Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1798

No sooner had I returned from a week long trip to Canada than I had to leave town again for another week. So, I've been juggling things a bit frantically lately, which is the reason why I've been absent from my blog this month. As I've so far managed to post something every month since I started this blog little over a year ago, it just didn't feel right to miss this month's post. So, I brought a camera with me today to take pictures of this binding that I just finished.

This is a part of Vol. 88 (1798) Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, written by George Atwood, for which he was awarded a Copley Medal. This Atwood's thesis section was separated specifically from the original journal, so it needed a new binding. The client asked for a quarter leather binding with marble paper and a set of simple gold lines on the smooth spine, along with the author's name and the publishing date stamped on the bottom. I had to resew the book with five cords, so it would have been more fun to bind it if he asked for raised bands on the spine. But well, a simple gold lines on a smooth spine seems more traditionally accurate when it comes to academical periodicals of the era. So, the book collector client always knows best.

I dye, antique or mottle leather for most of my bindings, but I left the leather untouched for this particular work. It's sort of rare for me not to alter the texture of leather even a little bit, so I decided to post it on my blog.

By the way, in case you are interested in science and mathematics, PDF archives of all the Philosophical Transactions issues from the very first edition of 1665 are available online here for "A", (mathematical, physical and engineering sciences), and here for "B". (biological sciences)

The Holy Bible by Montgomety Ward & Co., 1903

You might've wondered how the distinguishably deep, beveled covers of large antique Family Bibles were made. They aren't curved or chiseled, nor sculpted, but are actually molded. Typically, the boards are constructed in two laminated parts; the flat base board and the molded top layer board. So, if someone asks me to make a cover like one of those antique Family Bibles, it's a bit of a trouble because I don't have a mold or an appropriate machine. As you can imagine, it's a time consuming work to create such deep ornate bevels, manually.

I was digging through the backlog shelves last week, and found this Bible, which came in at the end of last November. Horrifying! How in the world was this Bible left untouched for this long!? It appeared to be a straightforward restoration work, but as I examined the order form, I found out why no one wanted to touch it. The client asked for a brand new full leather binding with a similar design on the cover. He wanted ornate bevels... The original binding was bound in bookcloth, so the degree of the beveled lines weren't as deep as that of typical leather bound Bible's. But, the new binding was to be in leather, so the bevel would have to be deep or it wouldn't look good. Sigh.. I had to cut out 4 sheets of rather thick davy boards precisely in shape and sculpt the bevels and define the lines with finishing tools. My hand still aches from this work... Ah, a future of arthritis awaits..

I created a crisscross texture on the surface and antiqued the leather in order to make the bevels and blind tooling to look more defined. I hope the client forgives us for taking so long to complete his Bible.. Pray for me..

Oh, by the way, I'm planning to go to Vancouver Island (Canada) next week. Probably, I will be leaving on Friday, the 21st. We'll be in Victoria for a couple of days, then leave for Port Hardy. Our current intern, Mr. B, is going to visit his family there, and he generously allowed my master (One of those Bigfoot enthusiasts... sigh..) and I to go along with him. It'll be beautiful there at this time of the year in the NW, and will be a nice break from work for me.

Dracula, 1897 / Slipcase & Folder

The client of Dracula came in to pick up her restored books last week, but she left Dracula with me. As the first edition Dracula and its original cloth/paper covers should be kept together securely, the client decided that a slipcase should be made to house them both. The set of original covers is basically a mere paper, so I made a separate folder for it as well. The only thing the client said to me in terms of design was, "As long as you don't use a color like beige or something out of place, whatever you do should be adequate." Well, in order to be perfectly safe, I could just make everything in black buckram and call it quits, but it just seemed too boring. So I accented a couple of minor sections in lipstick red, and lined the folder with black silk moire which has sort of like, a tuxedo feel to it. I hope she approves of what I chose..

