Book Conservation Services

A final post about our first intern for 2026 William Johnson. A selection of highlights from his training under the supervision of Principal Conservator Karen Vidler.
About the images
Image 1: Partly attaching an inner hinge repair before the board reattachment using textile sutures.
Image 2: Testing ink inscriptions for the presence of free iron ions.
Image 3: Pared and dyed repair calf for endcap and corner repairs.
Image 4: Shaping infills for missing areas of marbled siding papers.
Image 5: Attaching a tricky endcap repair in calf leather.
Image 6: Shaping and attaching infills to damaged title and volume spine labels.
Image 7: The completed conservation project. Culmination of weeks of examination, testing, consolidation, facing, board reattachment, tricky infills in paper and leather, learning new skills, taking much needed micro-breaks...
Thank you William!

After another week at BCS I am drawing ever closer to completing my first project. In order to do so, some time was spent at my accommodation practicing my leather paring in preparation to repair some corners and endcaps. Stay tuned for more progress updates to come.

As we come to the end of another action packed week at BCS, I would like to share two of the most satisfying treatment stages thus far. The first four photos show the process of dying the leather for cap and corner repairs, and the end result, a beautiful and rich colouration if I do say so myself. The funal two photos show me performing stain reduction. It is an incredibly satisfying process to see the stains reduce on the item and appear as yellow marks on the blotter.