Dracula, 1897

Since I made a short video clip for the bindery website, (which I posted here on my blog only for 24 hours, a few weeks ago.) the SD card for my digital camera started acting strange and stopped saving pictures. So, I was unable to post anything on my blog for a while. The card's been renewed recently, so here I am, resurrected!

Speaking of resurrection, I just finished restoring a first American edition of Dracula, (who didn't technically "resurrect", but what the heck. He could make you an immortal vampire though. Bite me! :-) Like many other first editions of Dracula, this was rebound in leather from the original paper/cloth cover by the former owner. It has a beautiful blood-red Tiger marble on a black quarter leather binding. This marble paper perfectly, vividly resembles flowing blood. (although I just couldn't capture it well on camera under the horrible lighting in the bindery..) Unfortunately, the binding wasn't immortal and ended up being in my hands some hundred years later. The restoration of this binding was to do the external and internal re-hinge, reconstruction of the head cap on the top side of the spine, and some paper mending and cosmetic repairs on the corners. Very straightforward work, but as I haven't handled a first edition Dracula before, I thought I should post it here as my personal record.

The original paper/cloth cover was kept by the owner alongside the binding. In case someone's interested in seeing it, I'm posting a picture here.

This is Dracula by Bram Stoker, published by Archibald Constable & Company. (Westminster, 2 Whitehall Gardens, 1897)