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)

Le Cuisinier Parisien, 1842

This is the last one of the series of French cookbooks that I've been posting on my blog lately. This book gave me a bit of a dilemma that kept me from working on it for three freaking days. I was just staring at the book, and kept going back and forth with the dilemma.. ok, here's what it was ... the client sent me a couple of tiny grainy jpegs of a book that she wanted her Le Cuisinier Parisien to be like. It's normally a no brainer, but as I examined the book, it had been re-sewn in radically raised cords, and the placements of those cords didn't match that of the false raised cords used for the book on the jpeg. Bummer.. My dilemma was, whether to break it down and resew it completely, or just use the existing cords for the new binding. Neither was preferable. The original re-sewing was still perfectly in tact with firm glue, so forcing the break-down and re-resewing wouldn't be a good thing for the book in the long run and it would cost her another hundred or so dollars. Yet, if I used the existing cords, (which, by the way, weren't placed precisely, but askance ... total sloppiness!) my binding wouldn't look like what she asked for, and it will look horrible and imperfect, that I would never put my name on. Hummm..

So, the best solution I could come up with, was to carefully hammer down the raised cords without harming the threads or the paper so that the spine became flat enough for me to apply false raised bands that match the jpeg model. Also, to hide a slight gap on the spine, I decided to do a set of French double, which is slightly tilted outwards naturally. Ah, I think my tactic was a success.

As the papier tourniquet marble paper used on the model wasn't available, I used a french shell printed marble that matched the closest. (with the client's approval, of course.) I antiqued the leather and the endpapers as well. The torn papers are mended, and five days of dilemma was over!

This is Le Cuisinier Parisien, ou L’art de la cuisine Française au XIXè siècle - Traité élémentaire et pratique des entrées froides, des socles et de l’entremets de sucre, suivi d’observations utiles aux progrès de ces deux parties de la cuisine moderne, by Antonin Carême, published by J. Renouard. (Third Edition, 1842)

Le Cuisinier Imperial, 1810

I've been sick since I swallowed a super hard chunk of baguette sandwich and scarred my throat a week ago. ( I couldn't chew it without breaking my teeth, so I thought I should just swallow the darn thing, letting the stomach acid take care of the rest. A big mistake!) I couldn't even speak for the next 24 hours, got a minor fever for a couple of days and now I can't stop coughing, for god's sake. Is baguette loaf supposed to be that hard?? I mean, does it have to be like a rock? Tell me, my French friends! Are Americans getting it all wrong!?

Anyway, continuing from the last post on French cookbooks, (The baguette incident just happened to have happened. Mind you.) this is another of the same client's books, Le Cuisinier Imperial, ou L'art De Faire La Cuisine Et La Pâtisserie Pour Toutes Les Fortunes, by A. Viard, published by N. Barba in Paris. (Fifth Edition, 1810) I was asked to preserve everything, and I thought it wasn't a problem at first, until I examined the spine. Sigh,, the spine leather was tightly glued to the spine of the book. Normally, if the spine leather's glued tightly like that, I'd recommend for a brand new facsimile leather spine. But, this book has a set of very unique gold ornaments that I couldn't replicate, and the condition of the leather was such that still had "body", which could possibly sustain the force of lifting. So, I was determined to lift it off. ( but, I told her that I might not be able to do it, before hand, just in case.) Well, although it took about 2.5~3 hours, I successfully took it off the spine!! Yey! I won!!!! (won what?)

(cough. cough. cough. cough.)

The restoration involved was a re-hinging of the spine with the original spine put back on, reconstructions / repairs of the corners and internal cloth hinges to preserve the original marble paper. 

Le Cuisinier Royal, (1834~1835?)

If I look back at my life, though I'm not trying to be an arrogant snob here, I must say that I seem to have been good at most everything that I put my hands on. (except for physical things. I had a severe asthma. An excuse?.. probably.) I’ve never quite have been the best, unfortunately, but always excelled well beyond the standard. Good consistent grades at school, enough musical skills to get into competitions, natural ability to draw, paint, sculpt and build anything without much instruction, and I even was good at singing and acting. But there is one thing that I never can get my head around, - cooking. I suck at it. I totally, unequivocally suck at it. I have over a dozen cookbooks of various kind at home, giving me an illusion that I'd someday be a master of cooking, which never happened and never will. I'm just not a natural born cook. My taste buds must be 50% less than normal human beings', but I don't know what tastes good, first of all. If someone put dog food on a plate, nicely garnished like a fine dining meal, I'd say, "um, Most Delicious!" and would mean it, like an idiot. Secondly, I'm not a multi-tasker. I burn things because of it, and I hope my landlord isn't reading this. Thirdly, my head starts spinning with all those alien ingredients when reading cookbooks that I obsessively collect and ambivalently neglect. This is why I worship chefs. Chefs, who can do something that I can never do.

Recently, my master told me to talk to one of our clients in person, who's left us with several, old books on french cuisine. Master's schedule has been so up-to-neck that he decided to forward her books to me. She turned out to be a professional chef, (Ah! the Goddess!) and does actually use these books instead of just collecting them. This reminded me of one of Chef Heston Blumenthal's TV shows wherein he recreates ancient cuisines with his eccentric twists based on old manuscripts. (Yes, I'm into all those cooking TV shows. Also, I must confess, I have a secret crush on Chef Ramsay. ** I mean, British version of Chef Ramsay... He seems to be more "humane" in his native land..) I know firsthand that you have to go back to the roots if you want the excellence in any arts. And remember, just like what Chef Blumenthal does, old can be new!

Anyway, this is one of her books, Le Cuisinier Royal. It doesn't have a title page, so I don't know exactly which edition it is. But based on the "recycled" paper that was used for the spine reinforcement, it must have been published in 1834~1835? (As you probably know, we bookbinders don't throw away printer's overruns and mistakes. See the picture on the right.) This book needed a re-hinge, and internal cloth hinges to preserve the marble endpapers. Also, as the corners were so worn that I suggested to do a set of leather corners instead of just reinforcing them with glue. (Someone tried to patch-up the corners with green tapes, so it wasn't a good idea anyway, to keep them as they were.) One tricky thing was to match the exact color and texture of the new corner leather to the original spine leather. They had to perfectly match, or the new corners would look out of place. I think it turned out to be as if it were originally bound with corners. Whew!

Dedication of My Subscriber

One of my dear YouTube subscribers, Ernesto from Mexico sent me some pictures of his binding work and a sewing frame he's built by himself. What  dedication! A sewing frame is very simple in construction, but costs a lot if you try to purchase it commercially. So, I'm glad to see that someone is dedicated enough to have built it from scratch! You can do it, too, my dear subscribers! One of the troubles you might face when building a sewing frame is the threaded wood that requires a threader to make. So, like he did, you can use commercially available threaded metal rods with wing nut screws. He also sent me a picture of his laptop showing my YouTube video. Wow, ... I know there are thousands of people from around the world watching and trying out what I've shown on my videos, but seeing it firsthand is rather emotional. It's a pleasantly strange feeling, to be honest. Thanks Ernesto for taking time to send me these wonderful pictures! You've made my day. *NOTE* Pictures are shown here with his permission.

The Holy Bible by Collins' Clear-type Press, 1950

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!

Britannia Depicta, 1736

I love maps and atlases in general. I like looking at them, pondering and dreaming about the world I haven't visited. But old maps and atlases are the most fascinating to me. You can see the parts of the world that didn't exist or weren't discovered yet when the map was manufactured, or no longer exist today. I wish I had a really old antique globe at home!

We often get antiquarian map books here, but I'd say this one is one of my favorites and the most intriguing of all. It's  Britannia Depicta or Ogilby Improv'd, printed & sold by Thos. Bowles. (The Fourth Edition, 1736) This is one of the first pocket maps of Britain, and shows roads and landmarks in compartmentalized beautiful woodcut vertical maps, along with a description of each city. I just finished restoring this volume, and finally got a chance to take a good look inside. What a gem of a book!

