Restoration & Conservation of Antique Books

CONSERVATION & RESTORATION

by Natasha Herman

Restoration & Conservation of Antique Books How a book conservator makes decisions about the care and treatment of the physical book

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few years ago, a client of mine approached me with a request to repair some books. This was a particularly inquisitive client and we struck up a conversation. He asked me questions about my work and I, in turn, asked him about the nature of his work as a bibliographer. Over the course of our conversation, it struck us both for the first time that two people, both book professionals, were perceiving and valuing the physical nature of the same antique book from two very different angles. This was one of those rare instances where curiosity, time and a shared pot of coffee facilitated a much broader focus on a common passion. It occurred to me that perhaps I had a responsibility and role to play in better illuminating the thought process that transpires quietly in the back­­ ground as I draw up a book repair treat­ ment. Here is my attempt to do just that.

22 book arts arts du livre canada 2016 vol.7 no.1

Definitions In order to understand how a book conservator approaches the treatment of a book, it is useful to take a moment to define some familiar ter­ minology. What do we mean by “restoration”, “con­ servation” and “preservation”?

Picture a timeline. To the left is the past. The fur­ ther left you go along this line, the more distant the past retreats into a fog of ever-greater information loss. To the right we have the future: first, the near and more easily predictable future, and further along, a fog of ever-diminishing predictability. In the centre of this line is, of course, the present moment.

This point is the only moment when we can actually interact with a historical object. Anything that we discuss to the left or right of the timeline necessar­ ily exists in the realm of our imaginations. We bring accuracy to our fantasy of the past by way of vigor­ ous historical study and our imaginations fill in the empty spaces with impressions of the past derived from film, literature, music and other such cultural content. We have some ability to predict the future based on rigorous scientific projections, but here again we fill in the remaining gaps with a richly im­ agined fantasy of our knowledge and experience projected into the future.

Above: A fully new in 2012 “period-style” binding on an unbound text published in France in the eighteenth century, showing a restoration-oriented approach to treatment.

These visualizations can be fallible. When we im­ agine the past, we are prone to making anachronis­ tic mistakes. Period-style films often depict books as the dusty, worn objects that we see today rather than the shiny new objects they would have been closer to their genesis. Future prediction mistakes often come in the form of assumptions we make about the stabil­ ity of the surrounding environment. For example, we often blindly assume that the same group of books will forever remain within the walls of our national libraries. It is virtually impossible to predict the longterm stability of a nation, let alone the long-term stability of a library.

The present moment in the middle of our timeline is the moment when the antique book is considered for treatment. How do we make decisions about an appropriate approach to treatment when at best we have a spotty understanding of the past and a limited ability to predict the future? A common strategy is to attempt to restore the book’s original functional­ ity and aesthetic. This might reasonably be called a restoration-oriented approach. In practice, a purely restorative treatment may be a pastiche of our fan­ tasy of the object when it was new juxtaposed onto our expectations of how an antique object should look. We re-attach the boards to restore original function­a lity while simultaneously toning the new endpaper with a brown stain to suggest the passage of time. Or, if there is no remaining original binding, we build one that represents what we imagine may have been there before. For argument’s sake, the fo­ cus of a purely restorative approach is towards the past (see photo, page 22).

A preservation-oriented approach, on the other hand, starts in the present moment and focuses on the future. Here, the aim is to conserve or safeguard the object in its present state into its imagined situa­ tion sometime in the future. An extreme example of a preservation-style treatment of a damaged book would be to construct an acid-free box for it and store it in its damaged state in a temperature and rel­ ative humidity-controlled environment where physi­ cal contact with it is limited to visual experience. In its pure form, there need be no treatment attention

paid to the past physical and aesthetic states of the object in this preservation-style approach.

In practice, a conservator will most likely use a mixture of both approaches. In the English language, the term “conservation” is often used to describe a hybrid of these two approaches. The professional body of conservators in Canada, for example, define the term “conservation” as follows: Conservation includes the following: examination, documentation, preventive conservation preservation, treatment, restoration and reconstruction.

Code of Ethics and Guidance Practice, Canadian Association of Professional Conservators. 3rd edition, 2000, p.12.

Awareness of how we imagine time acting upon an antique book is only one important focus of con­ sideration when making treatment decisions. It is also of paramount importance to ask the question: “What is it we are trying to keep?”

Value1 There are so many reasons why an antique book might be worth keeping. The obvious and argu­ ably one of the most important reasons to care for a book is because of the value and significance we place on its content. Up until the turn of the twentyfirst century, an information storage device was ar­ guably the book’s primary purpose for existing at all.

