rough, and of any kind of inferior wood, first smooth the surface, if
possible by planing, or else with a rasp and glass-paper. Fill all
the holes and chinks with putty, or bread and gum, or gum and plaster
of Paris. Then, with a mixture of glue (not too stiff) and fine white
plaster of Paris, rub over all the surface to perfect smoothness, and
when quite dry remove any irregularities with finest glass-paper. Then
paint as desired. This is an approved method of repairing old panel
pictures, which were all made with such a ground of plaster and glue.
TO REPAIR MARQUETRY OR INLAID WOODWORK.--This, as I have already said,
and will now describe more in detail, is made of different pieces of
coloured wood, glued on a panel. Take a piece of fine hard wood, such
as holly, and saw it out to exactly fit the place where pieces are
missing. Draw the pattern on it, and then outline it very neatly with
a fine pen-knife-point, so as to cut a little way into the wood,
but not _through_ it. Fill up this line thus cut with a composition
of varnish and any black powder. Then with _dyes_, not oil paint or
water-colour, but such as are made with spirit, colour the pattern, a
separate colour to every piece. The dye will sink in and grow pale;
then apply it again, and till it is of the hue desired. Polish the
whole. This is what is called Venetian marquetry. It is, very easy to
make, and produces beautiful results, quite equal to the sawed-out and
inlaid work. It is, moreover, much more durable and far less expensive.
MANDER’S dyes are used for such staining.
Even a single inlaid figure of wood, set into a panel, as in the back
of a chair, gives a character, and apparently greater value, to the
whole. Such inlaying is easily made with a fret-saw. If we take two
thin plates of wood, one dark and one light, and saw the same pattern
out of both, we can then set one into the other, and so make two inlays
by one process. _Parquetry_ is large inlaying for floors. For this it
is well to study such forms as can be _set together_, as, for instance,
squares, diamonds, crosses, T’s and the like.
Violins, guitars, and lutes can be beautifully adorned by the Venetian
process. As the colours do not wear away, and cannot scale off like
common inlaying, it will be seen that it is by far the best way to
decorate them. Furniture of all kinds can be ornamented in the same
way. It is peculiarly appropriate to picture-frames. It being very
little known, objects thus prepared meet with a ready sale.
When a corner of a pane in a window, as often happens--as also to the
glass of a picture-frame or mirror--is broken away, we can easily
make or have made a small ornament which will fit into the corner and
conceal the defect, This can be made of wood, _papier-mâché_ (which is
best), or hard putty or cement. It may be gilded or painted. Windows
may be prettily ornamented in this manner, even if not broken.
[Illustration: _Mirror with Ornaments of Papier-mâché or Wood-Paste._]
ON REPAIRING AND RESTORING BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, AND PAPERS
WITH DIRECTIONS FOR EASY BINDING AND PAPER-MENDING--BOOK-WORMS
It happens often enough that some valuable old manuscript or early
printed work, if not destroyed as useless, is sold for a trifle because
it is torn and worm-eaten or otherwise injured. The loss to literature
from this cause has been terrible, and it is all the more so because in
most cases it was the result of sheer ignorance.
Paper is a composition of linen, cotton, or other vegetable fibre
reduced to powder and then combined with _size_, which is a kind of
glue, paste, or binding medium. Therefore paper can be mended by using,
in the soft, macerated, or pasty form, _paper itself_--which very
simple fact appears to have been hitherto a secret from the greater
portion of mankind. That is to say, having a piece of paper with a
small round hole in it--looking as if some one had fired a shot through
it--take another piece of paper of the same quality and reduce some
of it to a very fine powder or mash it fine with a knife, combine it
with good flour-paste infused with a little clear white glue, and make
a soft paste with the powder; then, laying a porcelain tile or piece
of tin under the sheet, with a hole in it, to prevent sticking, spread
the paste, which is really soft paper, with a knife over the hole. When
dry it will be mended permanently. Observe that the pulp must be a fine
_paste_, not merely paper mixed with paste--_i.e._, lumpy and stringy,
but soft. Secondly, that a better “binder” or size than flour-paste
is one made from scraps of parchment boiled, till all the gelatine
is extracted. Take the latter and let it boil till thick. It makes a
finely glazed surface.
