Rebinding
There is no getting away from the fact that rebinding law reports is an expensive business. Consult your accountant about offsetting the costs.
Why Rebind
Cloth bindings do fade and can harden so the book ‘cracks’ when you try to open it fully but sets of the All ER back to 1936 are usually fine (as should be the WLR). We come back to this below.
It is leather bindings that are the real problem. The reason is that sulphur dioxide from the atmosphere is absorbed by the leather and that combines with everyday moisture in the air to form sulphuric acid which eats away at the leather turning it red and crumbly. The result are books where the covers fall off and you need to wear gloves to read them. This problem does not affect goatskin, morocco or vellum binding. Modern leather bindings should have used treated leather so that the problem does not occur.
You can identify the progress of this rot in leather books by opening the cover of the book and look at where it hinges onto the spine. This is the first place which is usually attacked and cracks along the hinge are a tell-tale sign.
You can use leather dressings to soften the leather which may make them easier to use but this will not repair the damage caused by sulphuric acid rot – nor is it likely to stop its progression.
The British Museum published a tiny monograph on this topic by H J Plenderleith entitled ‘The Preservation of Leather Bookbindings’ in 1970 which is very informative.
Another issue I have seen is that bindings harden so that real force has to be used in opening a book so that it ‘cracks’ open and in fact this can split the bindings apart. A book in this condition is not usable except for show purposes. I have seen a wonderful looking set of the Official Reports which had been rebound in library buckram some years earlier but when I tried to open a book it was like splitting apart a log. The binder should have rebound the whole book but instead had simply slapped new covers on.
Rebinding Choices
I am no bookbinder but I understand that there is a dichotomy between machine binding and hand binding. For law reports give me machine binding every time.
Apart from simply rebinding the volume, you may wish to keep something of the look of the old book by having the sides of the board or even the spine stuck back on the new binding. Personally I consider this works best with the side boards but is questionable as regard to spines (although re-using the old titles can look attractive).
Then there is a choice of materials – leather, buckram and library buckram being the usual choices and also the style of the rebinding e.g. quarter binding. All of these come in a variety of colours. In addition there is the lettering, whether you want raised bands to simulate the string of old fashioned binding (nowadays achieved by cardboard strips) and coloured leather flashes often used to designate different series.
If I can recommend thinking about these choices with an example in mind; a friend of mine had a set of the English Reports bound in a soft yellow buckram embossed with gold lettering. The result looked attractive enough until you found yourself close up squinting to find the right volume because the gold lettering was hardly discernible from the background.
Binderies
A little local research should find a binder close to you. Anyway:
- Maltby’s of Oxford has for many years been a touchstone of quality bookbinding. I have never managed to afford to use them but I have books that were beautifully bound by them and I have heard bookbinders say with pride “Of course I trained at Maltby’s”.
- Virtually all my binding has been done by The Binding Place in Worcester by the delightful Les and Brenda Stallard. Unfortunately this worthy couple have decided to retire – despite my objections – and the business is now being run out of Newent, Gloucestershire. The Stallards did some wonderful binding for me and at prices that one could live with.
- Bristol Bound (0117 966 3300) I cannot recommend too highly for hand binding. It is run by Richard and Rachel who are delightful people. For example I had a 1940’s thesis I wanted reproduced and the care they took in copying it and binding the copies was a delight to see and own.