But with the prevalence of readily available online information, it is increasingly harder to cite this as a reason to invest resources into a book’s safekeeping.

Other values are taking the place of content and in­ creasingly driving the demand for the physical care and treatment of books. Some examples of these values are: iconic value (the physical object repre­ senting an important moment in history), decorative and artisanal value of the binding, printing or plate value, emotional value, identity value (political, fa­ milial, cultural, religious, philosophical, status, etc.), memory recall value (visual, tactile, olfactory), metainformational value (provenance, marginalia, etc.). _______________

1 Personal communication: 2013–2016, A.J. [Bert] van Bommel, Co-ordinating advisor on monuments for the Dutch Chief Government Architect and lecturer at Delft University of Technology. And: Bommel, Bert van, [2015]: ‘Verantwoord ingrijpen in monumenten. Bijdrage aan het debat.’ Draft. book arts arts du livre canada 2017 vol.8 no.1

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When there are so many values at play, who gets to decide which of these values best merits safe­ keeping?

Advocates for the voiceless object and ef­fective communication between advo­ cates If a book were a patient in a hospital, we would be listening first and foremost to the patient’s desires. Alas, a book cannot speak for itself. Its value is projected upon it by the people who care about it. These people come in the form of owner(s) or custodian(s). They can be private book collec­ tors, librarians, museum curators or booksellers.

Conservators also have a voice in this discussion. It is the responsibility of the conservator to advocate for the physical integrity of the book.

As in any situation where there are multiple in­ terested voices, sometimes values conflict with one another. A book collector might argue that replac­ ing an unreadable title label with a readable label will add to the book’s reference value, citing the ar­ gument that a book is much easier to find when the title is readable on the spine, (right, top) while the conservator might advocate for conserving the ex­ isting title label in its unreadable but authentic form, thereby preserving original material content (right, below). The conservator might suggest that a fragile book be boxed and removed from circulation in or­ der to avoid further deterioration from exposure and handling while a librarian’s mandate may be to de­ liver the book as quickly as possible back into the hands of the public in order that its content be acces­ sible.

When value assessments conflict, creative think­ ing and compromise are necessary.

Above: Partially present, unreadable title label before treatment, and readable title label after treatment.

Ethics of care Though book conservation is not a regulated field, many book conservators will affiliate themselves with a conservators’ organiza­ tion. Though they don’t all offer the possibility of accreditation, most of them have a code of ethics or guidelines for practice. Here is a small selection of common ethical guidelines:

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Above: Semi-readable title label before treatment and semi-readable, consolidated title label after treatment.

The conservation professional shall carry out only that work which is within the limits of his/ her professional competence and facilities. * The first thing for a conservator to consider is whether they have the necessary skills and knowl­ edge for the scope of the project. We may have re­ cently been introduced to an exciting new technique, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have mas­ tered the manual dexterity and trouble-shooting skills necessary to succeed. A treatment direction may be obvious, but might not be possible due to a lack of proper equipment or materials.

The Conservator-Restorer shall respect the aesthetic, historic and spiritual significance and the physical integrity of the cultural heritage.* This clause highlights the balance that is required of any interventional or preventive measure. The physical integrity of a church’s lectern bible may be compromised by continuously displaying it open for reading on a lectern in a damp church while its spir­ itual significance may have been respected. The con­ servator has to think creatively in order to mitigate long-term damage to the shape of the spine while still allowing the congregation to derive meaning from the spiritual value of the bible.

The Conservator-Restorer shall strive to use only products, materials and procedures which, according to the current level of knowledge, will not harm the cultural heritage, the environment or people. The action itself and the materials used should not interfere, if at all possible, with any future examination, treatment or analysis.* In the example depicted in the photo (above, right), manuscript scraps from the original bindery floor were used as inner joint re-enforcements. These were meant to be hidden by the pasted down endpaper.

During the conservation process, it was decided not to re-adhere the endpaper material but rather leave the manuscript fragment exposed for possible future scholarly examination.

The Conservator-Restorer shall not remove material from cultural heritage unless this is indispensable for its preservation or it

Top: Fragment of manuscript used as inner joint reenforcement.

Below An ex-libris causing offset damage to the adjacent flyleaf.

substantially interferes with the historic and aesthetic value of the cultural heritage.* This is a very important principle in conserva­ tion. It seems obvious when considering a pristine 400 year old binding, but becomes more problematic when we are faced with recent interventions or ad­ ditions to a binding which may be damaging the rest of the book. An illustrative example of this dilemma is an ex-libris added to this eighteenth century book by a famous owner in the twentieth century. The exlibris is clearly causing acidic damaging to the facing end­paper (above). book arts arts du livre canada 2017 vol.8 no.1

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From left: Heavily damaged original spine and corners; replacement of spine and corners with new leather and decoration.

