The instructor: or young man's best companion

Identification and bibliographical details

Title/descriptive signifier:  The instructor: or young man's best companion

Author: George Fisher 

Dimensions (mm): 182(h) 116(w) 24(d)  

Collection/client details: Dr Matthew J Eve

Date: 25.02.2023

Provenance.  

The object has been stored at Marchpane in Soho.

Existing conservation documentation:

N/A

Historical context and details of research:

The 1798 edition of George Fisher’s late eighteenth-century guide for the proper education of young gentlemen, covering topics such as mathematics, accounting, and astronomy. The final eighteenth-century edition of George Fisher's popular compendium of the most important knowledge deemed essential to the education of a young man in the late 18th century.

Before treatment photodocumentation:

Description

Covering & Boards:

• Tight-back full leather binding with a dark brown calfskin.

• It is showcased on laminated pasteboard. 

• The supporting materials (cords) were used for the board attachment 

• Leather turned in with uneven margins; the fore-edge turn is wider than the head and the tail.

• There is no lining material on the spine. 

Textblock:

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

• The text block is sewn on 5 sunk cords. 

• Only the cord in the middle was trimmed on both sides of the boards. The other cords were knotted and pasted onto the boards. 

• The single folio endleaves are tipped on.

• The left flyleaf is detached from the text block and lost. 

• Text block edges are trimmed.

Gatherings & sewing: 

• The text block is composed of 16 gatherings. The collations are as follows, signatures of A-I, K-Q.

• Structure (figure 1): endpaper - A (3 folia) - B~I (6 folia) - K~P (6 folia) - Q (3 folia) -  endpaper

• The text block is hand sewn with 5 sunk cords. 

• 5 sewing stations.

• The text block is 2-on sewn.

Text support & Media:

• The paper of the textblock is off-white, medium-weight, machine-made woven paper. 

• The endleaves are made of laid paper. 

• The text medium is black printer ink.

Condition

Poor (Highly unstable) - widespread damage

Category 3 - Major structural damage that restricts the use and may deteriorate with continued use

Boards:

• The tight back structure of the book concentrated the stress on the joints. 

• The left board is completely detached from the text block.

• The outer joint of the right board is cracked from the head and the tail (50mm), and so is the inner joint.

• The board around the edges is revealed and delaminating because the covering material is abraded. 

Cover:

• All edges and corners of the cover are abraded.

• There is a hole on the top corner of the right board.

• Several knife cuts on the left board.  

Spine:

• The tight back structure of the book puts much stress on the spine when the book is opened.

• The spine is broken into two (between section I and section K). 

• The spine leather is largely discoloured by the light, which led it to become brittle. 

• 5% of the spine leather from the tail is lost. 

• Several vertical and horizontal cracks are observed.   

• Most of the gold-tooled lines are faded. 

Endleaves:

• The left fly leaf is detached and lost.

• Both endleaves are burned by the leather turn-ins.

Text-block

• Generally, the text block is in good condition, with some surface dirt and light foxing throughout.

• Between I and J, the text block is broken. 

Endbands

•  There is no evidence of the existence of endbands. 

Treatment description

1. 1. 1. Dry surface cleaning: Initially, it was carried out using a soft Japanese brush to remove loose particles on the text block, especially along the joints. Then, a smoke sponge was used to remove any further surface dirt. This was done throughout the whole text block.

      2. Leather consolidation: The covering leather was consolidated by brushing the mixture of 2% Klucel G and IMS directly onto the leather.

      3. Removing the original spine: The original spine was faced using Spider tissue paper and 2% Klucel G for safer lifting of the original spine (fig. 3), which will be later adhered back; then the spine was gently lifted using a spatula (fig. 4, 5). When dried, it was pasted onto the other piece of Spider tissue (lining), using Klucel G, and the facing tissue was lifted by gently moistening the surface of the tissue paper with Klucel G. The extra margins were trimmed to the shape of the spine leather, and then it was ready to be safely placed back on the spine. 

      4. Sewing repair: The broken part of the text block was re-sewed (pamphlet sewing) using the existing sewing supports with linen thread (fig. 6).

      5. Spine dent repair: The area where it was previously broken was dented, so that area was filled with cord fluff and wheat starch paste (fig. 7).

      6. Sewing support extension: The sewing supports (cords) were all broken and not long enough for cover reattachment, so they were extended by inserting the linen thread underneath the existing supports to make them longer while keeping the original supports (fig. 8, 9). Later, the threads were trimmed and frayed (fig. 10).

      7. Board reattachment: The detached boards were positioned, and sewing supports were adhered between the covering material and the board.

      8. Leather toning and pairing: The archival leather that has a similar surface texture to the original covering leather was dyed with water-based leather dyes (light brown, medium brown, green) to match the original colour of the leather. Then, the leather was pared with a paring knife to make it thinner and smoother, especially around the headcaps. 

      9. Cover lifting: With the lifting knife, the left and right covers of the book along the spine were lifted to insert new spine material and sewing supports. 

      10. Re-backing: Before re-backing, the spine was covered with Japanese paper. Then, it was covered with dyed archival leather, and the extra width of the leather was inserted between the board and the leather using stiff wheat starch paste. The extra length and width of the leather were turned over the outer edges of the boards from the outside to the inside. Lastly, the original lifted leather was pasted back down into place.

   11. Re-attach the original spine cover: the original spine leather was adhered back onto the spine using wheat starch paste.

   12. Corner repair: the original covering material along the corner was carefully lifted with a sharp lifting knife. To rebuild the missing corners of the strawboard, blotting paper was chosen. The corners of the boards were split, then pieces of paper were inserted and secured with wheat starch paste. The board corners were gently pressed and left to dry, and then it was reconstructed by building up layers of paper until the thickness was similar to the original board. Once dry, the corners were cut to size and shaped with a knife (fig. 11). The new corners were then covered with new, toned, and paired archival leather with wheat starch paste.           Finally, the original lifted leather was pasted back down into place.

After photodocumentation

Requirements/future recommendations

The book should be kept away from direct sunlight to prevent fading or discolouration. The environment should be around 45- 55% to prevent mould growth.