Do not begin to do this with a book, but with a sheet out of which
holes have been punched. It is delicate work, and you must not expect
to succeed in it at once. But in time, with care, you will remake the
paper with great skill. There are workmen who can even reunite torn
edges in this manner so that the mending is almost imperceptible.
This is remaking paper with paper. In some cases it will suffice to
simply neatly paste a piece of paper over a torn-away space. This
may be done--as in most cases--very clumsily, or it may be performed
artistically and daintily. In the latter case, using a very sharp
and specially _thin_ bladed penknife, shave down or scrape away the
overlapping edge, and apply the paste sparingly with the point of a
camel’s-hair small brush. Before it is quite dry lay the leaf on a
smooth, hard surface, and with the penknife or a burnisher flatten
down the thinned edge to an uniform surface. This also requires a
little practice, but when learned the artist may effect miracles of
restoration. One may, and that not infrequently, buy for shillings
books which when mended sell for many pounds.
It often happens that we find some curious little old book which has
been sadly cut or worn, almost down to the type. Take it, and with a
flat rule carefully cut out every page, leaving just a little rim of
margin. Then having obtained old paper corresponding to your text,
or good modern hand-made Dutch, using strong glue-paste or flour and
gum-arabic, or paper-paste, make borders, on which paste the old pages.
If you have old paper--there are dealers who can supply it--you may
do this so well that the juncture will be hardly perceptible. In any
case you will greatly enhance the value of the book. In this, as in
all such work, never attempt to restore anything of value till you
shall have succeeded by experimenting. This is very seldom done, and
yet books thus restored sell for a price which must make the work very
profitable. One reason, however, why we see so little of it is the
_extravagant_ price charged for all such work by the agent who supplies
it.
The prices paid for books thus restored and mounted are extremely
high, simply because there are so few people who know how to do it
well; and yet, as any of my readers may find, the art is an easy one,
requiring only neatness and care. There are very few libraries where
such restorers might not be employed, to the very great profit of the
collection. All purchasers for libraries are continually rejecting
books because they are tattered and worn or “holey,” which could be
sent to the hospital and doctored into value. And it is, indeed, to
be regretted for the sake of the public that our great libraries have
not all shops attached where duplicates and damaged rarities restored
could be sold at fair, not fancy, prices. For it is firstly the
great librarian who sees and rejects the most books, and who could
do an immense amount of good, and greatly stimulate an interest in
collection and literature--and make money--if he would also facilitate
acquisition. The art of restoring and of mending is as yet so much in
its infancy, and is so little understood and practised, that there is
not one book in a thousand, even of _rariora_ and _curiosa_, preserved
as it might be.
It may be worth while to lay some stress on the fact that many persons,
especially women, if they will take a little pains to experiment, can
easily make a living by thus restoring books and injured documents.
There are, indeed, many other means of earning money indicated in this
work.
A CHEAP AND DURABLE VARNISH specially made for bookbinders is prepared
as follows:--Take coarsely powdered gum-copal, add to it oil of thyme
(_oleum thymi serpilli_) or pure oil of rosemary (_oleum rosmarini_),
sufficient to form a solution. Pour off the superfluous liquid, and mix
the remainder with sufficient alcohol to dissolve it well. In making
take only so much of the oil of thyme or rosemary as will cover the
copal, and of alcohol about eight or ten parts to the whole. Special
varnishes, and perhaps better, are known to many bookbinders, who will
sell them, or inform you where to obtain them. I know of none so good
as that of SOEHNÉE, which is, however, very expensive, costing about
ninepence per ounce. It is rather brittle, however, for pictures.
When a book is dog’s-eared, or its leaves have been turned, if the
paper be of a thin, poor quality, its chances of restoration are better
than if it were good and stiff. In the former case damp the leaves one
by one with water in which a _little_ gum tragacanth has been infused.
This is not so much an adhesive as a mere stiffener, and is used as
such for laces. Then flatten them, putting a piece of smooth white
paper between every leaf.
