Conservation of book bindings

Abstract

The author discusses bookbinding, including mostly conservation of leather, parchment, and - to less extend - canvas, paper, and - even less - metals, gems, and other materials. After a short introduction, he presents the construction of bookbinding, destructive factors, materials used for binding conservation, and conservation treatments. Then he describes regular conservation of book bindings, consisting of conservation of leather bindings, mechanical cleaning, disassembling bindings, chemical cleaning, leather greasing, conservation of canvas, paper, wooden elements, cardboard, and other elements of binding, assembling bindings, and finally, description of the works realized during conservation. Concluding the author states that there is much work to do in Poland regarding book bindings, despite general progress being observed.