Bound to please: Relief for book lovers
Imagine: You finally find a book on eBay or Bookfinder.com that you’ve been searching for for about three centuries, at a really low price – much lower than the next-cheapest copy of this edition that’s available – but the hinges are loose, the spine is detached and pages are coming out.
What to do?
If you’re like me, who takes pride in building collections on the cheap, you buy/bid first and ask questions later; after all, when a deal’s too good to pass up, there’s gotta be a way to repair a book economically so that you’ll still have saved money at the end of the day, right?
Well, no … and yes. For one thing, you may not have a professional collectible-book binder/repair person in your area (a hint, though: If you’re near a college, university, museum or state archive with a rare-book collection, they may know someone local who’s not in the phone book). If you do have someone nearby, you’re in luck: You can visit their place, ask to see examples of the kind of work they do and get an in-person estimate of the repairs you need. This is especially convenient if you are in need of a custom-made box or binding, because you are in effect commissioning a piece of art/craftwork, and that’s hard to do at a distance if you are not familiar the bookbinder’s abilities.
Of course, you can always go online and Google “book repair” plus your state and see what comes up. That’s if you really want the person to be nearby; otherwise, you can send your book to Timbuktu as well as across five counties: Museums and academic institutions often do. Give the book conservator a call and describe the services you want and how rare the book is (i.e., whether it’s worth it to you to make costly repairs): No point in making a $100 repair on a $10 book if it doesn’t have great personal or collectible value.
Book repairs and other conservation services fall roughly within certain price ranges, but conservators will make a tentative estimates at best, even if you send good photos of the book in question: They want to have the book in hand before they get too specific. That means shipping the book. After that, you can accept or reject the estimate.
Long story short: Getting a book repaired is considerably more involved than buying the thing in the first place.
For my part, I’m pleased to report that I had some excellent repairs done recently on two books with detached bindings and other condition issues, and at what I considered to be very reasonable prices (I comparison shopped). The book conservator was Marsha Hollingsworth of Hand Bookbinding in Port Townsend Wash., whose name I got from someone at the Washington State Historical Society. I told Marsha that what I really wanted was the kind of repairs that a much-used grade-school library book would receive – I mostly wanted to be able to read the books without having them fall apart – but with sensitivity for the fact that they were signed copies. She was very willing to work with me, her repairs were virtually invisible and she completed them in short order. I highly recommend contacting Marsha at marshahollingsworth@cablespeed.com or (360) 385-0533.
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Marsha is the best, an artist at whatever she does.
Recently Marsha loaned the Port Townsend Library one of her artistic designes for the holiday season. The design is displayed in a glass encloser next to the check out desk. Its truly uplifting for the season. Thank you Marsha and the librarians at Port Townsend Library.