‘Panoramic Depiction of the Fort and Old City Walls of Lahore’ is a rare scroll painting of the city walls by an unknown artist and dated broadly between the late 18th and early 19th century. The panorama of the city of Lahore arrived into the conservation studio tightly packed into a small custom made box measuring 71 mm x 193 mm x 71 mm.

Picture 1. The scroll in its original box.

The box and the item looked unexciting until taken out of the box and opened up. But even then the tight storage made it difficult to appreciate fully the exquisite detail of the painting without damaging the scroll and risking the loss of pigments. The panorama could only be seen in small sections. The scroll did not lie flat, had a cracked surface and a tendency to curl with pigmented areas detaching, particularly in areas where panels of the scroll were joined or cracked.

Pictures 2 and 3: showing a damaged area of the scroll along panel joints before and after conservation.

Once the conservation was carried out to consolidate the pigments and the paper support, and to relax and flatten the tightly rolled scroll, it became obvious that the old box was no longer fit for purpose. In consultation with the lead curator, Nur Sobers-Khan, it was agreed that a Perspex mount (holder) with moving rollers needed to be designed, to enable viewing of larger sections of the scroll without handling the object.

The scroll is often requested by readers, researchers, scholars and historians, interested in studying the painting for its historical, artistic and cultural aspects. The whole panorama of the city measures 2.5 metres, therefore, a larger opening of 55 cm in length of the scroll was considered adequate for viewing and studying it at one time. The construction of the Perspex mount with moving parts and the diameter of the rollers were agreed with the maker, Jonathan Hoskins, who has constructed a similar mount previously for a scroll shown below. He also regularly designs and makes mounts for 3D object for our exhibitions..

Picture 4, showing ‘Bhagavata Purana’ - Hindu religious text, Sanskrit on silk paper (18th century).

The scroll above, although a lot longer than the panorama, is narrow and attached to thinner rollers while the Panorama of Lahore can be taken off the rollers and displayed in its full length, if needed. Due to the previous damage to the painting which restricted its viewing, the rollers were designed to be larger in diameter. This ensured that the panorama is no longer rolled as tightly as before and that the panel joints lie flat when viewed.

Picture 5, showing a colleague viewing the scroll and testing the mount.

The painting of the walled city of Lahore was much appreciated while in the studio by the public visiting the conservation studio. When viewed from a distance, its beautiful turquoise surroundings often mistaken for the sea until an entourage of people and elephants was spotted when further unrolling the scroll!

Picture 6: Entourage of people and elephants.

The painting of the city of Lahore can be viewed and appreciated for its artistic value, but it also is a capsule in time showing the city with its walls intact during the Sikh rule. The walls were later pulled down and the course of the river Ravi altered. The river no longer sweeps by the city walls, as shown in the painting.

Picture 7, showing the river Ravi flowing by the city walls.

Picture 8: Annotations marking the location of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s cremation spot.

The present conservation of the Lahore scroll and the new mount for the scroll would enable easier and safer access to the scroll in the future, which in turn would add to the research and knowledge of South Asian history and culture, and perhaps …. solve the dating conundrum!

Iwona Jurkiewicz-Gotch

I would like to thank everybody involved in this project, in particular – curators - Nur Sobers-Khan, Manzo Pasquale and Saqib Baburi for information about the items discussed in this blog as well as Jonathan Hoskins for making the mount and Rick Brown for helping me construct the box and gold-tooling it.

By West Dean College of Arts and Conservation

British Library and West Dean College of Arts and Conservation collaborate to deliver Continued Professional Development for those involved with, or with responsibility for care of libraries, archives and collections, and for conservation students. Autumn 2019 courses include:

Writing and Using a Preservation Policy – 28 October 2019

A preservation policy provides the opportunity for your organisation to develop a framework for thinking about the role of collections management and care. This training day equips you with the insights, understanding and practical guidance to review or draft a policy for your organisation.

Tutor Jennifer Dinsmore has 40 years of experience working with heritage organisations to evaluate and develop conservation provision, strategies and policies in museums, libraries and archives.

Preserving Historic Photographs – 14 November 2019

The sensitivity of the photographic collections in libraries, archives and museums to environmental conditions and the speed with which images can deteriorate present special challenges. This one day course is led by Susie Clark, an accredited paper and photographic conservator, formerly responsible for a collection of 20 million photographs at the BBC Hulton Picture Library (now Getty Images).

