Exploring Book Conservation: A Summer with CCAHA
This summer, we were lucky to host Luke Kelly as our Book conservation intern at CCAHA. Thanks in part to support from the Glen Ruzicka Memorial Fund, Luke spent several months in our lab gaining hands-on experience and diving deep into the complex work of book conservation.
A student in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, Luke brought with him a strong foundation in book history and conservation—and a clear goal for his time with us: to explore treatment approaches that preserve both the physical structure and historical integrity of centuries-old books.
In this guest post, Luke takes us inside his hands-on work with CCAHA’s study collection, sharing a look at how conservators thoughtfully approach damaged book bindings. Whether you’re well-versed in conservation or just curious* about what happens behind the scenes in our lab, Luke’s detailed reflections offer a compelling look at the care, creativity, and problem-solving that go into treating historical materials.
* Throughout this piece, key terms are linked to our Preservation Glossary for your convenience and deeper understanding.
As I began my summer internship at CCAHA, I knew that I wanted to focus on structural treatments that considered the book as a moving object, While sometimes serious structural degradation might require rebinding, I did not want to focus on treatments that required complete disbinding and resewing of the book. Instead I wanted to explore treatments that kept the sewn gatherings of the textblock intact while providing enough stability for the book to be opened, read, and displayed.
One of the more challenging structural problems encountered in book conservation is dealing with detached boards on tight-back leather bindings. Tight-back leather bindings have the covering leather over the spine adhered directly to the folded paper gatherings making up the textblock of the book. These are commonly found in pre-19th century books. Frequently, the binding’s leather and laced-in cords degrade, and the boards can become detached. The main issue with treating leather tight-backs is often the difficulty of releasing brittle leather from the spine of the textblock to create a sturdy board attachment. Many techniques have been developed for dealing with the conservation conundrums posed by tight-back bindings. Working with a collection of four 18th century books acquired for CCAHA’s study collection, I worked under the supervision of Richard Homer, Senior Book Conservator at CCAHA, to investigate four approaches to board reattachment and joint reinforcement.
The quickest and least invasive method of board reattachment I explored was joint tacketing. With this technique a loop of thread was sewn through the spine leather and shoulder of the textblock adjacent to the existing laced-in cord. This loop of thread was then laced-in or “tacketed” to the board, thus simulating the original means of board attachment. In the 1726 edition of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations I used to test this treatment approach, the pastedowns on the inside of the board were already lifted, and I chose to keep them unadhered in order to keep the tied-on “tackets” visible for future reference.
Tied threads of joint tackets reattach the board of the book while an inner hinge of kozo paper is in the process of being toned with dry pastels.
The next set of tight-back bindings I treated was a 1732 three-volume set of the 3rd edition of Shaftesbury’s Characteristicks. All three volumes had severely darkened and degraded leather along their spines and minimal gold tooling or other decoration. In most conservation scenarios I would choose to treat all three books in the same or a very similar manner. However, as a practical exercise I chose a different approach to each volume. For each treatment, the leather along the spine had to be lifted to some degree. This was done in order to access the sewn page gatherings and allow for new material to cross and adhere to the spine in order to reattach the boards.
In the first volume the leather panels between the five raised cords were lifted using a microspatula. The leather was first consolidated with Klucel G and then faced with a thin kozo paper in order to keep the delaminating outer grain layer of the leather together as each panel was removed. After removing the leather, the spine could be cleaned, reconsolidated with paste and kozo linings, and bands stabilized. The primary method of board reattachment in the first volume was re-backing with toned airplane cotton adhered to the spine and boards. This treatment method effectively recreated the original tight-back binding structure but with a (hopefully) more durable material. The lifted leather panels were then re-adhered along the spine. The benefits of this method are that it forms a very secure board reattachment while providing a well-supported opening for the spine of the book. The drawbacks of this treatment are that it requires lifting the entire spine leather and can lead to further cracking of the re-adhered leather as the spine continues to flex when opening the book.
The second volume of the set received a partial re-back. This was done in exactly the same manner as the first volume except that only the head and tail panels were lifted and all middle panels were left in place undisturbed. This allowed for the toned airplane cotton to reattach the boards at the head and tail, forming a secure attachment while preventing unnecessary lifting of the spine leather.
The third volume of the set was re-backed with a “Honey Hollow.” This treatment was described in an article by Andrew Honey, a conservator at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library. After the spine leather was lifted, a papier-mâché spine piece from kozo was formed around the spine that would support the original leather while not directly re-adhering it to the textblock. This allowed for the spine of the textblock to flex independently from the fragile original lifted leather panels upon opening. While more time-consuming and structure-altering than the other three methods of board reattachment, the hollow allowed for better control of the opening characteristics of the book while limiting distortion of the re-adhered original leather.
Each of these treatment approaches has a different level of time, difficulty, and intervention required to successfully stabilize the board attachment to the textblock. By learning an array of board reattachment techniques for this style of binding structure, I am equipped with a wider array of treatment options to consider when I encounter tight-back bindings in the future.
The "Honey hollow" before being attached to the book. Head and tail panels edges are wrapped in toned kozo prior to attaching the hollow to the boards underneath the lifted leather along the spine edge. Untoned exposed areas of the hollow would be covered with toned kozo after it was attached to the book.