Blog

Posted on

Upcoming Workshop: 18th Century French Binding at The Georgia Archives, November 6-10, 2017

Eighteenth century French binding models made in Historic Book Structures for Conservators 2017 workshop.

 

Late 18th Century French Binding Structure
Date: November 6-10, 2017
Location: The Georgia Archives in Morrow, Georgia

This workshop will focus on reconstructing a typical 18th century full leather French binding by comparing and contrasting three 18th century technical descriptions, examining extant bindings and using historic tools.

In some respects, this structure is the end of 1,200 years of utilitarian leather binding; fifty years later, the cloth case becomes the dominant inexpensive rigid board structure. The making of the book is very organic and does not rely on numeric measuring. This class is a hands-on explication of historic written texts. We will try to understand how and why these books were made the way they were made — then model as many aspects as possible — all the while acknowledging our inaccuracies and incomplete understanding.

Techniques to be learned:
-Using a beating hammer to beat the textblock before sewing
-Sewing on thin raised single cords
-Lacing in slips into handmade pasteboards in a typical three hole pattern
-Beating the boards
-Trimming all three edges with a plough in-boards while using trindles for the foreedge
-Coloring the edges with vermillion
-Applying vellum transverse spine liners
-Sewing endbands on rolled paper cores
-Paring and covering in full calfskin
-Marbling, pastewashing, and burnishing the leather
-Applying simple blind tooled decoration

Reproductions of 18th century French tools, constructed from plates in Diderot’s Encylopedie (1751-1780) will be available for use. Participants will learn to use and maintain a plough and investigate the problems in translating written descriptions of bookbinding into the construction of a model. Extensive notations (in English) on Gauffecourt’s Traite de la Relieure des Livres (1763) and Dudin’s L’Art du Relieur-doreur de Livres (1772) will be provided.

Basic bookbinding skills are a prerequisite, but this class can serve as an introduction to leather paring. Discussions will include treatment decision making for this particular structure in relation to institutions and private clients. This class is open to all levels of experience: pre-program students, technicians, and mid-career conservators who desire a full week at the bench. Ideally, a variety of participant experience levels will result in an invigorating exchange of information on binding techniques, institutional protocols, and treatment approaches. Students should bring basic bookbinding tools.

A review of this workshop from 2016 by Constant Lem, Book Conservator at the National Library of the Netherlands: <https://jeffpeachey.com/2017/02/07/review-of-18th-century-french-bookbinding-workshop/&gt;

To apply, applicants must submit a resume and brief, one-paragraph statement of intent. Prospective students should outline educational hopes for this class, and review their background in book conservation, bookbinding, or other crafts.

Fee: $700 and a $100 materials fee

Application deadline: September 15, 2017

Send applications to: Kim Norman:  Kim <dot> Norman <at> usg <dot> edu
Include any questions about the facilities, hotels, or transportation (Morrow is close to Atlanta). For questions about the class: Jeff Peachey: jeffrey <dot> peachey <at> gmail <dot> com

Posted on

Roy’s Food Repair

This hilarious skit is from “The New Show” and featured the late John Candy.

Thanks to the awesome Mark Anderson, The Elizabeth Terry Seaks Senior Furniture Conservator at the Winterthur/ University of Delaware Art Conservation Program, for sharing this with me.

The humor is spot on, including the all-to-common need to explain why hand work is so expensive,  even on cheap machine-made items. And don’t miss the masking tape scene near the end.

Posted on

Do Tools Matter When Making Historic Book Structures?

I made this reproduction 18th century French wooden straightedge. Does using it to make a historic bookbinding model *really* affect the process or outcome? Am I heading down the road of wearing a faux French craftsman costume while I do this?

Skillful use of hand tools often depends on their embodiment. They literally become become extensions of our consciousness and body.  We think through them in use, not about them. Don Idhe’s example of driving a car is useful. We don’t have to pay conscious attention to where we are on the road. We just drive. The car is a complex tool that has become embodied. We constantly unconsciously adjust to keeping it on the road. In bookbinding, paring leather is a similar unconscious complex activity. If you are interested in this kind of thing,  Don Idhe’s Technology and The Lifeworld is a exceedingly readable philosophy of technology.

All craft activities have a greater or lesser degree of embodiment, it accounts for some of their joy, relaxation and pleasure. We get out of ourselves for a while.  People often remark on how a tool fits their hand, or is an extension of it, and that it disappears in use. And how time quickly disappears when engaged by using it.

In teaching historic bookbinding structures, however, that these ingrained habits can be counterproductive when trying to recreate, or at least understand in detail, the nuances of earlier techniques.  This is one reason for using historic and reproduction tools. They can help take us out of the familiar, and challange our ingrained craft skills.  They force us to rethink our relationship to a particular tool, and by extension our relationship with the object being crafted. It is all too easy to slip into 21st century work habits when trying to construct a 16th century Gothic binding.

Using historic tools may or may not be the easiest way to do a particular task. When conserving a book there are many other considerations, including the safety of the original artifact, so many historic tools and techniques are not appropriate. And of course, the skill, experience and ability of the conservator is a significant factor. But by in large, the traditional tools of hand bookbinding have not been mechanized because they are an efficient and accurate way of working.

Possibly the most important aspect of using historic tools, or reproductions, is they aid in interpreting historic techniques. Binding a book in an historic style, even inexpertly, helps us understand deeply how older books were made. And isn’t this type of knowledge at the core of any book conservation treatment?