Projects
Pickering Donation Book, Trigge Library, the Church of St Wulfram, Grantham
A mid eighteenth-century compendium of four printed books (Prayers, Bible, Concordance and Psalms) in a full calfskin binding recently located at a local Grantham school and kindly donated to the Trigge Library. The textblock had considerable surface dirt, tears, losses, and loose sections. The calfskin binding had a detached front board, loose back board, no spine leather, bumped boards and missing board leather. The book required extensive conservation so that it could be consulted and displayed in the Trigging Library in future.
Conservation treatment started with surface-cleaning, with most of the detritus located in the gutter area. The loose first and last sections – four at the front and two at the back – were removed and the linen thread retained. Extensive paper repairs were carried out to the textblock including the removal of Victorian patch repairs, washing and resizing of the extremely softened first section, support to spine folds, and support and infills to edge tears, losses and insect holes.
The sewing structure was supported and the repaired sections sewn back to the textblock. New two-coloured endbands were sewn to match the residual original endband sewing threads located in the textblock. The textblock was given a new archival calfskin reback and the board corners were repaired with the same calfskin.
On completion of the conservation work, the textblock and binding were completely repaired and the book is able to flex well and can be safely displayed with an appropriate book cradle.
