Here are the pictures of the finished work of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Everything's been put back together nicely, unlike Humpty Dumpty!? (yeah, you know, I'm talking about that freaking "egg looking creature" wearing a tux and tie.) You see, all the bubbles are gone except for a couple of tiny ones (if you can see them on the picture. They are super tiny.) - I decided to leave them alone cuz fixing bubbles is very risky and taking the risks for the tiny ones wouldn't be worth it, really. I didn't revive the color on the cover because a book like this must be kept as close to the original state as possible. The last picture is a close up of the re-hinge with a new material that I meticulously (ah,, sigh..) matched to the original texture and color co-ordination. Anyway, I hope the client is gonna be happy. (after waiting for 3 months!? Damn! Sorry, but we can't rush things here!)
// For before pictures of this book, go to my former post: Alice's adventures in Wonderland by Macmillan & Co
Great work. I love how you kept it as original as possible. I have a 1869 copy (first published in america). Its in rough shape. It doesn't have covers, but spine and all 192 pages are intact. What would be involved in making this look close to an original?
ReplyDeleteHello 85.5classic,
DeleteI can make a pretty close "replica" cover for you. I can be a real good forger. (haha... Don't tell a police!) First of all, since it's missing a cover, a brand new case has to be made with a similar book cloth.( or I can custom-color a material to match the original spine that's still remaining.) As for the gold stamping on the front and back, the triple line borders aren't the problem, but metal plates for "Alice" and "The Cheshire cat" stamping (or whatever the character stamped for your edition) must be made, if you are eager to make your book as close to the original as possible. A metal plate of that size, (about an inch and a quarter) would cost about $100~120 per plate/block.
We keep various old paper for restoration, and I believe we have some collections of blue or green lead paper just like Alice end paper, so that's not an issue. (If you carbon date the paper, the result should be around mid 1800's. ho ho ho..)
Well, basically, it's not about if it's possible to make your Alice to look like an original again, but how bad you want it, meaning, how much you are willing to spend money for it.
But, if you wanna be bad, (grin**) you can locate a latter edition of cheaper Alice in fine condition, and replace the book block and the spine with yours. :-) That should be a lot cheaper than recreating the cover from scratch.