The fine art of bookbinding is among the most fascinating to me. As a craftsman who has dabbled in just ebout every media, I have never bound a book, but look forward to the day when I find the time and resources to. I have a few old books from the 1800's that are in need of repair, and I have met some experts who do it, though I must say I'm baffled at how it's accomplished. In this modern era of cheap disposable goods it warms the heart and soo=ul to have something in life to be obsessed with whioch is not disposeable at all, but rather inspires to keep as precious, and putting in the effort to repair and preserve it for untold future generations. I LOVE old books!
Amazing! I especially love that Matthews Bible - and can’t wait to see how it turns out. I recently put the money into a 1522 Gueynard Bible that needed to be remargined, resewed, and rebound. It wasn’t cheap, but the results were spectacular!
There’s a fine line when it comes to restoration. Always preferable to leave a book in an acid free box but ultimately, but if a book becomes seriously unstable and can no longer be held and read without risk of it falling to pieces, that’s a legitimate cause for a professional re-back with emphasis on trying to avoid obvious signs of modern materials
Hi Adam, Great video! I have watched several of your videos over past few weeks, and may begin putting up some books online. I greatly appreciate all of your content! I was curious if you have ever, or would ever, buy incomplete sets of books (e.g. 13 volumes of a 16 volume set), and over some period of time time acquire the rest of the volumes separately in the set and selling it as complete? I was unsure how common and/or frowned upon this practice is since there may be a difference in wear/visual appearance, and there will obviously be a difference in provenance, so for older books especially it seems a bit dubious.
I am not always a completeness snob but incomplete sets are the hardest and I stay away. It is hard enough to find a missing volume let alone one that matches the binding etc.
Great video! Very educational for a newcomer to the book trade. Although the majority of what we’ve sold to this day has been more recent material, I love learning about the rare and antiquarian book market. Your videos help a lot! Do you mostly go to a professional book restorer to repair your books, or do you most repairs yourself? Do you have any recommendations to help with dust and other allergies caused by some antiquarian books? Is that something you’ve ever struggled with? Sadly, I get incredibly sneezy when picking in moldy rooms or sorting through a collection of old books which were not preserved properly. I will try a mask and gloves in the future. Thanks, Adam!
Only professional restorers. I’m just a bookseller - and restoration skills are hard won. I wear a mask at most estates and homes - I get sensitive to mold and dust - but many booksellers seem to have above average life expectancy- so I don’t think it can be too bad. If you see the Booksellers documentary on Amazon - I was wearing a mask before the pandemic- and then the entire world decided to copy me a year later
Hi Adam, Another very interesting video... Regards restoration l get my bookbinder to do as little as possible. Mainly so l can read it & do no more damage to it. Thank you for your informational videos, more of the long format videos please. Your work is much appreciated. Thank you 👍
Fantastisc, Adam! I like your two first suggestions but as a bookseller I’d probably repair the Bible in a way that you can’t see the repair. In my experience old Bible customers want a nice old Bible and are not so interested in an archeological approach. Can’t wait to see how they will turn out
Thankyou for that fascinating video and showing us the 3 examples. You mentioned about putting books in cases...Can you tell us a bit about what cases and where to get them from?
Loving your videos, as I just started down the path of collecting and reading older books! when you start discussing the 1549 Matthews bible, you have multiple appearances of orbs. I would believe that book may be haunted! only mention that because I don't think I have ever seen that before!
I have found that being a collector if I find interesting old rare and Antiquarian Books in bad condition that in some cases at least I feel compelled as the “steward” of that book to try to repair it and put it back into reading condition at the very least. I think more valuable or historically important books should be repaired professionally if possible or else in a clamshell case to preserve it from further deterioration. But I have a large number of books mostly 18th and 19th century that while not particularly valuable I found interesting enough to spend the money to have loose Boards or leaves reattached So that it could be a real usable book again. I think that if you have the ability to conserve these books you should make an effort to do so so that they are not lost to time. Come to think of it maybe I should learn to do some book repair and bookbinding on my own. That would at least save me some money in trying to save some of these books
This is Antiquarian futurist by the way… And I just wanted to add that I still love all of your videos and I think providing this kind of educational information for people interested in books and book collecting is invaluable. So thank you so much.
