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different pocket who printed it, where it was printed, who bound it, who owned it all
books. In general, the have to be taken into consideration. Sometimes the age alone isn’t
more leather, the enough to make a book collectible.
more expensive it is. If It may be better and cheaper to restore and repair an original bind-
the leather just covers ing than it is to have it completely rebound in a new binding. Rare
the spine and outer books should be kept as original as possible. If the book has no
hinges it is called covers, then a good binder can rebind it and make it look much like it
quarter leather, half did originally. For some reason, most binders stamp the book’s printing
leather is the spine date onto the base of the spine which was rarely done originally.
and the corners, and This is a quick test to see if a book has been rebound.
three quarter leather
corners most of the
Quarter Leather Half Leather covers. And finally,
there is full leather
which is a complete Care of Leather Bound Books
leather binding. Some- Important Warning: I am not advising you to do any of this on rare
times the front and books, only more everyday books. Rare books should only be repaired or
even the rear cover restored by an expert and professional bookbinder. And, it is always better
of the full leather to restore whenever possible than to have something rebound unless, of
binding have gilt- course, the original binding is missing or too damaged to restore.
stamped designs. A friend recently emailed me about an expensive set of leather books
Books were bound he was buying and my email answer might be of interest to others.
in many different
types of leather even Dear H, Looking at the photos, I see one thing that worries me. The
before the first printed spines of the set as seen in the first photo are noticeably lighter in color than
books of the mid- the leather and leather corners as seen in the third photo (which shows the
Three-Quarter Leather Full Leather 1400s. Not many front of one of the volumes). The leather as seen in photos one and three
people could read would have originally been the same darker color as in photo three, which
then, let alone afford the expense of a hand-copied and illuminated I have verified by comparison with my deluxe leather set which is virtually
book. Rich owners wanted their books bound in the best materials and identical, except the spines in my set have not been sunned.
even had them decorated with precious and semi-precious stones.
Libraries often chained each book to the shelf to prevent theft. The seller mentions the spines describ- An example of
Plainer, more utilitarian leather covers were used by the early 1800s and ing them as “spines sunned to a rich a “sunned book”
inexpensive leather bindings appeared around 1900. brown” which almost makes it sound as if
Probably the most unusual binding I have ever seen is a book on that is a bonus adding to the value of the
sharks that was bound in actual sharkskin. I don’t know if you’ve ever set rather than a flaw.
felt shark skin or not, but it isn’t anything that you’d want to scrape Now the lighter color is not necessarily
your knuckles against as it resembles coarse grit sandpaper, but more so. a deal killer as many times the gentle
Old leather books aren’t that hard to find today, even ones two hun- application of a proper leather dressing
dred years old, but sometimes they are in poor condition and with miss- can darken them, as could buffing them
ing or detached covers. They may be worth only a few dollars in that with a colored wax, but I would be con-
condition, and may or may not be worth repairing depending upon a cerned that the sunning, which is caused
number of factors: what the book is, who wrote it, when it was printed, by direct sunlight shining on the books
for many years, may well have dried out
and weakened the leather spines, and
while they seem to be intact now, might
hasten future disintegration. Leather bound book of Keats’
But as I say, best to get a little more poems showing fading
info as the sunlight having faded the due to light exposure
spines is not itself a problem only if the photo: Western Australian Museum
sunlight has dried out the leather to where it has stiffened which can
lead to cracking, etc.
The lighter color by itself could be OK if the spines are solid, but if
the sunning is a warning of more serious problems, then maybe not.
I’m guessing the set is probably ok, but more info from the seller to
confirm that would be nice.
That said, the sunning could also have been caused by years of expo-
sure to fluorescent light which while it might fade the spines it probably
would not have done other damage.
I used to sell leather dressing but my source dried up. Proper leather
An Example of a “Most Unusual Binding’ dressing is a mixture of I believe lanolin cream and Neatsfoot oil.
– DO NOT USE NEATSFOOT OIL BY ITSELF as it is liquid
Ernest Hemingway. Old Man and the Sea. Charles Scribner's & Sons, 1952, first and will make a mess and potentially stain the pages.
edition, with a 2020 custom binding: Dorfner/de Gonet “open joint” style binding.
– Don’t use a lanolin wax by itself which will seal the surface and
Sewn on three shark leather thongs; doublures and fly leaf of Cave Paper “layered will not allow the leather dressing to penetrate.
indigo day;” top edge trimmed and colored in blue using stippled paste paper tech- And don’t use too much leather dressing as too little is better than
nique; rolled red eel leather endbands; spine covered in mackerel parchment that is too much as too much could then bleed into other areas of the books
uncut in width and extends loosely onto textblock; boards covered in dyed Pergamena in time and make a mess.
goat parchment; title stamped in graphite; shark leather thong ends covered in I believe there is a British Museum Formula leather dressing for
distressed wood veneer. The skin had plenty of scars/distressed areas that represent the
life and death struggle of fish (in real life, and in the book against Santiago and the books that is sold online. (Editor’s note: As the former owner of a tack
sharks). The distressed wood veneer represents Santiago’s boat. shop, another option would be BICK 4 leather conditioner, recommended
photo: philobiblon.com by top saddlemakers in the U.S. and Great Britain.)

24 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles