Manuscript cookbook, early 18th century?

Condition:
Full vellum stiffboard binding with badly cupped boards. The boards are stained. The upper joint is split at the tail. The inner joints are cracked. The tail cap is missing. The parchment in the joints is extremely stiff. There is a typed label of pressure-sensitive tape on the spine.

There is an intact front bead headband at the head, and remnants of one at the tail.

Sewn on four cords; the sewing is intact.

Ink writing extends to the edges on most leaves.

All edges trimmed and sprinkled red.

There are torn or crumpled leaves at the front. There are several damaged leaves at the back.

Conservation Treatment:

Tears in the leaves were mended using remoistenable tissue in areas with iron gall ink, otherwise with kozo paper using wheat starch paste.

Because the slips were so weak and stretched, the textblock was removed from the binding.

The binding humidified with damp blotters and flattened between dry blotters under weights.

The spine was cleaned of adhesive residue with a poultice of methyl cellulose.

The loose leaves were hinged back onto the textblock with kozo paper using wheat starch paste.

The spine was lined head to tail and shoulder to shoulder with kozo paper using wheat starch paste.

There are whipstitched shoulder hinges of airplane cotton.

The cracks in the joints and the tears and losses in the parchment cover were reinforced with airplane cotton and/or heavyweight kozo paper using wheat starch paste.

The mends were toned with acrylic pigment.

The pastedowns were lifted along the spine edge and the new hinges were adhered under the pastedowns.

Conserved in 2018.

The parchment binding being humidified before flattening.

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Cambridge MA 02140 USA 617-304-2652 james@reid-cunningham.com