Zoe Finlay Paper Conservation

I recently bought myself a copy of a 1942 edition of Joseph Conrad’s, ‘A Conrad Argosy’,  a lovely edition complete with woodcuts by Hans Alexander Mueller. As it’s a large and heavy book, in an ideal world it would be stored lying flat on my bookshelf however, unfortunately I just don’t have the space.

My concern is that storing the book upright is not a safe option as the text block would sag over time, pulling at the spine and probably resulting in a text-block split. The answer? I’ve decided to make a customised book shoe, a brilliant way of supporting book text blocks. Shoes allow a volume to be stored upright whilst supporting the text block from below. They are discreet in appearance, (hence the reason why they are often used in old libraries), economical to make and are easily removable.

During my time at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, book shoes were used extensively in the 15th century Duke Humphrey’s library. If you are interested in finding out more about book shoes or feel they could be an asset to your collection, the Bodleian have available a great article which explains the many advantages of book shoeing and a guide to their construction: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:UBklYcVSaB0J:cool.conservation-us.org/iada/ta95_021.pdf+&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjLy1490UsY2Hr24-Qxwe-F19lV5zkLjnIvX340s_baYSnws1XlTy4HXkogOrtoTd-U3EcxuqDfdEQ9qlPEd4_MozP-g_LwWWDfGBIAV-aCvw_gsCmaCf4PamgiSJV-0gxOG9Ql&sig=AHIEtbQ4b1xiTjHq34gU5CQdoRqn-ayHxw

The US-based NEDCC also have the following excellent resource:

http://www.nedcc.org/resources/leaflets/4Storage_and_Handling/07BookShoe.php

Remember, always use only those materials which you know to be acid and lignin free, particularly as they will be in direct contact with the book. I used acid-free mountboard for mine and it’s proved strong enough, (you could always double up the thickness if necessary). Don’t skimp on details such as rounding the corners and sanding the edges as they are really important for protecting the text block.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Rope-makers
Oil yard
Glass works
Paper mill
Foundry
Coal pit
Lime kilns
Pottery mill
Lead works
Soap factory
Bottle works
Lunatic asylum
Poor house
Tannery
Fever house
Baths
…and windmills aplenty.

It doesn’t sound like Newcastle city centre, does it? Yet a beautiful map from 1827 which was brought to the studio for treatment tells a very different and fascinating story of the city. Many of the now-renowned streets such as the famous Grey Street weren’t yet built but instead, fields were in their place. Small industries were dotted all over the town, giving it an energetic and industrious feel. Most incredibly, a river with gardens and wooded areas where Victorians would stroll and ‘take the clean air’ ran along the route of what is now the central motorway – populated only by speeding cars and derelict concrete buildings.

After receiving the map, I walked the streets of Newcastle with new eyes. The street names made a ‘new’ sense, I saw what wasn’t there and, although admittedly the modern achievements were great feats of engineering, I wish we could learn lessons from such destruction of our heritage.

The Ouseburn area is one of the few areas of Newcastle which has retained and repurposed many of its old buildings and is definitely a jewel in Newcastle’s crown. Well worth a visit.

I’m delighted to report that today is the second birthday of of Zoe Finlay Paper Conservation.

Thank you to all my customers who have brought me some wonderful objects this past two years. Your support and interest in paper conservation is invaluable and I look forward to seeing many familiar faces and meeting new customers in the coming year.

All the best

Zoe

I’ve spent my last few evenings finally sorting through some piles of old family photographs that I’ve been meaning to deal with for a while.  As many of my ancestors are untraceable and I have only scant information about a few, you can imagine my delight when I came across a group photograph from an Edwardian wedding.

From the typical placement of family members in wedding photographs coupled with facial similarities, I can make pretty good educated guesses as to who was who.

So while I may not even know some of their names, I now at least have a photograph of them. And I want to make sure I take really good care of it! I’m using only archival materials in my album and will have to consider where it is best to store it,  well away from  sources of heat and damp.

If this sounds familiar to you and you would like further information on the storage and display of photographs, contact me for some advice. I also recommend following this link:

http://www.nedcc.org/resources/leaflets/4Storage_and_Handling/11StorageEnclosures.php

If you would like to contact a photograph conservator, drop me an email and I will forward you details of several who may be able to help.