Bookbinding and Book Restoration

This site is regularly updated

Are your pages torn, eaten by vermin,

ripped into pieces or crumbling with age and neglect?

Have they been battered, creased, dog eared, scribbled in
with biro, crayon, ink, even sellotape water stains foxing or
library stamps?

They said it wasn’t possible……………

Book restoration taken to an art form.

Bookbinding and Paper Restoration

You wouldn’t think it was the same page would you?

But we can assure you it is.

Knitting fibres together and invisible mending is painstaking but can be very rewarding

Bookbinding and Remove Foxing

Foxing is a form of mildew /mold/fungus which attacks the wood content of the paper. Some 18th, 19th Century and modern papers are made from “Chemical wood pulp” and “Esparto grass” as opposed to “Mechanical wood pulp”, as this example of a Dickens vignette title page shows.

The fungal spore is attracted to and accelerated by the (F)errous (Ox)ide, (iron), one of the chemicals in the paper…This of course is where it gets it’s name, absolutely nothing to do with Reynard whatsoever.

Period Fine Bindings have developed a safe aqueous formulae which neutralises the spore and removes the stain completely without altering the integrity of the fibres of the paper or the medium ….be it ink or water colour etc…it doesn’t matter what the medium is. The formulae are derived from plant extracts. Some modern conservation uses harmful chemicals, surfactants and solvents that break down the cellulose in the paper causing cellular degridation, resulting in ultimate disintegration.

Foxing Removal

Clean as a whistle whilst preserving the integrity of the paper.

Textile strength tests have shown that the paper fibres have not altered in any way, which means the page will bend and “dog ear” without snapping. The oxidation in the ink has been removed leaving a crisp clean original print. Whilst the mildew spore that causes the “foxing has been neutralised.

Bookbinding, Foxing Removal and Paper Restoration

Bookbinding and Removing Ink Stains: Somebody sadly spilt ink on this edition of Cook’s Voyages. The ink had penetrated through every page, an immense amount of page restoration was needed. Indeed if it were possible?
The ink was first analysed to determine it’s properties and a formula was created for it’s removal and then each page carefully ‘re-sized’.

Page Restoration

…And even though it had soaked all the way through and dried through the ages, Paul managed to restore this beautiful piece to its original condition…
without any compromise to the integrity of the ink or the paper.

Ink Stamp Removal

I know they must have their reasons and I know a lot of really nice ones too….but what about “stamp happy” librarians?? Have they nothing better to do??

96 hand coloured plates in this rare book…every plate stamped 😦

Library Stamp Removal

These are the nation’s heritage….They belong to you and me 😉 Librarians are only custodians of the nations property but is it vandalism?

Foxing (Oxidation) Removal

A rare book with a stamp can be worth 60% less than one without….Look at the last Shakespear 1st folio sold in the UK a few years ago, stamps all over it (see my newsletter)….sold for £2.8m…….The auctioneers were disappointed at the absence of most of the big spenders….I wonder why?

Oxidation can cause serious problems.

I hate oxidation…especially when foxing has had a go at it too!

Shame nothing can be done about the UV damage to the right of this page. I stopped the brittleness in the paper by placticising it, removed the oxidation, removed 2 mildew spores and re-sized the paper, but unfortunately there is no cure for sunlight damage….At least it proves it’s the same page though!