Conservation of the program for a dinner in honor of Oliver Wendell Holmes, bound in velvet.
Condition:
This full velvet binding has gold decoration. The velvet is drummed on the boards. Due to age and water damage, the velvet is very rigid in places and splits easily. The nap of the velvet has worn away on the spine and board edges, revealing tan cloth beneath. The boards are extremely distorted from water damage. The pastedowns are silk over thin card stock. The leaves are loose. The leaves have planar distortion from dampness, but there is no visual evidence of mold. A ticket to the dinner is adhered onto the title page, obscuring the text; the ticket has a name faintly written in ink. There are the remains of a cloth ribbon used to attach the folded leaves to the binding.
Conservation treatment:
The volume was disbound and the pastedowns and velvet removed mechanically from the boards. Because the boards were so distorted from water damage, they were discarded. The leaves and pastedowns were humidified and flattened between blotters under light weights. Some planar distortion remains on the pastedowns. The folds were mended with kozo paper using wheat starch paste. The original pastedowns were lined with kozo paper using wheat starch paste.
The breaks and losses in the original velvet were reinforced on the verso with layers of kozo paper using wheat starch paste. The mends were colored with acrylic pigments as needed.
The volume was rebound with new 4-ply mat boards and the existing velvet and pastedowns. The velvet was drummed onto the boards. The single section was sewn with 25/3 linen thread using a pamphlet stitch through a new inner hinge made of laminated kozo paper.
The original ribbon was retained in a glassine folder.