The restoration of leather bindings is a large part of our work, and some of the most challenging. Often the leather is cracked and brittle, with years of accumulated dirt and debris on the surface. With careful use of cleansers and dressings we are usually able to restore much of the original luster and gold tooling and bring covers back to life.
LEATHER REBACK {BEFORE}
This book was a beautiful edition of “The Acts of Parliament” - bound on raised cords, the textblock was well preserved, but the cover and spine were chipped and broken.
Part of the original spine piece was missing, and the cover board was completely detatched from the cords
Repairs would have to be made to the textblock to reattach these broken sections.
LEATHER REBACK {AFTER}
After page repairs were made and the spine strengthened, a leather spine was constructed and formed over the original raised bands
The original spine was reattached, and all the original leather was cleaned and dressings were applied
The new leather spine was died to match the original leather as closely as possible.
More work with leather:
