Account book

Identification and bibliographical details

Title/descriptive signifier:  Loyds account book 

Dimensions (mm): 372(h) 249(w) 24(d) 

Collection/client details: Loyds Bank

Provenance.  

The object has been stored at Lloyd's Bank archive.

Existing conservation documentation: N/A

Before treatment photodocumentation:

Description 

Covering & board:

• Springback binding with the original yellow ocher reversed calf.

• It is showcased on a strawboard. 

• Leather turned in with uneven margins; the head is wider than the tail.

• The borderline is blind-tooled.

• There is no lining material on the spine. 

• The spine is rounded and backed with a moderate shoulder. 

• There is no spring on the spine.  

• 5 clothings on the spine. 

Textblock:

• Marbled endpaper was pasted onto the made endpaper.

• Several layers of leaves have adhered to the left flyleaf — presumably, the user made a mistake and tried to cover it up. 

• Several inclusions on the left pastedown, including the name of the bindery. 

• Inclusion with a pin on page 2. 

• The text block comprises 304 pages. 

• The interior joints of both boards are in good condition.

Gatherings & sewing:

• The text block is hand-sewn with 4 parchment supports.

• 4 sewing stations.

• The main body of the text block is sewn all-along. 

Text support & Media:

• The paper of the text block is off-white, medium-weight, hand-made laid paper.

• The endleaves are STORMONT, one of the most popular kinds of decorated papers used in England during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 

• The text medium is mostly iron gall ink with other coloured ink, 

Endband

• Hand-sewn endbands with 3 tie downs.

Condition

Poor - widespread damage

Highly unstable - condition precludes safe use 

Boards

• The boards are well attached to the textblock.

• Board corners are abraded and delaminated.

Cover

• The leather surface is largely abraded throughout, leading to large areas of material loss on the board surface. 

• Some dark marks are observed on the leather surface, which indicates water damage. 

• The corners and edges of the cover are abraded and lost. 

• Tooled borderlines are lost along the fore-edge, head and tail as it is abraded. 

• Several dent marks on the cover. 

Spine

• The spine is missing.

• The head of the spine is concave-shaped, and the tail of the spine is relatively convex. 

• Five (5) clothings are adhered on the spine with animal glue, and the head and tail clothings are broken.  

Endleaves

• Endleaves are in good condition.

Text-block

• Sewing is intact with stable parchment sewing supports.

• The paper is generally in good condition, with some ingrained dirt. 

• There is heavy surface dirt on the textblock edges, which is particularly ingrained along the head. 

Endbands

• The endband on the head is intact but partially broken. 

• The tail endband is missing. There is evidence of tie-downs. 

Treatment Description

1. 1. 1. Dry cleaning:

Dry cleaning was carried out using a soft Japanese brush to remove loose particles on the cover and the endpaper. Then, a smoke sponge was used to remove any further surface dirt. This was done mainly around the cover and the first few pages. 

1. 1. 2. Leather consolidation: 

The covering leather was highly deteriorated and became powdery. The covering leather was consolidated with a mixture of 2% Klucel G and IMS by gently rolling a cotton ball over the surface. 

1. 1. 3. Board splitting: 

The split point was found, and the boards were carefully split using a thin bone folder. This is to accommodate the linen cloth lining when spring is on.  

1. 1. 4. Old animal glue & broken clothing removal: 

A wheat starch paste poultice was applied to the spine, allowed to sit, and then the old adhesives were scraped off with a spatula (figure 1). 

1. 1. 5. Spine shape formation: 

While the spine was moistened and malleable from the poulticing process, the partially concave-shaped spine was shaped convexly by hand; laying the book down, the middle point of the textblock from the fore-edge was pushed towards the spine to give it shape. 

When nicely shaped, the spine was glued again with animal glue to keep it in shape. 

1. 1. 6. Clothing making: 

New pieces of clothing the same size as the original were edge-pared and adhered to the spine with animal glue. Both ends were inserted between the split boards.

1. 1. 7. Spring Making:

• To make the spring, the width of the spine was measured and a strip of the archival board to the length of the book plus 50mm by the width of the spine plus 15- 20 mm. A strip of Manila was cut to the same length and three-time widths of the board; then it was wetted with a sponge,  glued out with animal glue, placed on the board to the centre, glued out again, folded over and pressed.  

• A solid spine piece, made from layers of Manila, archival board, and animal glue, was created by curling it around a roller and creating a 'c' shape while it is moistened. The spring was then lined with aero-linen. Aero linen was cut 50mm shorter in length and 30mm wider in width than the spring.

1. 1. 8. Placing spring onto the spine:

• The spring was fitted over the spine and clung on, and the aero linen was inserted and glued between the split boards. This gave a lot more strength to the springing and levering action and secured the spring (figure2).

• Rough bases for the headcaps were shaped on either end of the spring by wetting, beating and shaping with the handle of bookbinding shears (figure 3). These rough bases and shaped spring create extra support for the leather headcaps.

1. 1. 9. Leather lifting: 

The covering leather was carefully sliced at an angle along the tooled border lines and lifted to avoid bulk when the new archival leather was inserted (figure 4). 

1. 1. 10. Leather dye & Leather pairing: 

• New archival leather was dyed to match the existing book cover with leather dye. 

• Then it was paired to the appropriate thickness, especially thinning it down around the edges and the headcap (figure 5).  

1. 1. 11.   Leather reback:

• New archival leather was applied to the spine. The leather was then pulled and shaped over the top of the rough bases on the spine with a bone folder to create the headcaps. Care had to be taken on the head of the spine as there was an endband. 

• Gently shape the French joints with a bone folder, and a thin hemp cord was put around the book in the joints to help form the headcaps (figure 6). 

1. 1. 12. Corner repair: 

• The corner of the book was consolidated by injecting wheat starch paste between the delaminated boards. 

• The corner was rebuilt by inserting several layers of Manila and wheat starch paste (figure 7).

• Help fibre with wheat starch paste filled the gap between the Manila layers. 

• Japanese paper was applied on the outside of the corners (figure 8). 

1. 1. 13. Exposed board cover-up:

• The Japanese paper (39 GSM) was toned with acrylic to match the colour of the covering leather.

• The edges of the leather (head, fore-edge, tail) were lifted using a lifting knife. It was done both outside and inside of the boards. 

• The toned Japanese paper was inserted underneath the covering leather and wrapped around the exposed board. 

After photodocumentation

Requirements/future recommendations:

Storage 

• The book should be kept away from direct sunlight to prevent fading or discolouration. 

• The relative humidity should be between 45-55% RH to prevent mould growth. 

Handling 

• Clean, dry hands are recommended for handling the object.

• If needed, a book cushion can be used to support the book, using light weights to keep the book open to the required page.