher, and secondly, I thought it would be interesting to show the making of (or behind-the-scenes, BTS, if you will) of something so core to the day-to-day conservation in the lab.  To give those who might not understand how much attention is put into the quality of every aspect of what we do here in the lab.  Plus, I thought it might be fun!  I hope you enjoy…
 

A huge thank you to Veronica for being the paste making master she is and allowing me to film her and to Catarina for allowing me to film her while she strained and used the lovely paste that had just been made.
Jessica Ebert (UCL) – Conservation Technician

Conservation – a Complex Profession

“WhAsleighat is it that you do, exactly?” is a question conservators are often asked when met for the first time.
As an emerging conservator, sometimes it’s difficult to quickly describe the daily work I perform. When many people hear the word conservation, they immediately think of protecting wildlife.
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