Process

Nothing here is unusual. It is written down because knowing the order of events makes the wait easier and the estimate more believable.

1. Photographs and a first answer

Three photographs — closed front, spine, first opening — and a sentence about what the book is for. Within a few days you get one of three answers: a range for the work, a suggestion to box it instead, or a recommendation to take it to a conservation laboratory.

2. The book arrives and gets written down

Collation, structure, sewing stations, adhesives found, previous repairs, and anything loose gets recorded and photographed before a single thread is cut. This record goes back with the book. It is the part of the job that is most often skipped and most often needed later.

3. A written proposal

What will be done, what will be kept, what cannot be saved, and the price. If the proposal and the estimate disagree, the proposal changes — not quietly, and not while the book is already apart.

4. Bench work

Slower than it looks, because most of it is waiting: paste has to dry under weight, leather has to relax, a spine lining has to set before the next one goes on. A three-week job is perhaps four days of hand work and seventeen days of drying in the right order.

5. Return

The book comes back with the pre-treatment record, any removed original material in a labelled folder, a note of the adhesives used, and advice on how to shelve it. If we made a box, the box is labelled on the spine so nobody has to open it to know what is inside.