treatmentproposal libblock melissaking · 2019. 1. 7. · 4" "" "...

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Melissa Tedone WUDPAC Library Block 2018

Winterthur Library Conservation Treatment Proposal

Object Identification Call Number: n/a

Title: Les Confessions de S. Augustin.

Author: Augustin, saint, 0354-‐0430. (Author) Saint-‐Victor, Jacques-‐Maximilien Benjamin Bins de,; 1772-‐1858. ; (Translator) La Mennais, Félicité de,; 1782-‐1854. ; (Author of introduction)

Imprint (publisher, place of publication, date):

De L’imprimerie de P. Didot, L’aine, Chevalier de

L’ordre Royal de S. –Michel, Imprimeur du Koi.

Paris, A La Librairie Grecque-‐Latine-‐Francaise,

Rue de Seine, no 12. 1821.

Dimensions:

Overall Binding: 3.6 cm x 7.8 cm x 11.6 cm

Textblock: 6.9 cm x 10.9 cm x 2.7 cm

Format: 16mo or 32mo

Bookplate: n/a

Binder’s ticket: n/a

Inscriptions:

Front pastedown: Volume 18

Front free endpaper:

Offfert à Madame Iad (?) Comtesse de Vench pour le traduction. -‐ J. B. XXX

English translation: Offered to Madame ______ countess of Vench for the translation. –J.B. _______

Conservator: Melissa King, WUDPAC 2020 Date: February 2nd, 2018

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Historical Context The confessions of Saint Augustin is an autobiographical text by Saint Augustine of Hippo written in Latin between 397-‐400 AD The book shares stories of his sinful youth and his ultimate conversion to Christianity, and introduces the idea known as “original sin.” This text became a very popular text amongst Catholics and served as an aid to those converting to the religion (O’Donnell 2013). Catholicism played an important role in the culture and history of France, which might explain why someone may have owned such a specialized handmade book of the confessions at that time, whether they were using it for a religious purpose or purely for study.

The book is in overall very good condition, which is a true reflection in the quality of its construction. The laced-‐on boards add additional support when cased bindings were a less expensive and more time efficient option. The hollow back spine was invented in the 1790’s and was a later invention in the book world (Tedone 2018). The use of the hollow back spine protected the spine covering from compression and bending. The vellum corners were skillfully placed, and served as excellent protection for the corners of the book board. The Fourdrinier Machine had been invented in 1799 and machine-‐made paper was available, which was less expensive and time-‐consuming than handmade (Tedone 2018).

Aside from these fine details, there are also some opposing construction techniques that share the story of a bookbinder making efforts to save time and money. Although there is gold and blind tooling, it was quite hastily applied as the lettering is unaligned. The cords were recessed, which saves the bookbinder the time from forming the leather to raised cords (Tedone 2018). While fashionable, quarter style binding does mean that less leather had to be used, and the sheep skin in this binding was generally less expensive than others (Tedone pers. com. 2018). Finally, the abbreviated sewing as opposed to all along stitching, saved the bookbinder time and resources.

Bookbinders during this time were competing with the growing mechanization of the industry including machine-‐made paper, and publisher’s bindings. In order to stay in business, they had to come up with creative solutions to speed up the binding process. This binding still contains a lot of high-‐quality characteristics and attention to detail, which were qualities obviously still valued by the consumers of the time. The integrity of the binding tells us that it was clearly made to be heavily used.

According to WorldCat, the world’s largest library catalogue, there is only one other catalogued book of this kind. The other catalogued book is at La Bibliothèque nationale de France, and it is a single book out of two volumes for the translation. The book is separated in chapters based on the 13 books written by the author, with the first seven books represented in this volume.

