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Conservation Newsletter, Number 13, Winter 2025.

Find out the latest news from Green’s Books with the Winter edition of our Conservation Newsletter. No. 13, Winter 2025

Knocking-Down Irons: Worth the Weight

Every craft has its tools and, as becomes quickly apparent to anyone interested in the binding or conservation of books, this craft has a lot of them. While it’s very easy to become mystified by the shinier offerings in the binder’s arsenal – brass rolls and finishing tools, at least six different kinds of press,

… A Leicester Tragedy…

Cook, The Murderer, Or The Leicester Tragedy: Being a Full and Faithful Account of The Horrible Assassination of Mr. John Paas, of London, on the 30th of May, 1832, Perpetrated By James Cook, Of Leicester; With An authentic detail of the cruel means adopted by the murderer to accomplish the Bloody Dead, And

City & Guilds Summer Placement: Emily Stuart

Emily Stuart is currently studying for a BA in ‘Conservation: Book and Paper’ at City and Guilds of London Art School. From 28th August to 6th September, Em worked with us at Green’s Books on a student placement. The following are Em’s reflections on her time with us… As a trainee conservator, there is an enormous

Conservation of a Sikh Guru Granth Sahib Ji

In July 2023 we were visited by a family looking to conserve their copy of a Guru Granth Sahib Ji which had been in their family since 1984. The Guru Granth Sahib contains the central teachings of Sikhism as laid out by the ten Gurus. This text is revered as the eleventh Guru and is

Tying-up boards

Back in January 2022, Lena and I decided to ease into the new year with a trip to see our friend Trevor Lloyd MBE in Ludlow. We were welcomed into Trevor’s bindery and our questions were all answered with openness and patience. Insightful and enjoyable as our trip was, my main reason for visiting was

A canvas binding; or, a canvas covered school book

The introduction of the first mass produced, embossed, starched fabric for covering books is generally attributed to Archibald Leighton in the 1820s. The development of book-cloth was a catalyst for the movement away from in-board binding towards a case bound structure and the term ‘cloth binding’ has now become almost synonymous with case binding. However,

What’s on the page? Signatures, catchwords, and press figures.

Have you looked at books of the hand-press period (circa 1450-1800) and wondered what the letters and numbers are at the foot of the page? Well, wonder no more… To decipher these marks, we must first understand how the page was created. Whilst we might now think of books as collections of single sheets, early

An early 19th century stationery binding

Stationery binding quires: Do they differ from printed sections?

The following is an amended excerpt from an unpublished Paper No hum-drum memorandum: Conservation of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s first Visitor’s Book, that Arthur gave for the 2019 Archives & Records Association (ARA) Conference in Leeds. The presentation described the conservation of an early 19th century stationery binding, looking at the various aspects of documentation,

N. J. Hill & Co.

I recently acquired a lovely old pair of bookbinding shears that had “N. J. HILL” stamped into the metal. Just a short while after that, a finishing stove arrived at the studio which was marked with “HILL & Co LONDON”. Our new tools peaked our interest, so we did some research to find out what

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