Another good example is the choice to replace an original but heavily damaged spine with a new and functional spine (above).

But how does a book conservator apply these gen­ eral ethical guidelines to the specific needs of the old book?

Content, structure, function and form How does a book conservator apply these general ethical guidelines to the specific needs of the old book? To answer this question, let us first break down the book object into four different aspects for possible safe­ keeping: content, structure, function and form. The content is clearly an important aspect to preserve, though as we mentioned earlier, content is becom­ ing less important as more information is available digitally. The binding structure is also something that merits our attention. Indeed, this is becoming more important now that the craft of bookbind­ ing is dwindling and we can no longer easily access this knowledge through a continuity of living crafts­ people.

A book’s primary function is not always as straight­forward as one would assume. It barely needs mentioning that a book’s binding is there to protect the text and store the pages in their proper order. But if we no longer need to consult the text for its content, then its function is also going to evolve – in this case, from reference material to perhaps deco­

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rative or iconic object. Once we have recognized this functional change, we may decide that it is less im­ portant to focus on restoring the flexibility of the joints and spine for ease of reading. We may even decide that the binding itself should no longer func­ tion as a protective device for the text but rather the binding and text together should become the fragile object that needs protection in the form of a preser­ vation box (opposite).

Before the advent of digital scanning, a common book conservation treatment aimed at preserv­ ing content was to dis-bind a book and place each individual leaf in a transparent envelope for ease of reading and handling. The binding parts were of­ ten stored alongside the plastic-encapsulated pages together in a box. In this example, the content has clearly been prioritized over the function and struc­ ture of the original binding. But what else was not prioritized during this treatment? What about the bookishness of the book? The antiqueness of the old? In short: the form. It is the form that allows us to experience a book with the depth and emotion that we all attribute to these culturally beloved objects.

Perhaps partly in reaction to some of these early treatment decisions of heavily prioritized con­ tent preservation, a much less intrusive conserva­ tion trend has emerged which errs heavily towards preservation. An illustrative example of this treat­ ment concept in action is the use of acid-free boxes

An original eighteenth century binding with fragile original spine, housed in a box with built-in cradle support.

The box reflects the aesthetic language of the binding it contains and the book need never be removed from the box for it to be perused safely.

in which to store books, which are otherwise left untreated or only very lightly stabilized. All other available resources are put towards the maintenance of a stable storage environment as well as severely limiting the books’ use. Controlling extreme fluctua­ tions in humidity and temperature and protecting old objects from the damage caused by exposure to

sunlight go a long way in preserving an object in its current form. Digitally scanning the information within the book means that we will no longer need to consult the object, avoiding further mechanical damage.

But here also it is imperative to consider the im­ portance of form. Scrolling through digital scans is a very different aesthetic experience to leafing through an old book still emanating the scent of the previous owner’s cigar smoke. Consulting a protected artifact in a vault with white gloves is qualitatively different from curling up by the fire with an early and loved edition of your favourite novel. Browsing the shelves of a special collections library serves up a very differ­ ent mixture of information to a Google Books search on the Internet. There are times in which disregard­ ing form will result in the loss of the essence of the book – and sometimes it is that very essence that is the core of what we are trying to preserve. When book arts arts du livre canada 2016 vol.7 no.2

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form preservation is desired, what tools do we have at our disposal to help us retain the overall form of the object as we are intervening to preserve it?

Aesthetic considerations in conservation treatment From the finest royal bindings down to the most utilitarian schoolbook bindings, regard­ less of the level of decoration, all bindings have aes­ thetics, or perceptible qualities. These aesthetics can be visual, tactile, even olfactory and acoustic. All old things have their own unique perceptible qualities: dusty, dull, worn, damaged. As we perceive these qualities, we synthesize them into a complete feelingunderstanding of the object we are contemplating.

These qualities are the ingredients which collectively make up the substance of the form.

There is a common layperson’s assumption that conservators will only conduct repairs in a visually neutral way, such that the old and the new materials are easy to distinguish from one another. But might there be reasons why it would be in the best interest of the preservation of a book to blend repairs and material additions with the express desire to make them blend in?

Imagine a broken or missing head cap needs re­ pairing on a leather binding. It will be necessary to introduce new material and marry it to the original leather. How does one visually and texturally inte­ grate the old material with new? Or, how does one go about building a whole new binding around an existing antique text that no longer has its original binding. Do we choose a neutral conservation-style binding (indeed, what is a neutral binding?) or do we opt for a binding built in an imagined style of the date and place of publication? If we choose a period-style binding to contain a soiled and worn 400-year-old text, do we build a binding with the shiny newness of a newly made object or do we tone down the colours and textures to better align it visually with its con­ tents? Every time we introduce new repair mat­erial or attach new binding parts to an old book, we must decide how much of our time to invest in these aes­ thetic choices.