Digitisation: Planning and Processes – 10 December 2019

Digitisation can increase access to collections, provide surrogates for vulnerable originals and enable virtual reunification of collections.  But do you know where to start?

This training day offers you guidance on image specification, file formats, condition assessments, choosing equipment and planning for online access. It focuses on the digitisation of library and archive materials, though the principles are transferable. The day is led by British Library’s team including the Digitisation Conservation Team Manager, Digital Curator for Collections and the Photographic Studio Manager.

Courses are £147 each and take place at British Library.

Book online

Enquiries +44 (0)1243 818300

 

 

Mary Horrell, Conservation Support Assistant, and Mark Oxtoby, Collection Care Workflow Coordinator

The Felbrigge Psalter’s decorative 14c covers (pictured below) are the oldest known examples of English embroidery on a book and a prime example of the type of binding this project is working to protect. 

Felbrigge Psalter

Although faded with areas of lost stitching the design is clearly visible. Luxury bookbindings like this have covers of fragile silk, satin, and velvet and are often decorated with pearls, sequins and gold and silver embroidery threads, all of which may require different approaches to conservation but should all be stored in a similar way.

The project to re-box collection items with ‘at risk’ embroidered and textile bookbindings has been ongoing since 2016 and has involved colleagues from various teams including; Conservation, Western Heritage Collections, Basements, Collection Care North and Reader and Reference Services.

C.108.aa.7: 17c English prayer book.  The design has a stunning trompe l’oeil effect which can still be seen despite the loose threads.  The spine piece has also been lost.

The first step of the project involved Maddy Smith, Curator Printed Heritage Collections, and Philippa Marks, Curator Bookbindings, selecting around 100 bindings which needed attention and preparing a preservation bid. Traditionally these items were boxed to resemble leather bindings on a library shelf, stored in sometimes abrasive slipcases, or in tight drop-back boxes lined with woollen fabric.

Maddy Smith (left) and Philippa Marks (right) reviewing some embroidered bindings.

Philippa says: ‘The Library’s collection of textile bookbindings is so rich that the problem regarding selection was not what to include, but what to exclude! An important first step was to identify the books which had been boxed in the past or were not protected at all. Boxing provided an effective and practical solution historically, but we now know some elements of the construction can put bindings at risk. Today conservators have a choice of modern materials, all of which have been tested by Paul Garside, Conservation Scientist, and will remain stable and protect the textile and embroidered surfaces’.

C.183.aa.6: enlargement of 16c English binding shows red and green embroidery threads, metallic coils and sequins which have oxidised (blackened).

At this point it was down to the Library’s Textile Conservator Liz Rose to devise storage solutions to protect these fragile bindings. Liz was invited to attend an embroidered books rehousing workshop at the Herzogin Anna Amelia Bibliothek in Weimar, Germany, where conservators from Germany, France and Austria discussed storage and handling solutions for these delicate structures to both prolong their lifecycle and enable access.

Liz says: ‘It was a privilege to be the only textile conservator invited to attend the workshop. The organiser, Jonah Marenlise Hölscher, from the Anna Amelia Bibliothek had visited St Pancras in early 2016.’

C.23.a.26: enlargement of late 16c binding design comprising pearls.

Following this workshop Liz pursued her idea of using standard sized phase boxes (these are archival storage boxes) lined with Plastazote®. The new boxes were made by Mark Oxtoby, Collection Care Workflow Coordinator in Boston Spa and then lined with removable Plastazote®, a type of foam. The bookbindings were wrapped in Bondina® (a smooth polyester tissue used for conservation).

C.65.k.9; enlargement of centrepiece of 16c Italian embroidered prayer book.

 

During the following period Liz and her colleague Mary Horrell, Conservation Support Assistant, consulted with colleagues from other Library departments to ensure that the change from 18c methods to the new approach was approved by all. Prototype phase boxes and bespoke inserts were constructed.

Peter Roberts, Basement 2 Manager, says: ‘The main consideration from the Operations side was how much extra storage space and what sort of storage would be needed when the items returned in expanded, padded boxes.'

‘We got an estimation of the expected dimensions, numbers and configuration of the new boxes from BLCC. We have begun moving four ranges of Case books (rare printed books) to provide enough shelf space to accommodate the new boxes and to ensure each item can be safely shelved. We recently attended a demonstration of the padded boxes so I will be able to brief my team on how to assemble the boxes and what to look out for if any parts go missing/get damaged with use.’