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Description & Condition Summary Binding Style/Finishing: This is a hollow back laced-‐on binding with tight joints. There are no raised bands on the spine as the cords are sewn in. The book is a quarter covering style with a dark brownish-‐black leather spine and the rest of the board is covered in a blue and green marbled paper. There is a small amount of vellum exposed on the corners of the boards that serve as protective coverings. The leather has a grain pattern that is consistent to that of sheep1 and appears to have a possible wax or leather dressing coating due to its shine. The boards are backcornered and aptly covered making it difficult to distinguish their material, however, due to its date, it is likely mill board or pasteboard (Tedone pers. com. 2018). The endbands are stuck-‐on textiles wrapped around an unknown core material. The leather spine has six horizontal gold tool striping with a wave and star pattern at the bottom. The title is hand tooled in gold as well and there are blind-‐tooled acanthus leave designs along the spine between the stripes. The edge of the textblock has evidence of a marble design. The binding and finishing are in poor to fair condition. There is a 2.5 cm loss on the front joint of the spine that is exposing the sewing structure underneath, and one of the exposed threads is slightly loose. The laced-‐in cords on the front of the boards have caused added abrasion to the leather spine and there are localized losses due to their placement. There are many losses to the grain of the leather exposing the fibrous corium layer below, which is consistent with the degradation of tanned sheep skin (Kaplan and Pouliot 2016). The losses and abrasion of leather has interrupted some of the tooling design on the edge of the spine, which makes it harder to discern the type for the title. The endcaps are abraded and on the tail endcap there is some of the spine lining exposed. The leather has caused brown staining on the areas where it is underneath paper on both the covers of the boards as well as on the turn-‐ins. The acidic nature of the stain has caused acid migration from the turn-‐ins on the two most exterior at front and at back. The covering paper is very abraded on sides and the edges with losses in the marbling pattern. There are some losses to the covering paper particularly along the edges where it was most handled. The marbled edges of the text block have a lot of surface dirt and appear greatly faded. Textblock and Binding Structure: The textblock has abbreviated sewing with three recessed cord supports. There are 32 sections, which are mostly four folios each, except for the section 28 which consists of four tipped-‐in sheets (see app. 1). The end paper consists of a sewn-‐in single folio with one fly leaf on both the front and back, and there is a watermark on the front folio. Signatures are used to indicate the start of a new gathering, which suggests the use of imposition to layout the text (Gaskell 1972). The hollow back binding has a paper spine insert and spine lining with visible inscriptions that may indicate the use of waste paper. Due to the small size of the book, there is prominent throw up. The shoulder of the textblock is rounded and backed, however, the fore edge profile is flat, which may indicate that it was ploughed afterwards. Within the textblock is mostly laid paper but the free end papers and paste downs are medium weight handmade wove paper with visible watermarks. The deep grooves of the laid and chain lines, the use of imposition to lay out the text, and the varied thickness of the paper2 are clues that indicate the paper is

1 The leather was examined under a Nikon SMZ-‐10A stereomicroscope and compared to known images of leather types (Kaplan and Pouliot 2016). 2 The thickness of the paper ranged from 0.106 mm on the free end papers to 0.120-‐0.127 mm on the rest of the text block. These measurements were taken with a Starrett® Electronic Digital Micrometer 3732 series.

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likely handmade. Fiber analysis was completed on samples from the covering paper, the free end paper, and one of the papers from the center of the text. All three samples indicated a composition of bast fibers, and the many visible fibrils suggest that the paper was beaten, which is consistent with favored French papermaking techniques of the time (Krill 2002). The paper has a slight rattle which is indicative of being gelatin sized. The text is black printer’s ink that is letter pressed with a relatively large punch. There is possible wear on the metal type or poor inking as some of the letters are difficult to distinguish. There is a pencil inscription on the front pastedown as well as a dark brown ink3 inscription on the title page. The textblock and binding structure are in relatively good condition. There is some overall surface dirt and slight yellowing of the paper, particularly along the edges. The paste downs have detached from the folio exposing the sewing threads, and the front free end paper only has 3 cm attached to the folio at the tail. The ink inscription on the title page unfortunately sustained ink migration during the testing for iron (ii) ions, and care should be taken in the future if any aqueous cleaning is required on this page. There is some mold damage throughout the text block, and is especially visible under ultra violet light. There are several dog ears on the corners of the pages. For a more complete condition survey of the text block refer to appendix II. Curatorial Instructions: New acquisition. Anticipate moderate to high use with copying requests. Conservation Priority: q 1 (high) q 2 (moderate) 3 (low) q 4 (minor/none) Curatorial Priority: Moderate informational and artefactual value. Treatment Proposal Minimal Intervention

I. Before treatment photodocumentation II. Surface clean the exterior of the book including the fore edge with dry cleaning methods III. Brush out the gutter of each page with a hake brush IV. Tack down visible loose stitching on the front joint with wheat starch paste V. After careful testing, consolidate leather spine with either Klucel® G4 or red rot cocktail5 VI. Consolidate the paper edges of the board using wheat starch paste

3 The brown ink has the appearance of iron gall ink and was tested for iron (II) ions using Pel Iron Gall Ink Test Paper strips. The results were negative, however, this does not eliminate the possibility of iron gall ink as the ions could be complexed or reduced. The inscription was also viewed under ultraviolet light and had an opaque quality, which can be indicative of iron gall ink (Alcántara pers. com. 2018). 4 Low molecular weight hydroxypropyl cellulose compound (nonionic, water soluble ether of cellulose) often used as a paper size or leather consolidant; soluble in water (below 38°C), ethanol, acetone, and many organic solvents; pH 5-‐8.5 in water solution. 5 A 1:1:1 mixture of SC6000, ethanol, and Klucel G (2% solution)

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VII. Adhere an Asian paper hinge to first and last folios with the paste downs and loose endpapers with wheat starch paste

VIII. After treatment photodocumentation

Full Treatment

I. Before treatment photodocumention II. Surface clean the exterior of the book including the fore edge with dry cleaning methods III. Brush out the gutter of each page with a hake brush IV. Tack down visible loose stitching on the front joint with wheat starch paste V. After careful testing, consolidate leather spine with either Klucel G or red rot cocktail VI. Consolidate the paper edges of the board using wheat starch paste VII. Locally humidify dog ears and flatten6 under weight with blotter and Hollytex®7. VIII. Create a toned and textured fill for the loss on the front joint using acrylic emulstion

strengthened with Asian paper casted from another cast of a material with a sympathetic texture to the leather spine. Once sculpted and adhered with Lascaux 498HV additional paint can be used for toning (Reidell and Owen 2010).

