The Correspondence of Miss Adams

Before Treatment

During Treatment

After Treatment

Treatment Report Microsoft Word Version Date Examined: 2/4/2006 Date Completed: 4/23/2006 Conservator: Brenna Campbell Instructor: Chela Metzger Owner/Custodian: Perry Casteñeda Library Author: Abigail Adams Smith Title: Journal and Correspondence of Miss Adams (v. 2) Imprint: 1842 Binding Dimensions (cm): H: 19.0 W: 12.9 D: 3.2 Textblock Dimensions (cm): H: 18.6 W: 12.4 D: 2.9 DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION SUMMARY Binding: The full straight grained cloth-covered publisher’s case binding, contemporary to textblock, has slighty worn edges, bent and delaminated corners, and slightly abraded boards. The spine piece of the case is detached and torn into two pieces. Both boards and the spine are decorated with blind stamping. The spine is gold stamped. The boards are made of binder’s board, and are attached to the textblock by two sawn-in sewing supports and mull under the front and back pastedowns. The boards are attached strongly to the textblock. Textblock: The textblock is sewn two-on on two sawn in cords that appear to be hemp. The sewing is original and intact. The edges of the textblock are in good condition, but show some evidence of foxing, particularly on the head and tail. The textblock has a moderate round and moderate shoulders, and is hammer backed. It has one overhanging textile lining and one paper lining. The single folio plain endpapers (which are different from the text paper) are tipped to a single additional flyleaf of the same paper. Several different machine made papers are used for the title page, preface, and other matter in the front of the text. Two different machine-made wove papers are used in the first and second halves of the textblock. The paper in the first half of the textblock has remained very white, while the paper in the second half has become foxed and brown. The primary medium is printer’s ink and there are a few notes in graphite and a University of Texas stamp in black ink. The type impression is visible throughout. PHOTODOCUMENTATION Digital BT: Ambient Light Digital DT: Ambient Light Digital AT: Ambient Light TREATMENT PROPOSED Employ a modified Bradel-style cloth reback without removing the boards. Cover exposed board with toned Japanese paper. Remount spine label and consolidate corners. TREATMENT PERFORMED Without disturbing the case-to-text attachment, trimmed along spine edges of boards and lifted and removed original cloth from the board edge and hinge Using a microspatula, carefully separated the mull from the boards to roughly 2cm in from the board edge, without disturbing the pastedowns or lifting beyond the mull. Measured spine and shoulder widths. Constructed a replacement cloth spine piece using acrylic-filled cloth of a similar color. Cut a coverweight spine insert to the width of the textblock spine and to the height of the boards. Adhered the spine insert to the cloth with PVAc. Beveled the turn-ins at head and tail. Attached the cloth spine replacement to the book boards with PVAc, between the mull and boards, one board at a time. Using PVAc and methyl cellulose mix, readhered the boards and mull, with the replacement cloth in between. Emphasized the groove with a Teflon folder. Trimmed the pieces of the original spine label and cleaned the paper lining from the back and adhered each piece to the new cloth spine with PVAc. Consolidated corners with wheat starch paste. Applied toned Japanese paper strips over exposed board edges. Used acrylics to tone exposed corners. MATERIALS USED Acrylic-filled cloth Mohawk coverweight paper Hiromi usui-usimino kozo paper Acrylic paints PVAc 45675 adhesive (Elvace) Methyl cellulose (Fisher 4000 cps.) 2.5% dispersed in hot then cold distilled water Precipitated wheat starch paste (Colophon) mixed 1:4 with distilled water cooked 20 minutes