{"id":9138,"date":"2015-02-05T19:26:36","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T00:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/?p=9138"},"modified":"2025-09-15T16:02:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T20:02:35","slug":"conservation-conversations-on-assuming-and-assumptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/05\/conservation-conversations-on-assuming-and-assumptions\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservation Conversations \/\/ On Assuming and Assumptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been thinking about a recent treatment I did on An Historical Collection of the Most Memorable Accidents, and Tragical\u00a0Massacres\u00a0of France<\/em> quite a bit lately. More than the mere drama of the process, I was really taken by the experience of nixing some old assumptions of mine. Conservation is a relatively new science, and while we work on preserving artifacts that are hundreds of years old, we really only have a few decades worth of treatments and methods to study and improve. There are ways of simulating the aging process in a lab, but nothing is as affirming\u00a0as standing the true test of time. But until enough time passes, and those ahead of us can OK\u00a0our treatments (or kick them to the curb, liquid leather I’m looking at you!) we have little more to go on than our assumptions, scientific or otherwise. It is therefore important to revisit these assumptions often, and to feel confident and comfortable in them.<\/p>\n

First Assumption:<\/strong>\u00a0There is little to be done to a sad, sewn, dirty text block.<\/p>\n

Conserving a\u00a0book not only means stabilizing it structurally, but preserving its history as well. To cut sewing is to severe a tie with a bookbinder of the past, and to alter the character of the book and its future. Even when the sewing is replicated exactly, we loose a piece of the history that we are striving to hold onto.\u00a0 Also, this particular book was rather large, and cutting the sewing just to wash and resew it was not an ideal way to spend the week.<\/p>\n

Second Assumption:<\/strong>\u00a0If the text block seems<\/em> solid, and there are no apparent<\/em> breaks, the sewing must be perfectly intact.<\/p>\n

\"70f022d92e1b8e7b61396496820720fb\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Three generations of book conservators looked at this text block and confidently assumed, based on their collective experiences and knowledge, that this book was over sewn and intact<\/em>. One of the most beautiful aspects of working with Special Collections is the craftsmanship that\u00a0goes into every piece – you can survey hundreds of books bound in the same tradition, but every one of them will reflect quirks of their individual binder(s). You can never be certain that a mistake wasn’t made somewhere in the process, that a new technique wasn’t being developed, or that a specific structure was ever intended to fully mimic another. We can make generalizations and assumptions about collections, but we really must treat each object as its own.<\/p>\n

This particular book I was working on was printed in 1598, and the paper is just stunning. However, after 400 years anyone would have a few cobwebs to clean out, and it was discussed that a good wash would have really done it some good.<\/p>\n

Third Assumption:<\/strong>\u00a0You cannot wash a whole book.<\/p>\n

\"9be25fd3ed2d62dc8c12c26361792b68\"<\/a>

Photo Credit: Suzy Morgan<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

For the most part, paper and water are actually good friends, especially when introduced in a controlled manner. And while Cellulose and H2<\/sup>0 may go way back, the thought of a soggy book remains horrifying. I have always assumed, as perhaps the above poster brainwashed me into thinking, that it should be avoided at all costs. However, this assumption of mine was quickly\u00a0dismissed when washing the text block in its entirety was suggested. With a quick search of the CoOl archives,\u00a0Bill Minter<\/a>‘s description of this very idea popped\u00a0up. As he mentions, this treatment is rarely prudent, but just because the right opportunity doesn’t present itself often doesn’t mean it isn’t a possibility <\/em>to consider.<\/p>\n

