Gaudi of Barcelona - Resew and New Cloth Case

Before

During

After

Download Word Version of Treatment Report

TREATMENT REPORT

Description and Condition Summary

Gaudi of Barcelona was bound in a full cloth-covered case.  The covering material is intact with the exception of abrasions at the corners and water damage.  The textblock paper is in good condition.  Most of the text and images are printed in black and white and color on heavy clay-coated paper.  The textblock was Smyth sewn at eight stations.  A spilt in the sewing resulted in four loose sections in the middle of the textblock.  The original Smyth sewing holes do not line up.  The flatback spine was consolidated with a heavy layer of synthetic adhesive.

Treatment Objective
To return the book to circulation ensuring that it is strong enough to withstand a book drop.

Photo documentation
Digital photographs in ambient light were taken for the before, during and after treatment photographs.

Treatment Performed

1. Lifted the decorative endpaper from the inside of the front cover.  Cut the back endpaper at the joint to ease removal from the case.
2. Cut the remaining sewing threads and peeled synthetic adhesive from the spine to separate the sections.
3. Folded a new double-folio endpaper from Mohawk #80 text-weight paper for the last section.  Reused the lifted decorated endpaper as the first endsheet.  The folio was adhered with PVAc to a folio of Mohawk #80 to create a made endsheet.
4. Since the original Smyth sewing holes did not line up they could not be used to resew the textblock.  New holes were punched for the kettle stitches at the top and bottom of each section and six single holes between the original sewing stations.
5. Resewed the textblock using a 1-hole link stitch and 25/3 thread.
6. Adhered a long fiber paper lining to the spine of the texblock using a wheat starch paste.
7. Attached an overhanging cambric spine lining using PVAc and then adhered one 70# Mohawk text-weight spine lining.
8. Built a new full-cloth case with Cialux book cloth, a Mohawk #80 cover-weight spine piece and Davey board.
9. Cased in the textblock into the new case using PVAc.
10. Created a new laser printed paper spine label with the title and author information on it.