No Right Answer: Conservation or Restoration

This is always a loaded topic and most people have very firm opinions.  I should explain that my own opinions are molded by a family that has managed museums and special collections, my own training in restoration and conservation, and then my earlier academic focus in the sciences.  In short, I think everything is in a state of decay and, thermodynamically speaking/entropy-wise, this is true.  Most of my restoration work has been with paper based materials.  Here, death is much, much more rapid.  To further complicate the matter, most paper based media are mass produced in some way.  So is it worth it to restore to it's original form?  Should we delay the inevitable end with conservation or should we do a 'functional restore', where the focus is on usability and not the original form.  For the later, digitization is often the best option.  Scan it in and get it done.  However, if the piece has enormous sentimental value or artistic/monetary merit, more work is in order.  Generally, conservation/stabilization is the quicker and cheaper, thus being the most popular fix.  Every once in a while, there is something which makes it to the restoration pile. 

1. One 'ol Bible

2. Klucel-G and isopropyl alcohol

3. pigments and acrylic medium

Right now, my 'pile' is an old Bible.  When I worked in a book restoration/paper conservation studio we had tons of these exact Bibles come in.  Normally, work didn't make it past the initial consult; there was too much money to do the work compared to the meager monetary value to the piece. These Bibles are all late Victorian and almost every household in the US bought one of these through the Sears and Roebuck catalogue.  In fact, this one is not a family piece, but was picked up for $1 at Goodwill.  So spending the thousands on a very thorough restore is not going to happen.  But the family like it and would like to use it.  A 'functional restore' is in order.

First step is the cover.  Red rot has taken over the leather so it needed to be consolidated with a solution of Klucel-G.  I should mention that it takes an eternity for the Klucel-G to dissolve into the alcohol in the Pacific Northwest.  I would imagine that anyplace cold and damp would give similar issues.  To recolor and resurface the leather, there are a few options.  You can build up oil based dies and conditioners or you can use water based pigments and then 'refinish' with an acrylic.  I went with the acrylic.  It is going to be faster, less expensive, and ultimately hold up better since there are going to be other issues with patching and joining the leather (more to follow on that).  The picture above is after consolidation but before the coloring and patching.

This Bible also has some stamp gilding on it.  Restoring that just isn't going to happen.  To do it right, you need the stamping foil, a stylus, hot plate (the ones designed for leather work), and then a steady hand to free-hand the designs.  I currently don't have the $1000+ to get the plate, so that is going to go on the Christmas wish list. *hint*hint*hint*  Or I would settle for a kitten.  I am pretty easy to please.

I use Talas for all my restoration products:

http://apps.webcreate.com/ecom/catalog/product_specific.cfm?ClientID=15&ProductID=18793

And you could use any retailer for you pigments, but starting with the raw pigments will give you greater color-matching ability and it will ultimately prove much, much less expensive.  I use Blick to buy my pigments.  For this project I was using a combination of Sinopia and Sennelier.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/sinopia-pigment-sets/

http://www.dickblick.com/products/sennelier-dry-pigments/

For an acrylic binder, just use a generic binder.  Just make sure that you are using a 'medium' and not an 'addative'.  If you do opt for the oil/conditioner route, just get that from Talas.

http://www.dickblick.com/acrylic/mediums/