Sympathetic restoration of old and valuable books in cloth or leather
We've been lovingly restoring old and valuable books for nearly thirty years. The quality of our workmanship is first class and the materials we use are the very best. Everything that can be saved will be saved, including old endpapers, headbands, inscriptions, old boards and spines. Types of books we restore include:
- Leather books
- Sentimental books
- Family books
- Archives
- Albums
- Religious books
- Large family bibles
- Small personal bibles
- Old leather accounts' books
- Any book that's past its best
The restoration process
The usual place for a book to break is along the joint - this is the working part of the book. When this happens the book needs
re-backing.
Re-backing is the process of lifting the old cloth or leather, re-binding the back of the book in a matching material, then re-fixing the old material on top. The old spine is then fixed to the new back.
That sounds easy but it takes a little practice, maybe thirty years! Corners are treated in a similar fashion; if the old spine is missing, the book is re-lettered in a sympathetic way, to match the age and style of the book.
National and international service
From our Berkshire premises, we take on restoration work from across the UK, Europe and worldwide.
Latest projects
We always have interesting projects on the go.
