Hi gsh,
"I have a faded cotton book cover that I want to bring back to its
original colours."
First of all, trying to restore an old book to its original splendour
is not for the faint of heart (we know this from first-hand
experience) and requires practising on something disposable before
making the attempt - once you start down the road, there is no turning
back. Also, the reason why you want to restore a book is important.
It's fine to try if it's just for your own pleasure, but antiquarian
booksellers frown upon any tampering of a book and if you intend to
sell it, it would be best to leave it "as is".
A cautionary excerpt from: Book Care & Repair:
"If you don't know the book's true value. STOP
If you think you may harm it. STOP.
If you aren't sure what it's gonna look like later. STOP.
If you can sell it as is. STOP.
If you can't afford to throw it away after you have ruined it. STOP"
http://home.comcast.net/~gods1216/bookrepair.html
STEP ONE:
Clean the cloth before attempting any "restoration". As usual, slowly
and cautiously...
Some possible cleaning tools:
- softest possible eraser (polymer is good)
- specialized commercial products that may be available at art
supply stores, otherwise from library supply catalogues (e.g.,
Brodart, Gaylord, ...):
--- Absorene paper & book cleaner
--- Groom Stick book cleaner
--- Clean Cover Gel
--- Book Sponge / Dirt Eraser (electrostatic sponge)
--- Document cleaning powder (usually in a pad)
--- Demco and Archival Products
STEP TWO:
Buy some shoe polish which comes the closest to matching the original
colour of the cloth (look on the inside, along the edges of the
endpapers).
Using a stubby bristle brush, liberally apply some polish to the cloth.
Set aside for five minutes or so to dry.
Buff with a shoe buffer, rubbing hard.
Perfect your technique by trial and error on something disposable.
If only the spine is faded, use the above technique on it and when
finished, cover the whole book with shoe polish, removing it
immediately rather than letting it dry. This will blend the spine to
the rest of the book.
MORE IDEAS:
Subject: Re: Restoration of sunned spines?
Newsgroups: rec.collecting.books:
"I am dubious about the ability of anyone to re-color the spine and
make it look natural and good. One substance which may be of help is
the cream-type of shoe polish available at better shoe-repair stores.
This is available in a wide variety of colors and can alter the color
of a book subtlely."
"I touched up some sunned spines on a set of cloth bound books with
'RIT' the fabric dye a few years ago and was able to match it to the
set pretty well, but you can still see a difference in the bindings -
like going to a low-rent body shop. I think the books look better, but
of course have/had no intention of ever selling them."
"I had some pretty good luck using Tintex dye for some turn of the
century books (Dumas) that I bought. They were very faded but
otherwise in excellent condition so I didn't have much to lose. But
they came out great."
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=3666F4DB.1C88927A%40adnc.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3D%2522shoe%2Bpolish%2522%2Bgroup:rec.collecting.books%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26group%3Drec.collecting.books%26selm%3D3666F4DB.1C88927A%2540adnc.com%26rnum%3D1
Subject: Re: Preserving Old Books/RFI
Newsgroups: rec.antiques:
"Many book dealers use either clear wax shoe polish or leather balm of
one sort or another to spruce up old leather and cloth books. This
protects and moisturizes, restores color and cleans. Shoe polish is Ok
excepts it will leave the books slightly waxy unless you really buff
them well. I would recommend the leather moisturizers. Good Luck!"
http://groups.google.ca/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=4v0nfi%24b11%40newsbf02.news.aol.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fnum%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26q%3D%2522old%2Bbooks%2522%2B%2522shoe%2Bpolish%2522%26btnG%3DSearch
Additional Link:
BOOKS:
(Search at http://www.bookfinders.com for used copies)
"The Care and Feeding of Books Old and New:
A Simple Repair Manual for Book Lovers"
by Margot Rosenberg and Bern Marcowitz:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312300670/qid=1081098090/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-1707443-1119017?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
"At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries"
by Estelle Ellis:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0517595001/qid=1081098234/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-1707443-1119017?v=glance&s=books
GENERAL INFORMATION:
Conservation OnLine (CoOL):
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/
"CoOL, a project of the Preservation Department of Stanford University
Libraries, is a full text library of conservation information,
covering a
wide spectrum of topics of interest to those involved with the
conservation of library, archives and museum materials."
http://sul-server-2.stanford.edu/
The Book Arts Web:
http://www.philobiblon.com/links.htm
Conservation/Preservation Information for the General Public
http://sul-server-2.stanford.edu/bytopic/genpub/
I hope this helps. If you have any questions, please post a
clarification request before closing/rating my answer.
Thank you and good luck!
hummer
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