Isle of Man?

This is an embossed design on the front cover. The three legged symbol is from the Isle of Man but other than this I have no idea where this book came from originally

The Spine

I've already done a bit of work and cut away the knackered mull and endpaper. The book block is itself in good condition and the stitching very tight. I get the feeling this didn't get read much.

Top View

The front board actually survives and gives me some idea of how to make new boards

End Papers

The book's marbled end-papers in this case doubling as the book's rear cover and held in place with duck tape and sellotape. It's a fine book this one with prints by gustav dore but this one has been very sorely treated.

Dante's Inferno

A very unhappy copy of Dante's Inferno Published by Cassell in 1892. The spine has been recreated with red duck tape, the rear cover is missing completely and in this picture you can see that a part of the marbled end-paper is doubling for a rear cover

Page Decoupage

These are the small cutouts pasted into a number of pages. I'm not sure whether to remove them or not. Original vs Charm?

Grandma's Memories

A rather grimy copy of Grandma's memory. In good condition but needs a good clean, published 1888 by Ernest Nister and printed in Nuremberg

The Finished article

The finished article with a little bookcloth cleaner applied. Well pleased with the result
It really needs some gold lettering on the spine just to finish it off but I don't have the original spine, or the tools talent or skill to apply the lettering.

The new outer spine for the book made with red bookcloth as per the indiana university methods.

Spine Lining

Applied a brown paper spine lining. Decided not to go for a hollow back as the original
didnt appear to have one. Solidified things quite nicely.

Spine Lining Removed

This is the spine after removing the old spine lining. Done using some methyl cellulose and a small artist's palette knife. Not a bad result I decided not to remove the mull and resew the whole book block. The spine does tend to rack out of shape but the book block is pretty solid with very few loose pages so I just thought I'd make matters worse

Mrs Beeton's Spine

The spine in close-up

Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management

The same book from the spine-side

Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management

Hmm bit of a tricky one this. The outer part of the spine is missing but the bookblock is sound and there are no pages falling out. I can do the repair using the Inside Spine Repair feature here.

The problem is what to do about the spine racking out of shape, remove the old lining paper and re glue, glue over the top of the original lining paper, or do nothing and hope the repaired spine supports the book better?