C.130.a.11; note the wear around the edges of the velvet covers of this 17c Danish binding and the raised decoration (called stump work).  The clasps (in the shape of a face) would cause damage to neighbouring books if not boxed.

 

The consultation stage of the project is now almost complete and a collection handling morning has taken place where Liz and Mary demonstrated the new storage solution to colleagues across the Library.

Philippa concludes: ‘I was so impressed by the way colleagues worked together, each using their individual skills and experience to ensure that these items, some of them 400 years old, last another 400 years ... at least!’

G.6319 19c French binding by Louis Janet. Enlargement shows the raised nap on the velvet covers at risk of abrasion.

 

The British Library's next major exhibition, Writing: Making Your Mark, opens 26 April and runs until 27 August 2019. In preparation for the exhibition, conservator Rebecca D'Ambrosio has been working on the conservation of one of the items which will be on display.

The story of a book through its binding

What does the cover and structure tell us about the story, provenance, use and journey of a book? Do they add value to the information it contains? The history of book binding has gone hand in hand with the history of writing. So, what happens if a covering is changed? Has anything been lost or gained? These are some of the questions we ask ourselves as conservators as we try to understand a book and consider how best to repair it.

The lost original binding: A Chinese and Western book

The book, titled Zi bu ji jie (Explanation of the Radicals of Chinese characters), introduces the concept of how Chinese writing works. It was made in a Chinese style binding in Macao, China in 1840, commissioned by an American man, Issachar Jacox Roberts as a gift for Walter Medhurst who was translating the bible into Chinese at the time.

The broken second binding: The British Library style

Many years ago the book was dis-bound from its Chinese-style binding and re-bound into a Western-style binding. The disadvantages of this binding are that it does not respect its original opening direction from right to left, it deforms the structure of the book and new sewing holes were made in the process.

In addition to all this, the western-style binding has become worn around all edges and the back board of the cover is detached.

The new conservation binding: Sympathetic to its origins

Rather than repairing the back board, it was decided with the Curator that this was an opportunity to return the book to a style of binding similar to its original.

Firstly, the spine was removed and the adhesive below was softened with the application of wheat starch paste. The Chinese book was now free of the Western binding but the remaining adhesive residue prevented the separation of the pages.

The tears and losses in the cover were repaired and the spine strengthened with a toned Japanese tissue paper and wheat starch.

Finally, because of the fragility of the book, new covers of a neutral-coloured Japanese paper were added, folded in the same way as the rest of the textblock pages. The whole was sewn together with linen thread re-using its original sewing holes and following the traditional Chinese binding pattern.

Adding to the story of a book

As conservators, knowledge of the history of the book format inspires every conservation treatment we carry out. We must take into consideration how our decisions will impact aesthetics, use and durability, historical aspect, value and significance. Every treatment will have a certain degree of impact on a book and adds to its story.

It was exciting to return this Chinese book to its original style, and learn more about its story as I added to it. Soon you will be able to see this book for yourself on display in the exhibition ‘Writing: Making your Mark’.

Rebecca D'Ambrosio

The British Library Centre for Conservation offers a number British Sign Language (BSL) tours during the course of the year. The next tour is on Wednesday 13 March at 2.00pm.
You can book your tickets from the box office +44 (0)1937 546546, by contacting the
[email protected], or by following this link: https://www.bl.uk/events/conservation-studios-guided-tour-with-bsl

Ticket information: Full Price: £6.00 and Carers go free, other concessions may be available.

This tour leaves from the main information desk at 2pm. Please be aware that there is a considerable amount of walking and standing as the tour lasts for approximately 70 minutes.

Wayne, BSL interpreter and Roger, Book and Paper Conservator. Image © British Library Board

 

Things to remember:
- Bags and coats cannot be taken into the BLCC but can be left in the Conservation Manager’s secure office
- Unfortunately, the tour is not suitable for children under 12
- There will be another tour on Wednesday 11 September at 2pm – information will be available on https://www.bl.uk/events/conservation-studios-guided-tour

British Library on Demand (BLoD) is the document supply service from The British Library. Items are purchased specifically for the purpose, in addition to the legal deposit collection, to provide remote access to over 42 million items. Users include libraries, higher education institutions, individuals and commercial customers across the UK and internationally. Launched in 1962 as the National Lending Library, with a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), at its peak in the mid - late 1990s, four million requests were received a year. Items can be supplied as scanned digital copies that are e-mailed or physical copies are sent by post.

