Common antiquarian ailments

by Robert Colver

My standard line as a mender of hurt books is: “Half my work is pathology before I ever get to the surgery.”

A book falls apart for a reason. Sometimes, the reason is obvious—it was dropped, or it got wet, or the materials just rotted. But most of the time you have to let books tell you why they fell apart. And if you learn a little of their language, they’re marvelously communicative.

I’m going to run through a short list of problems that cause dealers to throw themselves and their books on the mercy of binders, discuss what may have caused the problem, and give you an idea of what you should expect from a binder if you find you need one. [keep reading]