Conservation of Album des Plus Belles Vues de Perse, a Persian photograph album dated 1855.
Condition:
This photo album is bound in quarter red leather with painted decoration under lacquer on both boards, inside and out. The upper board is loose, as is the original spine, and the lower joint is cracked. It appears that the boards were painted first, then edged with thin gilt brown leather strips; these strips are largely missing. The board edges are very worn, with board delamination and large losses at the corners. There are major losses to the images on both boards.
Black and white photographs mounted on thin card stock, hinged with white cloth.
Embossed endsheets with cloth hinges, sewn with the textblock. Sewn on four sawn-in cords, with the slips laced into the boards. The sewing in broken in several places. All edges gilt. Stuck-on cloth headbands. The spine was lined with thin cloth and manuscript waste.
Conservation Treatment:
The volume was disbound and the spine linings discarded. The cloth hinges were reinforced with colored kozo paper using wheat starch paste. New airplane cotton hinges were wrapped around the first and last sections beneath the cloth hinges. Several sections were guarded with kozo paper using wheat starch paste. The textblock was sewn all along on three polyester tapes with 25/3 linen thread. The textblock was shaped to match the original rounding and backing, then the spine was lined shoulder to shoulder and head to tail with kozo paper using wheat starch paste.
The losses at the board corners were filled with multiple layers of acid-free paper, blotter, and cotton using wheat starch paste. The board edges were consolidated with wheat starch paste and toned with acrylic paint. The boards were inpainted in many places with acrylic paint.
The volume was rebacked with layers of heavyweight kozo paper. The original spine leather was re-adhered.