Stretching full calfskin binding onto boards.
Restoration and Binding of Antiquarian Leather Books
- Recreating, by hand, period correct bindings from the 15th to the 20th century in full, half or three quarter leather with period style gilding or blind tooling and labels.
- Replacing the spine on damaged leather bindings, duplicating the original material, coloration, patterning and tooling as closely as possible.
- Re-back-spine over. This is desirable if the majority of the original spine is salvageable, laying it over newly matched base of dyed leather.
- Insetting original tooled inner panels or medallions from very badly damaged boards into new leather boards colored and tooled to blend the original material with the new.
- Reinforcing the hinges or the head and tail caps on less worn volumes with carefully matched and pared leather. Re-cornering and rebuilding the badly dented, worn, or rubbed corners of leather boards to protect the integrity of the text block and re-solidify the book aesthetically.
Careful paper repairs to pages and plates, sometimes washing and re-sizing the brittle paper, and finally re-sewing broken volumes when necessary.