In any science, especially when one is new to the field, it is easy to assume that the methods you were taught are the only methods that should be employed. But stopping once in a while to question and consider your techniques, especially the most simple, is important. Why is<\/em> paste sticky? What amount\u00a0of abrasion does a\u00a0latex sponge cause? What parts am I actually trying to put back together? For me, washing an entire book was so out of the ordinary, and such a foreign treatment\u00a0that I was forced to stop and think about every step along the way. Ideas I had held as truths started to feel less certain – if I put paper in water might it dissolve<\/em> and turn to pulp?! Will the pages stick together if they\u2019re washed or dried on top of one another? Is there dirt IN the pages? I had never had cause to consider such things when I washed a book in leaves; I was taught this was an appropriate method, and that I could expect certain outcomes in certain situations. Of course I knew that every book was different, and that spot testing was important, but I didn’t ask why A always equaled B, or pondered the possibility of irrational\u00a0results. When we assume something is tried and true, we don’t feel the pressing need to think about it actively. I took it on blind faith.<\/p>\n

But we went ahead with Bill’s directions anyway- we set up a “fish tank”, had our interleaving ready, and our wind tunnel built.<\/p>\n

\"Washingentirebook44sm\"<\/p>\n

I took a deep breath, and lowered the oldest book I have ever worked on into what I assumed could\u00a0easily be its watery grave. But, science held out and the paper reacted just as it would have in sheets. I was not left with a 5 gallon bucket of paper slush.<\/p>\n

\"conservation_marianna\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However, we did discover that the sewing wasn’t actually intact. The first few sections had been over sewn, but the rest were held together only by\u00a0the remnants of sewing and adhesive. Sections started sloughing off as the water developed that satisfying ocher.<\/p>\n

\"conservation_marianna2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fourth Assumption:<\/strong> Assume the book is<\/em> intact, and continue with the experiment anyway.<\/p>\n

We carried out the rest of Bill’s methods with the sections stacked together as a single textblock. \"5d34051ee3e249947b696df455a3cf7a\"We were all curious to see how the book would dry, and how the paper would respond to a week long stint in the Motel 8 of wind tunnels. Continuing in this manner gave me time\u00a0to consider and investigate the methods of washing, drying, and flattening that I\u00a0had learned. And although it turns out that washing and drying intact is not actually faster, it is still just one more possibility.<\/p>\n

All in all, this book was just rife with learning opportunities…<\/p>\n

Fifth Assumption:<\/strong> If you find you’ve sewn a section in upside down, you must take the book apart and start again (even if you’ve\u00a0already laced your boards on).<\/p>\n

After deciding that this\u00a0assumption was NOT the direction I wanted to go in, I took a step back from the project and considered it from every angle I could muster. We decided that if I cut the sewing (gasp!) around the incorrect section, I could then turn it about and resew it through the newly lined spine. This was not an ideal situation, but it was an opportunity to think about the book structure, and all the implications of altering it.<\/p>\n

Sixth Assumption:<\/strong> Once you’ve covered a book in full leather, and it has dried overnight, you do not get any more redo’s.<\/p>\n

Yet another learning opportunity! I had covered this book the first time in a skin that made everyone in the lab raise an eyebrow. It was a very strange shape, and looked a bit wonky. However, we assumed it would come out just fine\u00a0in the wash. Never had I been so disappointed to come into work the next morning. The leather was puckered and wrinkled in all the wrong ways, and simply did not seem salvageable. Perhaps there were design opportunities in this glaring mistake as a bookbinder, but as a conservator, there was nothing to be done.<\/p>\n

However, paste is reversible. Duh<\/em>. And there were plenty of new skins to choose from. So after much debate and inner conflict, I decided to test just how reversible it was. Again, not an ideal situation, but I was able to remoisten the leather and lift it off its new boards. It was certainly a set back, but not nearly as detrimental as I had first thought it to be. With a little bit of sanding, and a new paper lining, the boards were fit to be covered.<\/p>\n