In the context of the antique book, it is useful to

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Head cap before treatment and head cap after treatment, with visual and textural integration.

again consider some of the value aspects we men­ tioned earlier as we contemplate what we are trying to preserve: personal and cultural value, aesthetic and decorative value, historical, emotional and memory recall value. We must also consider what the code of ethics says on this subject: The Conservator-Restorer shall respect the aesthetic, historic and spiritual significance and the physical integrity of the cultural heritage.* Encouraging deliberate colour and textural con­ trast to unambiguously show the intersection be­ tween original and repair materials will help to achieve the goal of historical value preservation.

However, aesthetic value might be better reached by repair techniques aimed at appealing to the ex­

In conclusion One might think that this exer­ cise in deconstructing the decision-making process involved in the conserving an old book would result in a confused and unsatisfying conversation between

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The treatment report The importance of the

measures for the object once treatment is complete.

For printed books in particular, any identifying prov­ enance that may distinguish one copy from another will be mentioned in the treatment report.

The treatment report is the voice that the conser­ vator gives to the voiceless book as it passes from owner to owner through the years. It becomes an important piece of provenance for the book and must be stored alongside it and passed on to any future owner. If a decision was made to remove the old spine and add a new one in the style of the origi­ nal, or to blend new head cap material with original spine material, then we have a record of why this decision was made, what original material may have been sacrificed, and what was hoped to be gained by such measures.

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perience and emotion of our interaction with the book. Another way of putting this is that visual dif­ ferentiation of a repair easily appeals to our intellec­ tual understanding and appreciation of a historical object, while visual blending of a repair to achieve aesthetic continuity may better accommodate a more emotionally accurate understanding and enjoyment of the object.

The context of the object will determine to a great degree how the conservator will navigate this diffi­ cult and often conflicting area of consideration. And of course, the context changes with time. A four hun­ dred year old book will have outlived many conser­ vation trends! Context will also include the needs and desires of the owner or custodian. Often, the best we can do at any given moment is to recognize and name the multiplicity of relevant values. Practically, this means good communication between the custo­ dian and the conservator. A good conservator will ask pointed questions of the custodian to help un­ cover these values. A responsible custodian should never hesitate to describe to the conservator all the reasons why the object is loved and valued.

The only thing left to do once all of these choices have been made and the treatment has been com­ pleted is to create a record of what took place. The conservation treatment report is the cornerstone of this whole communication and decision-making process.

treatment report is stressed in every conservation code of ethics: The conservation-restoration treatment of cultural heritage should be documented in written and pictorial records of the diagnostic examination, any conservation/restoration intervention and other relevant information.

A copy of the report must be submitted to the owner or custodian of the cultural heritage and must remain accessible. * Treatment reports include such information as the date of intervention, the state of the object before intervention, the types of materials and adhesives used in the treatment, any further precautionary

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the book conservator and custodian, making it dif­ ficult to choose a treatment direction with any con­ fidence. But on the contrary, the process of speaking aloud our – often subconscious – value assessments brings a surprising focus to the task at hand. In conver­ sation, decisions can be honed to resonate in a satis­ fying way for all concerned parties. In my practice, I have two goals. The first is for my clients to leave the discussion feeling confident that the values attribu­ ted to their books will be preserved and enhanced for

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future enjoyment. The second is for me to feel satis­ fied that I have properly advocated for any greater so­ cial value that may have fallen outside the scope of the book’s current ownership, all the while upholding the guidelines worthy of a professional conservator. • www.redbonebindery.com

Restoration & Conservation of Antique Books will also be published in June 2017 by Biblis, Kvartalstidskrift För Bokvänner, Kungliga biblioteket, Stockholm, Sweden.

This article could not have been written without on­ going discussions with colleagues, in particular: Bert van Bommel; Anne Hillam (former head of conservation New York Academy of Medicine, instructor at Barbara Goldsmith Conservation Laboratory NYU), and Ernst Spek (www.suvarov.nl). *These guideline articles have been taken from the European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers Code of Ethics (www.ecco-eu.org/fileadmin/user_ upload/ECCO_professional_guidelines_II.pdf), the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators (www.cac-accr.ca/files/pdf/ecode.pdf), and the UK’s Institute of Conservation (http://icon.org.uk/system/ files/documents/icon_code_of_conduct.pdf).

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