The client did not want me to perform anything beyond the front cover rehinging, reconstruction of the top & bottom of the spine, and a simple glue reinforcement on the worn out corners. So, as for the restoration, it wasn't so labor intensive. One unconventional restoration method used for this book is the rehinging. This is a medieval binding wherein the spine is directly glued onto the spine of the book. So the spine couldn't be lifted or the leather would fall apart if attempted. In a case like this, one of the ways to preserve the original spine while reattaching the cover to it, is to rehinge, partially superficially. The new leather is glued underneath the original leather of the cover, but the extending new leather is glued over, not underneath, the spine slightly without covering any of the gold tooling. It has to be perfectly blended to the texture of the surrounding original leather. This type of rehinging has to be done with the most care because it's not as strong as a conventional rehinging. 

I hope the client likes my work. He's a regular client of ours, so I don't want to disappoint him!

Sharpness test of my paring knife!

After I cut myself real bad the other day, I became curious about how sharp my paring steel was. Here's my "hair cutting test". - It's a good way to know whether your blade is dull or not. I don't think my steel is sharp enough to call "razor sharp", but I think it is within the category of "Lethal! Watch Out!" as it does cut the hair at the moment the blade touches the hair without any force. Well, I'll make an official sharpening knife/paring leather video in the future as requested by some of you. (This video is unlisted on Youtube.)

Yikes! Cut to the Bone !

So, without looking, I grabbed the wrong paring knife that was larger than the one I intended to use, and my sense of distance between the hand and the blade wasn't correct when I started using it, resulting the tip of the blade to slice my finger all the way to the bone... I might need to stitch it, but right now, I have to work. The blood keeps on gashing out like a fountain, so in order to keep working, I sealed the wound with layers of band aids and masking tapes and tin foil! (You see, it's on the middle finger, and you can imagine I'm having fun with it. *grin*) Well, although rare, injuries do happen in a bookbindery, and it's usually a burn or cut fingers, but this is the worst cut I've had since I stated working here. As for a burn, I remember one intern who was branded a word on her upper arm by a hot stamping machine! I don't remember what word it was, but I know it wasn't a cool word to be permanently branded on the arm. I hope it wasn't someone's name or anything! Yikes!

Bookbinding 101 Prior to Case Making

Because each of my videos is an individual tutorial of a particular section of bookbinding, some of you might have wondered how they actually line up in order of the process. So, I made the first part of this video to be a brief summary of the videos I've so far created , and gathered them in order. Each short clip is extracted from the name of the video mentioned on top of the each screen. You can find those videos on my channel.

The latter part of this video shows a sewn book's last preparation for case making. A simple task, but it must be done. As for the medieval binding information at the end, I hope you don't put too much thought into it. I just added the rough information there strictly because I showed how to sew Sewn-on cord (medieval sewing) on one of my videos, and I thought the viewers would wonder how it's bound to be a book. It has nothing to do with the next video I'm to make, "basic case making".

The bottom line is, I'm making videos that I’ve named "Bookbinding 101" at this moment, and I don't know how far I can or will go as far as the advancement is concerned. There is only so much I can do in a brief video clip tutorial on YouTube. But let's wait and see what happens. 

NOTE: You do need a backing hammer to back sewn-on cord spine.

I hope this video is useful for some people... Ah,, for some unknown reason, YouTube gave me a nasty trouble with uploading this clip. (!!?) - every time it got to the 95% complete at processing stage after it successfully uploaded the video, it just got stuck there for hours!? and I had to re-upload this again and again.... Boy, I tell you..... it drained the sane sense out of me!

Anyway, you adorable pumpkins in LOVE!!, Please have a wonderful Valentine's Day!! And those of you didn't get a rose...... here are the~****roses<3****~from thankful M.H.R. to you who decided to visit my humble blog.