Storing and care of books bound in, or printed on, vellum
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1edgeworn
I have been reading some back numbers of The Private library, and have just finished the Winter 2013 edition which has an excellent long article on the manufacture and uses of vellum by James Freemantle. One point which struck me was the care needed in the storage and conservation of vellum, to control the temperature and especially the moisture content in the air to prevent or minimise cockling, creasing or warping.
For those fortunate enough to own books bound in vellum, or printed on vellum, what measures if any do you take to control the environment in which your books are stored? On the other hand if the books you bought did have some cockling or warping of the vellum, what measures have you found successful to reduce this?
For those fortunate enough to own books bound in vellum, or printed on vellum, what measures if any do you take to control the environment in which your books are stored? On the other hand if the books you bought did have some cockling or warping of the vellum, what measures have you found successful to reduce this?
2Glacierman
I have a few vellum bound books, but I'm not going to be of much use here as I take no special measures for them for the most part.
My Nonesuch Dante has warped boards so I have used linen tapes to make wrap-around ties for the boards. It keeps them under control at least. Another book was published with ties and a clamshell case and has not warped at all. The one from 1656 has never been prone to major warpage or other funky vellum things.
My Nonesuch Dante has warped boards so I have used linen tapes to make wrap-around ties for the boards. It keeps them under control at least. Another book was published with ties and a clamshell case and has not warped at all. The one from 1656 has never been prone to major warpage or other funky vellum things.
3wcarter
My oldest book from 1654 is bound in vellum, has not warped and is in excellent condition. I take no special precautions, but the humidity of my sub-tropical climate may help.
4edgeworn
>2 Glacierman: I believe that dry conditions cause vellum to shrink, with consequent warping of bindings of vellum over boards. I was wondering whether this is reversible by increasing the moisture content of the vellum. (I'm interested in this as I have been eyeing one or two books with warped vellum-over-boards bindings.)
>3 wcarter: according to James Freemantle, the ideal relative humidity range for storing vellum is 40% to 70%. Below this and the vellum dries and eventually can harden, cockle or crack. Above 70% humidity and the structure of the vellum eventually changes, causing it to become limp and prone to bacterial or fungal damage. So unmodified tropical, arctic and arid areas would certainly be problematic.
Interesting that in both your cases the Seventeenth Century bindings are in the best shape.
The Freemantle article is full of interesting snippets. For example, the Kelmscott Press identified the finest vellum as coming from Rome, but were unable to acquire the amount needed as the vellum was all required by the Vatican. (I wonder what use the Vatican made of the vellum?)
>3 wcarter: according to James Freemantle, the ideal relative humidity range for storing vellum is 40% to 70%. Below this and the vellum dries and eventually can harden, cockle or crack. Above 70% humidity and the structure of the vellum eventually changes, causing it to become limp and prone to bacterial or fungal damage. So unmodified tropical, arctic and arid areas would certainly be problematic.
Interesting that in both your cases the Seventeenth Century bindings are in the best shape.
The Freemantle article is full of interesting snippets. For example, the Kelmscott Press identified the finest vellum as coming from Rome, but were unable to acquire the amount needed as the vellum was all required by the Vatican. (I wonder what use the Vatican made of the vellum?)
5ultrarightist
>4 edgeworn: Interesting. Does the article state what source the Kelmscott Press ended up using for its vellum?
6edgeworn
>5 ultrarightist: Apparently two British companies supplied the vellum for the majority of the Kelmscott Press books: H. Band of Brentford, and W.J. Turney & Co. of Stourbridge.
7ultrarightist
>6 edgeworn: Thanks for they info. I know that Kelmscott bound some of their editions (or a subset of some of their editions) in vellum, but did it ever print on vellum/parchment?
The only press that I know of today that still prints on vellum/parchment is the Petrarch Press.
The only press that I know of today that still prints on vellum/parchment is the Petrarch Press.
8edgeworn
>7 ultrarightist: Yes. According to the same reference, the Kelmscott Press printed some copies on vellum of all but 5 of their 53 titles (normally between 5 and 15 copies printed on vellum). This seems to have been a common practice among the major private presses of that period.
9Glacierman
>8 edgeworn: Yes. Especially the major British private presses. For example, there were several copies (I don't remember the exact number offhand) of the Kelmscott Chaucer printed on vellum bound in white pigskin, the epitome of Chaucers.
10ultrarightist
>9 Glacierman: I saw a copy of that once (behind glass). I did not realize it was printed on vellum, but the white pigskin binding was exquisite.
11Glacierman
>10 ultrarightist: There were paper copies in the white pigskin binding as well, so what you saw could have been one of those.
13ger5555
I have one beautiful full vellum-bound book (Poems of Thomas Gray by Eton College Press, 1902) and it's been sitting in a plastic library shield on my shelf in NYC without any apparent ill effect. In general the majority of high-quality vellum prepared today is used in ritual Jewish scrolls (especially "Torah scrolls" of the Pentateuch, "Megillot" of the Book of Esther, Mezuzot, Tefillin, etc.). Having handled many kinds of these over the years, I can say that they handle heavy use in most humidities and temperatures without drama for reasonable timespans and unless you have the resources to build a controlled chamber it's not worth worrying about. Though I expect the binding process will make it more delicate.