Signal book
circa 1780
Assessed October 13, 2014
Quarter brown sheep tightback sided up with marbled paper. No spine lining or headbands. Thick off-white laid handmade paper in eight sections, endpapers contiguous with textblock. Index tabs cut throughout. All edges sprinkled red. Sewn two-on over four cords, outer two laced into boards. Manuscript throughout, in ink and pencil, with margin rules in dilute ink. Water-insoluble illustrations of flags throughout.
Condition
Leather darkened and missing much of grain layer on spine and board edges, with all edges exposed and delaminating. Spine has losses at head, tail, and cords, split in the second section. The boards are attached only by the cords, and the leather is lifting with losses on the cover along the joint. The upper slip on the left board is broken. Boards deformed where the index tabs were cut. Tape and tape residue from a shelfmark at the tail. There are two stab holes on the right board and through three gatherings. The sewing is intact.
Treatment
Surface cleaned and tears repaired. Leather consolidated with Klucel‑G® and lifted. Rebuilt corners with linen fiber paste and covered with toned Japanese tissue. Lined spine with tissue and patch lined with aerocotton. The extended cloth lining was pasted onto the boards. Re- backed with dyed repair calf. Lifted leather readhered with Lascaux 498HV. Created four-flap enclosure.
All the World’s Aircraft
Fred T. Jane, 1913, London
Assessed January 13, 2015
Full blue starch-filled cloth case binding stamped in silver foil. Thin clay-coated white paper in 38 two-folio sig- natures. Page 96 cut out and reprint inserted. Addenda page opposite page 19d. Sewn all along over three cloth tapes. Black photolithographs with Tangmere Museum stamps in black ink throughout. Various shelfmarks taped to spine: typewritten, inkjet printed, and handwritten in pencil and felt-tip pen. Remnants of paper label printed in black ink on left cover.
Condition
Right joint is detached and left joint is loose. Cloth over right joint split except where it is held on with tape from shelfmarks. All corners of boards frayed and delaminating except spine side of left board. Cloth on spine is fraying and torn, missing headcaps at head and tail. Cockling at tail indicating exposure to moisture or high humidity. Clay coating adhered and skinning paper throughout textblock mainly toward the tail near spine edge. Page 168 cut leaving stub, taped on recto, patched with blue paper on verso. Pressure-sensitive adhesive tape on pages 167 and 27d.
Treatment
Separated and repaired pages, consolidated corners with wheat starch paste and covered with toned tissue, re- moved tape, hinged reprinted page, reattached cut page to stub, Patch lined spine with cloth attached to boards under pastedowns, cloth reback.
Farn Island
Early 19th century
Assessed January 9, 2015
Half leather split board case binding in red sheepskin and red paper over millboard. Leather label on left board. Gold tooling on spine, label, and at edges of paper. Thick off-white wove paper in eight sections, with three folios and one leaf stab-sewn through last section. Sewn all- along over three green parchment tapes. All edges gilt. Manuscript in brown-black ink with pencil ruling and annotations. Charts inserted opposite page 9, 61, and two opposite 109.
Condition
Discolored primarily at foredge on covers and through- out textblock. Leather heavily abraded and skinned, sides abraded and darkened with losses at tail and foredge. Missing headcaps, all board edges exposed, corners de- laminating, leather lifting with losses. Right joint broken but case intact. Cloth patch lining attached to case but not spine at head and tail, center patches adhered to spine but split at joint. Right flyleaf detached, first folio split.
Treatment
Surface cleaned boards and textblock, consolidated leather with Klucel‑G®, mended paper, rebuilt corners and board edges with fiber paste and covered with toned tissue, hinged leaf around section, hinged endpapers to textblock, lifted patch linings and applied tissue and ex- tended cloth lining, resewed all sections including insert- ed gathering through fold, rebuilt headcaps with toned tissue, slit boards and inserted cloth as patch lining. Constructed clamshell box with leather label.
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