After yesterday’s scenes of bibliographic destruction, I thought it would be apt to point to this wonderful post by Ampersand Duck in Canberra, on restoring and rebinding a book. I’ve been enjoying her posts on book making (among other things) for a while but this one was really wonderful.
It’s wonderful to see pictures of how it’s done. I always suspected there was quite a bit of work involved in really binding a book (as opposed to some of the really bodgy jobs you seem to get with hard bound books these days; and as for paperbacks, let’s not go there). These pictures prove it.
All sorts of tools are involved in the painstaking process, including hammers, and much glue and muslin, and then you are left with a beautiful book, practically like new again.
I think the mouldering books in the shed are a bit beyond such care and attention, though…
All pictures by Ampersand Duck.
8 Comments
Time-consuming and painstaking, yes, but there’s nothing quite like building a book. I’ve only done some very amateur-ish jobs on books, but I’ll never forget the feeling of paging through a book whose pages were put there, in order, by me.
There’s a professor at MPOW that enjoys this hobby so much that he often spends hours at a time in our preservation area mending and binding books. He somehow managed to get the library to buy all his supplies for him, even though he’s working on his own books and not ours. (Though, after he got us to pay for his own collection of books, I suppose this was the next logical extension.) Anyway, the point was not to start wondering about our collective sanity. The point was that this pass-time is addictive and strangely soothing.
I’d love to learn bookbinding and book preservation… is there anywhere in Australia that trains people how to do this anymore?
I know there’s some specialist courses at library schools in the US, but I think the craft is all but gone here.
Hi CW, how are you?
Handbound books are really lovely to look at and hold. I received for my birthday recently a handbound photo album…it is tiny – only for the most special of photos! It was made by a friend who is learning to be a conservation bookbinder. The detail is exquisite.
Wow Iris, I don’t know if MPOW would fund such an obsession 😉 But I can see how mending books can become addictive and strangely soothing, as you put it. Actually there’s a lot about books that is addictive and strangely soothing…
No idea, Fiona! I didn’t even have the option in library school! Maybe I should ask Ampersand Duck where she’s learned her skills…
Anna! Hello!! (I still miss your blog by the way) Wow what a lovely gift to receive. Where’s your friend learning the conservation bookbinding arts? (See Fiona’s comment 😉 )
CW (and Fiona): my friend is a conservator, and she spends a few evenings a week with a conservation bookbinder to learn the art. In addition to regular business I think he also teaches at community colleges. Maybe there are similar courses in Sydney?
There aren’t many full conservation courses left in Australia. Canberra and Melbourne have one each, but that’s about it. The reste is distance ed, which makes it difficult to learn preservation techniques.
Ah, thanks Anna! I guess it’s not surprising that Ampersand Duck is in Canberra, then. I might contact her and see what path she’s taken, I’m curious now…
I had a chat with one of our conservators yesterday and she said that the Canberra course has been discontinued, so there’s only Uni of Melbourne, and a correspondence course run from Sydney.
Anyway she said that the best place to learn conservation bookbinding is actually at TAFE or adult ed colleges. Apparently the ‘hands on’ element of the uni course has been significantly reduced. They do lots of theory but far less lab work than expected.
Thanks, Anna! Good to know!