in libros

Bodleian Library conservators Nicole Gilbert and Andrew Honey are today presenting at the Icon Book and Paper Group Conference, being held here in Oxford at the wonderful Pitt Rivers museum.

Their presentation this morning detailed Andrew’s conservation of Jane Austen’s Volume the First. The treatment carried out on this book focused on the repair of the damaged and broken spine folds of the manuscript, as well as the broken sewing and collapsed spine, without the need for dis-binding the manuscript.

All repairs were carried out in-situ and the original structure was disturbed as little as possible during treatment. The photographs with this post (one at the head, five below) show the work in progress, as well as the final result.

Volume the First is now housed in a maroon cloth-box that was created just for this purpose, alongside fragments of the original covering leather from the damaged spine.