There is, I fear, nothing to be done where the reader is so utterly
devoid of all the instincts of a gentleman or a lady as to turn over
a stiff, thick, highly glazed paper to mark the place! I have just
found this done in a magnificently illustrated work from a circulating
library, and, to aggravate the offence, it was on pictured pages! I
would here remark that if every reader would keep by him a piece of
indiarubber or eraser, and obliterate, or at least render illegible,
all the scribblings made on margins, this detestably vulgar practice
would soon be at an end.
It may be observed that to repair pages which have been torn across,
or engravings, the rent is usually _transverse_--that is, such as to
leave a small flap edge. If we take very strong gum in very minute
quantity on the point of a camel’s-hair brush, we may often succeed
with great care in perfectly reuniting the edges. Observe that in
this, as in everything, the mender should not draw his conclusions
from the first effort, which will probably be a failure, but from
frequent careful observation and experiment. There are marvellously few
people in the world who take the pains to become really good menders
of anything--excepting lace and the like--hence there are few things
mended at all except by botchers and amateurs.
INK-STAINS can be removed from paper by laying underneath the blot a
pad of clean blotting-paper or fine muslin. Take a fine sponge, dip
it in lemon-juice, and press it gently on the stain, so as to moisten
it. Then with a clean, white, soft rag, folded into a pad, press on the
spot, and the pad, lifted off, will remove a little of the ink. Repeat
this process a few times, taking care to change the pad in your hand
every time _to a clean_ spot. Do not try to _rub_ the stain out (as
most people do), but to _draw_ the ink away or out by sucking up or by
absorption. If you simply rub or press the ink in again which has just
been drawn out, you will only make bad worse. And here I would observe
that by this process of pressing, absorbing, and changing the “sucker”
applied, you can draw appalling stains out of almost anything. You
cannot, of course, prevent chemical action or change of colour, but in
most cases this is the best process.
It is better to begin with lemon-juice and a little salt and water
where the paper is thin. When it is strong, a mixture of muriatic acid
and water generally extracts ink.
In a great many cases the staining fluid can be drawn out by absorption
before any chemical change in the colour of the stuff can have been
effected. Therefore it is all-important to know how to do this yourself
_at once_, and not wait till it can be sent to a dyer or scourer or
cleaner. In a few hours’ time that which could have been promptly
extracted will be past all cure. When you spill ink on paper, promptly
apply, first of all, blotting-paper, and then try absorption. If any
stain remains then, apply the acid.
TO TAKE OUT A GREASE-SPOT.--Heat an iron (I generally effect it with a
burning cigar), and hold it as near as possible to the stain without
burning the paper. If this be well done the grease, wax, &c., will
rapidly disappear. If there are any traces left, place on it powdered
calcined magnesia for a time. This is also a good means to extract
grease, wax, or oil from cloth. Very often, where lemon-juice or acid
would ruin the colour of a cloth or other fabric, chloroform will take
out the spot and leave the colour unchanged.
_Bone_, well calcined and powdered, is an excellent absorbent of
grease. It should be remembered that all such processes must be
renewed, for after the powder or cloth applied has received a certain
quantity of the grease or stain, it ceases to be taken in. A gentle
pressure or rubbing, after laying paper over the powder, facilitates
the absorption.
The celebrated ATHANASIUS KIRCHER, who wrote in the sixteenth century,
has left an amusing account of how he one night, stopping at a convent
in Sicily, took a book from the library (it was STEPHANUS FAGUNDEZ’ _In
Præcep’a Ecclesiæ_)--“a new book and elegantly bound”--and spilt over
it and in it all the midnight oil from his lamp! In great alarm he sent
for quicklime, but there was none to be had. So he bade the monks bring
him some _bones_, which he quickly calcined and pulverised and applied.
And the next morning there was not a trace of a spot, only a little
smell of oil, which soon vanished. He adds, that plaster of Paris would
have done as well.
Ascertain carefully the nature of the spot before trying to extract it.
For resinous substances use spirits, or eau de cologne, or turpentine.
Benzine extracts several substances.
An old recipe for removing ink-stains was to take a spoonful of good
aquafortis, in which break a piece of chalk the size of a large barley
corn; add two spoonfuls of rose-water and one of vinegar. This should
be mixed in a clean glass and left to stand for several hours. It is to
be applied with a piece of new sponge, by pressure, and not too freely
nor too long. When the paper is nearly dry renew the process, and when
the ink shall have disappeared, promptly wash out the acid with pure
water and a clean linen rag. (But it is _too strong_ for many fabrics.)
