We will now speak of repairing and patching the cover in those parts which serve as hinges. This is an operation practicable only when a substance very thin and supple can be found. I have succeeded in restoring this part of a book by using a strip of gold-beaters skin, slipped between the back and the side and fastened, on one part, to the edge of the side and, on the other, to the boards lining the back. I then gave to this skin a tint .corresponding to that of the cover. The break remained visible; I only reconnected the parts so that the book could be opened and closed. (*)

(*) This operation does not seem entirely clear, but the idea is evidently to fold a thin strip of the skin into a "V" shape inserting the strip, folded edge up or down, as the condition of the hinge may require, into the broken hinge all along its length, gluing the arms of the "V," one to the back and one to the cover to form a new, folded hinge. The operator will probably find, however, that when the hinges of a book are broken through a better and more lasting procedure is to reback the book.

Gold-beaters skin is the outside membrane of the large intestine of the ox, properly prepared. Where the hinges of a book are broken, it is better to provide new leather hinge, using strips about half an inch wide slipped in under the broken edges and carried over the edge of the boards at top and bottom. Raise the broken edges, for the proper distance, from back and boards, and paste down again over the new hinge. M. S. B.

Would one succeed better by using a thin piece of rubber? I have never tried this, but this substance, I believe, could not be obtained in very thin sheets except by being considerably stretched, a process which would soon destroy the elasticity which is its essential quality. Perhaps the broken hinges of a dark calf book could be joined without great difficulty by means of the liquefied gutta-percha mentioned above.

I have sometimes repaired the corners of a volume with more or less success. In cases where the damage was slight, after having loosened the paper on the inside of the cover at the corner, either with, or without, moistening it, I pushed back the damaged skin for a short distance, then glued upon the board over the corner a fragment of leather of the same kind and tint, pared thin, then pressed down the rough edges and fashioned the new corner by moistening the leather. Then, having replaced the broken edges of the original leather, I recolored the patch to an exact match. (*)

(*) To prevent wear on the lower corners and edges of books in the library, strips of velvet may be laid along the shelves under the books. If this is done, the little extra care required in removing and replacing the books without wrinkling up the velvet will be more than offset by the protection which the velvet gives. M. S. B.

< Repairing Old Bindings Part 5