John Holwell: Practical Surveyor [London, 1678]
This volume had been repaired many times in the past; the 'before' photo shows evidence of a previous repair piece of leather which has also broken at the joint and is peeling away from the original leather.
While Klucel-G (a conservation grade cellulose ether fiber) was used to consolidate the leather on both the boards and the spine, the leather is still very brittle and prone to flaking. The book was returned with the caveat that while the volume is strong enough to be read, it must be handled with caution, and, for this reason, an archival wrapper was provided as part of the conservation treatment.
There was no evidence that the original binding had a leather spine label. Rather, the title was inscripted in ink along the head of the textblock. Due to this, I did not attach a new leather title label; however, I did provide three labels should the collector desire this in the future.
Page mend title page. Reback volume using dyed Hewit's calfskin, mount original spine, remove old repairs and consolidate leather as possible.