IX. After treatment photodocumentation

Rationale and Options: The book is in relatively good condition, and with proper handling, and supervision of researchers, this book retains good functionality. There are some minor condition problems that could be addressed as more of a preventive treatment, if a faster, lower-‐cost option is favored. If it is decided to do a more interventive treatment that considers loss compensation, there are ways to stabilize the book while also addressing the loss in leather on the front edge of the spine with textured and toned fill material. Proposed Housing: The current acid-‐free 20-‐point tan board tuxedo box is perfectly suitable for the continued use of this object in the study collection. Handling Guidelines: Those who wish to interact with the book should take care to have dry and clean hands. Because of the wide spine, a book cradle should be used as to not put too much stress on the hinges. Due to the prominent throw up, the pages may need to be weighed down with evenly dispersed weight.

6 A discussion with the curator should be made about this to consider the research value of leaving these. 7 Fabric made of white spun-‐bonded nonwoven polyester fibers calendared to a smooth surface. Available in a variety of thicknesses. Commonly used as a support material, interleaving paper, or backing. Reemay® (Reemay, Inc) is a similar product. Available from conservation suppliers.

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Reformatting & User Photocopying/Scanning Guidelines Due to the small dimensions of the format and prevalence of digitized versions of this text, scanning is not recommended. Exhibit Guidelines Due to the lack of plates and unique text within the book, it is likely that the display of the book would be for more to highlight its binding style and finishing. The book can be displayed on a mount vertically with the spine facing forward and the boards slightly splayed out to show off the decorative finishes on the binding. The temperature should be within 65-‐75°F with a relative humidity between 40-‐50% with fluctuations not exceeding 5%. The light levels should be between 5-‐10 footcandles.

Standard Photo Documentation Shots

Before treatment photograph by Melissa King and Jim Schneck

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Bibliography Alcántara, J. 2018. Personal communication. Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Winterthur, DE. Gaskell, P. 1972. Imposition. In A New Introduction to Bibliography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 78-‐117.

Greenfield, J. 1998. ABC of Bookbinding. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press. Kaplan, L. Pouliot, B. 2016. Seminar for WUDPAC objects majors – animal species ID on skin/hide. Handout. Wilmington, DE: Winterthur Museum Garden and Library. Krill, J. Papermaking by hand. In English Artists’ Paper: Renaissance to Regency.” New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press

Miller, J. 2014. Books Will Speak Plain: A Handbook for Identifying and Describing Historical Bindings. Ann Arbor, MI: The Legacy Press Reidell S, Owen, G. 2010. Synthetic Leather for Book Repair: Experimenting with Cast Composites. Handout. https://sarahreidell.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/handout_owensreidell_lccdg2010-‐11.pdf

Tedone, M. 2018. History of the Book Lecture. Winterthur Museum Garden & Library, Winterthur, DE. Tedone, M. 2018. Personal communication. Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Winterthur, DE.

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Appendix I: Sewing Structure Diagram

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Appendix II: Page-‐by-‐page Analysis

Distinguishing Marks Location Watermark (bottom) IX/X, 9/10, 11/12, 57/68, 59/60, 89/90, 91/92, 107/108, 169/170,

171/172, 217/218, 219/220, 249/250, 251/252, 281/282, 283/284, 297/298, 299/300, 409/410, free end leafs/paste downs *italics signify variation in design

Watermark (right) 131/132, 179/180, 195/196, 227/228 Vatman’s tear XXXI/XXXII, 39/40, 49/50, 175/176, 289/290, 439/440 Signatures XVII, 1, 17, 33, 49, 65, 81, 97, 113, 129, 145, 161, 177, 193, 209, 225,

241, 257, 273, 289, 305, 321, 337, 353, 369, 385, 401, 417, 433 Condition Problems Location Dog ear 385/386, 387/388, 389/390 Dog ear crease 77/78, 83/84, 95/96, 291/292 Tear Paste downs/free end papers Localized darkening VII-‐VIII, XI, XVII, XXIII, Excessive mold damage 1-‐8, 12-‐19, 30-‐37, 52-‐53, 76-‐77, 80-‐83, 102-‐105, 138-‐139, 144/147,

187/188, 212-‐213, 220/221, 228-‐237, 256, 258-‐259, 271-‐273, 292-‐293, 341, 352-‐353, 363, 374-‐375, 382/383,

Ink stain at tail I-‐XXXII, 1-‐46 Loss of paper 83/84, 99/100, 275/276, 307, 339, Stain 3/4, 121/122, 177/178, 187/188 315/317 (inclusion), 353, 367,

369/370, 371/372, 375/376 Indentation 145-‐158, 281-‐288, 291-‐304 Foreign objects (embedded)

200 (Thread),

Couching errors 289/290, 355/356, 356/360, 373/374, 378/379, 389/390,

treatmentproposal libblock melissaking · 2019. 1. 7. · 4" "" "...

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