How long does a book repair take? How much does it cost?
Before you commit to having your treasured book restored, you’ll want to know (at least roughly) how long it will take, and what investment you’ll need to make in the restoration. I would suggest starting with my article about what can be repaired (and what can’t) and making a few notes, then coming back here to see which ‘level’ of repair most nearly matches your book.
While every book is different and I quote each one individually, I can provide you with some examples to help give you an idea about how long it will take and how much it will cost to fix a book like yours.
Basic repair - damaged covers/cosmetic issues
This type of repair involves:
- New replacement plain cloth cover; or
- Repair existing cover
- Replacement ribbons and endbands
- Plain or digitally printed endpapers (if needed)
In this example, I repaired a Divine Office for someone who wanted as much of it to be kept the same as possible, especially the cover and endpapers. This book had been given to them by a deceased priest friend, and the client prayed with it every day, hence the desire to keep the original cover even though there was significant loss of material on the spine and front board. On the plus side, there were no paper repairs to do (tears or loose pages) but all the ribbons needed replacing, along with the endbands.
I filled in the missing section of the damaged cover by creating a two-ply Japanese tissue, with one layer dyed by me to blend in with the original cover. I was also able to source double-faced satin ribbons of the same width and colours as the originals.
Time scale: 6-8 weeks
Cost: £120/c.$160
Medium repair - structural problems, minor paper damage
This level of repair includes:
- Minor paper tears repaired
- Titling and decoration on a new cover
- Plus everything from above
- Upgrade options
Once a book’s cover has completely disintegrated (as was the case here), it’s only a matter of time before the pages start showing signs of wear and tear because they’re unprotected by the cover. Repairs like frayed edges and evening missing corners need to be done with the right weight of Japanese tissue, and to make sure such repairs are not distracting while you look at the book, I trace the shape of the tears onto the tissue using a lightboard and fray it rather than cutting it so it blends in even better. Naturally, such attention to detail is time consuming, but there is no better way to protect the pages in your book.
If the cover is beyond saving, you then have the option of a replacement in cloth, or even an upgrade to a leather cover which the owner of this book opted for. Whichever you choose, I typically do a title in gold foil on the spine, and we can work out some cover decoration whether ‘blind’ (no gold) or with foil.
A final option for you is to have hand-marbled endpapers. This venerable craft, originally pioneered in Turkey and embraced with gusto by the English bookbinding trade in the late 18th Century, is now on the ‘Red List’ of endangered crafts put together by Heritage Crafts UK (unlike bookbinding, fortunately!). Of course there’s a little extra cost involved, but if you go for this option, you’ll know you’re helping to support the endangered paper marblers of Great Britain!
Timescale: 3-4 months
Cost: £180 – £240/c.$235 – $320
Substantial repair - remaking the book in whole or in part
For books you can’t really open without something falling out:
- Full paper repairs – lots of severe tears/loose pages
- Resewing the book
- Historically appropriate leather work
- Recreating original decoration
Three of the six volumes in this set of 130 year old Jewish prayer books had almost completely come apart, with numerous sections having been loose for decades by the time the owner got in touch. This meant there were dozens of badly ripped and torn pages in each of those 3 books, which I had to repair one-by-one with hand-toned Japanese tissue so it blended in with the aged, discoloured paper as much as possible. This was an important consideration for these particular books because of their historic nature, and so it isn’t distracting for the owners to read from them during the Jewish holy day services.
Once the pages were repaired I had to completely resew those three books from scratch in an historically accurate fashion i.e. on hemp cords. In fact, I improved on the original sewing by having four supporting cords rather than two. While comparatively straightforward, resewing took many hours to get the books back into a structurally sound condition.
Once the books were structurally sound, it was time to create 6 new spines to replace the missing ones. Because I was working with antique books I also needed to be faithful to the original look and recreate that as near as possible. To achieve that I developed a way of imitating the ‘marbled’ effect of the boards on new calf leather spine pieces, and ‘tucked’ those under the original board leather to recreate the original look.
Finally, to honour the original design of these sacred texts more fully, I copied the spine decoration designs from an intact volume using a digital illustration programme. This allowed me to order newly cut brass stamps in order to recreate the historic spine decoration on the new spines. The finishing touch was a set of black and gold labels with the Hebrew titles to add a celebratory element now these family heirlooms were fully restored and ready to use once more. You can learn more about how I tackled this challenging repair project in the blog post detailing each step of the process [coming soon]
Timescale – 6-9 months
Cost: £390 – £460 per book/c.$515-610
Which of these is closest to the condition of your book? Click ‘Save my book’ to get in touch for your no-obligation consultation.
If you want to know more about the process for getting your book to me, head back to the main Book Repair page.