period bookbinding


Using a Meeting Guard to Allow the Pages to Freely Open

This little colonial American book of psalm tunes, The Essex Harmony, presented a not-unusual binding problem requiring a variant sewing structure to allow it to properly open. The book measures only 6 1/8” x 5 3/8” consisting of 2 signatures. Given its small size, the printing fills the entire page right into the gutter. The […]

pages sewn onto the meeting guard lay flat

Jardins Anglais has been rebacked with a new leather spine gilt to replicate the original.

Book conservation/Book restoration: Deciding upon a course of action

Book repair, book restoration, book preservation, book conservation or do nothing at all. With a worn or damaged book in hand, the choices for treatment (or no treatment) may seem bewilderingly complex. Add to this the contradictory advice and opinions offered by different authorities, it may seem impossible to come up with a ‘best’ course […]


Marbled Paper That Isn’t Marbled 2

Many are the methods that have been used to decorate paper for bookbinding and endpapers. Often they are truly marbled (see our recent post about reproducing marble paper here). But other techniques were used that did not involve the marbling process, but instead the colors were applied directly to the paper itself. Still, many of […]

Agate marbled paper on a German or French period style bookbinding. sprinkled paper decorative paper

reproduce marble paper

How We Reproduce Marble Paper 4

As bookbinders who do a lot of book restoration and period style bookbinding, we are from time to time asked to reproduce marble paper. Sometimes the client wishes us to bind a book following the original, now deteriorated-beyond-repair binding, or in this case, to replicate the existing binding of other books in a set. This […]