Again.<\/p>\n

\"e3929a5f6bf5b62f854d43415c26dad5\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\"540dcc1e4b9644bd51b203fba906336d\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But, after\u00a0much preparation, research, collaboration, and thinking outside of the box, I was somehow able\u00a0to take\u00a0this book from drab to fab, and to reassess my ways of thinking in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been thinking about a recent treatment I did on An Historical Collection of the Most Memorable Accidents, and Tragical\u00a0Massacres\u00a0of France quite a bit lately. More than the mere drama of the process, I was really taken by the experience of nixing some old assumptions of mine. Conservation is a relatively new science, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1353],"tags":[1884,1492],"class_list":["post-9138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation","tag-conservation","tag-marianna-brotherton"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Btis-2no","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7826,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/10\/conservation-conversations-not-just-what-but-why\/","url_meta":{"origin":9138,"position":0},"title":"Conservation Conversations \/\/ Not Just What, But Why","author":"Athena Moore","date":"April 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In conservation, there are an endless number of questions to ask oneself on a daily basis. Is this binding contemporary with the text? Should I size this paper? How am I going to reback this mess? The reality is that in this field, it often has less to do with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conservation"","block_context":{"text":"conservation","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/conservation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/DSC03932.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/DSC03932.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/DSC03932.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/DSC03932.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8763,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/30\/conservation-conversations-about-equipmemt\/","url_meta":{"origin":9138,"position":1},"title":"Conservation Conversations \/\/ About Equipmemt","author":"Jeanne Goodman","date":"December 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Book conservation labs are an interesting hybrid of a paper conservation lab and a bindery. Much of the equipment in a bindery you could find in a book lab, but not necessarily the other way around. Book labs can also be divided by activities, when space allows. Some processes are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conservation"","block_context":{"text":"conservation","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/conservation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/fumehood-e1418075518360.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8478,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/02\/conservation-conversations-about-spaces\/","url_meta":{"origin":9138,"position":2},"title":"Conservation Conversations \/\/ About Spaces","author":"Jeanne Goodman","date":"October 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In the first Conservation Conversations, way back in January, Anna brought up the idea of working in a \"studio\" or \"lab\". There is another running joke that is very true about conservators always ending up in the basement. It's not because the PTB* don't like us, but when designing conservation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conservation"","block_context":{"text":"conservation","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/conservation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/uva-lab-copy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/uva-lab-copy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/uva-lab-copy.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8781,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/15\/conservation-conversations-another-look-at-su-su\/","url_meta":{"origin":9138,"position":3},"title":"Conservation Conversations \/\/ Another Look at Su-Su","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"November 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this year, as part of the Conservation Conversations column, Lauren Schott wrote an article on su-su, which highlighted the steps to creating this alternative matter for toning materials as part of the conservation treatment. Also referred to as paper dirt or paper extract, I was first introduced to this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conservation"","block_context":{"text":"conservation","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/conservation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9028,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/24\/conservation-conversations-doing-nothing\/","url_meta":{"origin":9138,"position":4},"title":"Conservation Conversations \/\/ Doing Nothing","author":"Henry Hebert","date":"December 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Action is often the\u00a0focus of conservation literature and it is natural to\u00a0discuss a\u00a0treatment as\u00a0a kind of narrative. Picture it: a cultural artifact, such as a book or painting, comes into a conservation lab in poor\u00a0shape. The condition may be a result of poor materials, improper\u00a0storage, or disaster, but the conservator,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conservation"","block_context":{"text":"conservation","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/conservation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre, Vol. II (1886)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/treatment_hebert-1024x593.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/treatment_hebert-1024x593.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/treatment_hebert-1024x593.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8778,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/conservation-conversations-adhesives-in-library-and-archives-a-colloquium-review-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":9138,"position":5},"title":"Conservation Conversations \/\/ Adhesives in Library and Archives: A Colloquium Review (Part 1)","author":"Henry Hebert","date":"November 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Friday, the first Biennial Conservation Colloquium was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.\u00a0Four conservators traveled to Urbana from the UK and across the country to speak about their research or practical experiences with various adhesives\u00a0in\u00a0library and archives conservation. Thanks to generous funding from the UIUC Library and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conservation"","block_context":{"text":"conservation","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/conservation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/workshop.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/workshop.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/workshop.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/workshop.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9138"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9164,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9138\/revisions\/9164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}