Thursday, January 20, 2011

Cook's Voyages

Half the fun in the restoration business is working on great books few of us ever get to see. These photos are of a 1779 2-volume edition of Captain James Cook's "Voyage toward the South Pole, and around the World. Performed in His Majesty's Ships The Resolution and Adventure." The textblocks were fairly tight, though some fold-out maps needed mending. New headbands were sewn over round cores and the whole rebound in sprinkled calf. I'm trying out new calf, still searching for a replacement of Pearce's inimitable (and no longer available) vegetable-tanned calf. This is from Franz Hoffman in Germany and tooled very nicely, though it wasn't fun at all to pare. (The animal is a little older and the hide much tougher.)









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