There's a time when something clicks in my head, out of blue, like lightening and triggers a strong urge to restore only the same category of books. It could be cookbook or dictionaries or, of course, Bibles. The strange "impulse" happened little over a week ago when I had a sip of
my master's cabernet sauvignon that I secretly poured for myself without telling him. -
The Wine Thief!!. Might have been the idea of the sin, but I put the glass down, approached gingerly to the "backlog shelves", and started digging out only the humble and ordinary, black yapp personal Bibles to work on. (Like the one on the right and left.) Ah, the wine thief! Repent Thyself! <---- must have been a message from above! These personal Bibles can be tedious to restore because they tend to be so worn out due to the heavy use, yet the restoration task is always very mundane - nothing fancy or challenging, to say the least. Maybe that's why I found a good number of them. Not intentional, but I guess we've unconsciously avoided mundane works.. (Human, all too human...) So, for the last week or so, with a feeling of guilt, I've been working on those poor (neglected!?!) Bibles. After hours and hours of ironing the crumbled pages and repairing torn paper, I've completed a hand full of those Bibles. (At one point, I got confused as to which Bible was whose, because they all look similar.... ) No sooner did I feel that I was basically done with the "humble, ordinary, black yapp personal Bibles" than I found a tiny shiny Bible on my work bench, marked "Urgent". That's this pretty Bible here. At last, something with a *Bling* to work on! This is
The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments by Collins' Clear-Type Press. (1950) Miniture, vigesimo-quarto Holy Bible by Collins' Clear-Type Press normally have wood boards as a cover, but this one has seashell-like material in mosaic. I've worked on this particular version of Collins' Clear-Type Press vigesimo-quarto a decade ago, and I remember it was missing a couple of mosaic pieces. This one, however is complete. Very beautiful. The restoration for this Bible was to do a facsimile leather spine, replacement of endsheets, and restoration on the original ribbon. Very simple job on an eye-candy binding. - Exactly what I needed after a week of repentance!
There's a time when something clicks in my head, out of blue, like lightening and triggers a strong urge to restore only the same category of books. It could be cookbook or dictionaries or, of course, Bibles. The strange "impulse" happened little over a week ago when I had a sip of my master's cabernet sauvignon that I secretly poured for myself without telling him. - The Wine Thief!!. Might have been the idea of the sin, but I put the glass down, approached gingerly to the "backlog shelves", and started digging out only the humble and ordinary, black yapp personal Bibles to work on. (Like the one on the right and left.) Ah, the wine thief! Repent Thyself! <---- must have been a message from above! These personal Bibles can be tedious to restore because they tend to be so worn out due to the heavy use, yet the restoration task is always very mundane - nothing fancy or challenging, to say the least. Maybe that's why I found a good number of them. Not intentional, but I guess we've unconsciously avoided mundane works.. (Human, all too human...) So, for the last week or so, with a feeling of guilt, I've been working on those poor (neglected!?!) Bibles. After hours and hours of ironing the crumbled pages and repairing torn paper, I've completed a hand full of those Bibles. (At one point, I got confused as to which Bible was whose, because they all look similar.... ) No sooner did I feel that I was basically done with the "humble, ordinary, black yapp personal Bibles" than I found a tiny shiny Bible on my work bench, marked "Urgent". That's this pretty Bible here. At last, something with a *Bling* to work on! This is The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments by Collins' Clear-Type Press. (1950) Miniture, vigesimo-quarto Holy Bible by Collins' Clear-Type Press normally have wood boards as a cover, but this one has seashell-like material in mosaic. I've worked on this particular version of Collins' Clear-Type Press vigesimo-quarto a decade ago, and I remember it was missing a couple of mosaic pieces. This one, however is complete. Very beautiful. The restoration for this Bible was to do a facsimile leather spine, replacement of endsheets, and restoration on the original ribbon. Very simple job on an eye-candy binding. - Exactly what I needed after a week of repentance! 
I believe there was a commandment on the subject;
ReplyDelete"Binder, thou shalt not drink thy master's booze"
I might be mistaken though...
hahaha, yes,it must have been the message! At least, I got a chance to repent myself instead of getting struck by lightning!
DeleteHow did you discover the copyright was 1950? I just found one at an antique store, identical to the one you repaired (Collins' Clear-Type Press vigesimo-quarto), but I was unable to to find research as to when these were actually printed.
DeleteI have a 1954 Daily Missal (small) in which the cover is made of this same, shell-type material. The Missal itself is intact, but several of the mosaic pieces from the front cover have fallen off. I have those pieces. The back cover is missing, although the spine (which is not mosaic) appears to be mostly intact but frayed on the top and bottom. I don't know if this can be repaired, but would love to know more on how to save this lovely piece.
ReplyDeleteHello Linda,
DeleteMost likely your Missal can be restored as you've saved the shell pieces that were fallen off. Sounds like all it needs is to put back the shells on the front cover and recreate the back cover (and the spine if it's also missing.) Books with this type of mosaic material are so pretty that you really shouldn't leave it in such a sad state. The restoration itself for this type of work shouldn't be too expensive, so do contact a book restorer. ;-)
Yay, I have the 1954 book too!
ReplyDelete