When the ink does not penetrate the paper it can be removed by erasure
with a sharp penknife, or a preparation of vulcanised indiarubber
and powdered pumice-stone sold by most stationers. When this latter
does not “bite,” its action can be aided by very slightly moistening
it. After erasure rub the spot scraped with very finely powdered
pumice-stone, and polish with a burnisher or any smooth substance.
Even when an inkstand has been spilled over a printed or long-written
page, we can by prompt action extract the new ink and leave the old
plain as ever; but the reader who expects to work this miracle of
changing night into day must not wait till the accident happens to
first attempt to remedy it, or he will probably fail. Let him first of
all, not once but often, pour ink on some waste and worthless page, and
then experiment first with the blotting-paper, then with the dilute
acids and the padding. The time will not by any means be wasted.
A fresh ink-spot can be easily removed from paper by rubbing it with a
finely pulverised mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, alum, and pumice. If
the spot is an old one, moisten it first a little with water.
Ink-spots, &c., in old MSS. were sometimes ingeniously covered by
ornaments in gold or colour.
When an entire page or many pages of a book are missing, it often
happens that, at much less expense than would be supposed, an ingenious
printer can restore the whole. There are many books for which it
would be worth while to have the type cast, for even with a page thus
restored the book may be worth ten times as much as if it were wanting.
Missing pages are often supplied by photographic fac-similes from
another copy.
It was only yesterday, as I write, here in Florence, that I heard a
tourist declare that there was nothing worth buying to be found, and
that everything curious was snapped up at once. To which I could not
assent, never having seen so many objects as of late which I regarded
as great bargains. But they were all _dilapidated_, and the tourist
generally likes to see everything in splendid condition. To him who
can restore old books and ivories and leather-work and panel pictures,
there will be no lack of bargains for a long time anywhere. The men who
sell are not all such marvellous experts in mending up, repairing, and
forging as literary dealers in the wonderful would have us believe. If
they were so clever they would not let valuable panel pictures split
in two before their eyes from ignorance of knowing how to straighten
and tack them at a penny’s cost. There is abundance of clever forging,
of lying ivories and silver-work and sham antique leather, but of
restoration of smaller or of single objects there is very little; and
there is, as I have said, in this a vast field for every collector who
knows enough to make practical application of what is taught in this
book. It is so far from true that everything is now snapped up, that I
confidently assert that there is hardly a _bric-à-brac_ shop in Europe
in which a skilled repairer cannot find a bargain, and in most cases
several.
It will often be of service to the mender of books to be able to
prepare parchment-paper for himself. If we take a mixture of one part
nitric acid to three of water--the proportions varying very much with
the quality of the acid and of the paper--and dip into it a piece of
soft unglazed paper, the latter will at once harden into a substance
like parchment. It should be at once washed in changes of pure water. I
may here observe that neither in making this nor anything else should
the operator be satisfied with a single experiment.
Regarding paper, there are certain curious facts worth knowing by every
reader. Before the invention or general use of window-glass, a very
transparent kind of paper was, according to KIRCHER (_De Secretis_),
prepared as follows:--
Take paper from the mill, not as yet sized, and mix with it to six
parts of turpentine two of mastic. This really makes a very clear,
or at least diaphanous, medium, which may be used for temporarily
repairing broken glass windows.
The same writer informs us that if we take fine parchment (_pergamenam
hædinum_), prepared without lime, or naturally dried, we should lay
it in water, which will just cover it, in which has been well infused
boiled honey and the white of eggs. This was used to repair coloured
glass windows.
There is also given in the _Zauberbuch_ of JOHANN WALLBERGER,
Frankfort, 1760, a recipe for the same purpose:--
“Take parchment prepared without lime, and steep it in a mixture of
thick gum-arabic dissolved in water, the yolk of eggs well shaken, and
clarified honey.”
It is worth observing, as regards these recipes from old works, that
while those founded on modern chemistry and experiment are generally
cheaper and apparently better, the former are often more _durable_ in
effect, and were, indeed, more thoroughly tested. There were a great
many parchment windows in those days, and there are none now. And in
these old works of PORTA, WECKERUS, TENZELIUS, KIRCHER, ALEXANDER OF
PIEDMONT, MIZALDUS, VALENTINE KRAUTEMANN, and many more of which I
have a large collection, there are many curious prescriptions, many of
which I have seen revived from time to time of late years as modern
scientific inventions--on which subject an interesting article could be
written.
A weak solution of oxalic acid in water is often the best to remove ink
and other stains from strong white paper or linen. It should be applied
by gently pressing or _dabbing_ (not rubbing) with a cotton pad. As
soon as the stain is removed, dab it again with clean water. Take good
care, however, that there are no scratches or cuts on your fingers, for
if the acid gets into them it will cause great pain.
I may here mention that the old bookbinders’ paste was made as
follows:--
Take a quarter of a pound of starch, steep it a quarter of an hour in
water, and stir it till it is milky. Add a pinch of alum, and boil it
once more.
This was said to keep better than paste made from flour. (Add a few
drops of oil of cloves or carbolic acid, and it will keep very well.)
Flour can, however, be used instead of starch, and a good adhesive
be the result. A little glue very much improves it. There is a great
difference in the quality of cement made from bread, as the condition
of the latter has been changed by fermentation.
BINDING.--Repairing books is nearly allied to _binding_, and the latter
is, in perfection, a somewhat difficult art. Yet it is not at all
difficult for a careful person to bind up many works in such a manner
that they will bear much reading, and with a little artistic skill look
very well. This may be effected as follows:--
When a book is stitched together, there are sewed into the back two or
more cross pieces of string or strips of muslin, which project a little
on either side, and which, by being pasted down inside the cover under
a leaf, hold the book and cover together. This is further strengthened
sometimes by another strip of muslin. When the back is firmly gummed
or pasted to the book, so as to bend with it, it is called a flexible
back, which also adds to the strength of the whole.
[Illustration]
If the reader will now take a simply sewn or stitched book, without
binding, and will place across its back two or more strips of
parchment, and glue them on with the strongest possible cement--mastic
being the best, but acidulated glue or flour-paste with glue, or even
dextrine-paste, will answer the purpose--and if he will again paste
up and down over these a strip just the width of the back, he will
have all that is necessary to make a strong binding, for this will
hold as well as the strings. Note that the parchment strips must first
be thoroughly wet through and macerated, or crumpled till quite soft.
Again, that when the paste is nearly dry the strip should be rubbed in.
Next cut out two pieces of _strong_ pasteboard, each a very little
larger than the length and width of the book. These are the covers.
[Illustration]
Now paste the outside of the _straps_ exactly to the inside of the
covers, leaving just enough space for opening and closing. When dry,
the book should open and close easily. Then take the outer cover
of leather or cloth, which is cut in the shape indicated in the
accompanying outline, paste it well over the back, and then turn the
edges over and paste them down over the cover inside, so as to form a
narrow margin, as may be seen by examining any book. Also turn down,
before doing this, the edges at the ends of the book. The binding will
be much stronger if, after pasting the ends of the parchment strips to
the covers, we paste over them in turn good, strong pieces of paper,
close to the back, to prevent the strips from pulling up.
If there be fly or blank leaves on the sides of the book, paste one of
each down over the inside of the cover. This will conceal the margin
and add greatly to the strength of the book. But if there be none,
you can supply them, firstly, by a method which will make your binding
even stronger than that of most books. Take a very strong piece, let us
say, of Whatman’s or any other good tough linen drawing-paper, just of
the size to cover the whole book--that is, back and sides. Cut in it
four slits, and pass the strips which are to bind the book to the cover
through, and gum them down, and then paste the fly-leaf thus added
down over the strips. But it will answer every purpose if you simply
gum fly-leaves on by a very narrow margin of “adhesive.” All of this
will become clear to any one who will carefully examine a book. And
anybody who has the dexterity to fold a letter neatly or do up a parcel
properly, can in a short time, after one or two experiments, succeed
in binding a book in this manner. I have observed that those who fail
as amateur bookbinders generally do so because they attempt too much
too soon, and aim at producing elegant masterpieces before they have
learned to manage with ease such common work as I have described.