BLoD webpage

The material in BLoD ranges in age and format. We have items that are over 100 years old, pamphlets with a few pages to directories that are five inches thick! Some items are fragile because they are older and the paper and/or structure of the item is naturally deteriorating with some damage accelerated through use. Others are new items where modern day mass production of publishing books means they do not always last very long before damage occurs.

The Post Office London Directory 1922

The Post Office London Directory 1922

Collection Care North carry out conservation repairs to the collection, which can include tear repairs, repairing the sewing of bindings, re-attaching boards and many other repairs. It is currently unknown what the overall condition of the BLoD collection is. Collection Care North are in the planning stages of a collection wide condition survey. This will not mean surveying every book, but we will end up with a snapshot overview of the collections condition.

We will sample 400 items from each of the stores that BLoD is stored in. We will place out shelf markers so we know which shelf to take an item from to assess. The 400 shelves are chosen by dividing the number of shelves with collections on them by 400.

For example, if we had 10,000 shelves:

10,000/400 = 25

So we would need to choose an item from every 25th shelf.

Shelf marker

Shelf marker

We are going to start in Building 3, where Official Publications are stored. It is one of the smaller stores, to ease ourselves in to the task and to check our methodology works how we want it to. There are over 3,500 occupied shelves in this store.

The survey will record:
•     Object type, e.g. hardback, paperback, monograph, serial, cartographic material, mixed format
•     Storage, e.g. is the item in a box; is there environmental monitoring; is the shelving adequate?
•     Condition, we use a set of four condition codes (see below)
•     Damage – physical, chemical, biological, previous repairs. E.g. Physical –torn pages, detached boards; chemical – brittle paper, light damage; biological – mould or pest/insect damage

We hope to start surveying before the end of February. Watch this space to find out about our progress!

Emily Watts

Press Release: February 6, 2019 from West Dean College.

For the 5th year, West Dean College of Arts and Conservation will be holding a series of courses devoted to The Preservation and collection care for libraries in collaboration with the British Library - the national library of the United Kingdom and the second largest library in the world.

These fascinating courses are for professionals, conservation students and those interested in
continuing professional development in this area offering access to relevant training and expertise. The first one takes place on Thursday, February 28, 2019 and focuses on Damaged books and bound archives, this is followed by a new course for 2019 - Writing and using a preservation policy on Friday, March 8, 2019 and then:

• April 23, 2019 - Dust and dirt: Strategies for prevention and management
• May 9, 2019 - Preserving Historic Photographs
• June 6, 2019 - Preventing pests by IPM
• June 19, 2019 - Disaster response and salvage
• July 22, 2019 Understanding bookbindings
• July 24, 2019 - Environment: Effective monitoring and management
• September 16, 2019 - Preservation Assessment Survey Workshop

West Dean College of Arts and Conservation is internationally respected for conservation
education, including MA Conservation Studies, and many alumni go on to work in museums and with collections of global significance.

Lizzie Neville, Head of School of Conservation, commented: “West Dean College is delighted to be able to support the delivery of training in this under-resourced area and the excellent reputation of these courses extends beyond the UK, with participants from Europe and as far afield as California and Argentina.”

Most courses are half a day or a full day and all take place at the British Library in London. Prices start at £143 and more courses will be added to the schedule during the year.

For further information and booking, see: www.westdean.org.uk or phone the Bookings Office: +44 (0)1243 818300.

We note with great sadness the death of Bernard Middleton, a towering figure in UK bookbinding with close links to the Library. 

Bernard spent much of his life working with British Library collection items at the Library’s bindery, then known as the British Museum Bindery, following his apprenticeship there.

To see some of his bindings and to hear him talk about his training please see a blog we posted in 2014 to celebrate his 90th birthday:

https://blogs.bl.uk/collectioncare/2014/10/bookbinder-bernard-middleton-celebrates-90th-birthday.html

Our thoughts and best wishes are with his family and friends.

Instructor: Minah Song, independent paper conservator (www.minahsong.com)
Date: 18th, 19th and 20th June (Tue - Thu), 2019- 3 days
Place: The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB
Enrollment limit: 12
Registration fee: 480 GBP (materials included)

This three-day intensive workshop is designed to provide both emerging and established conservation professionals with the theoretical and practical foundation for understanding Asian papers and their applications in paper conservation. The workshop consists primarily of hands-on activities with a lecture, group discussions and examinations of various Asian papers.

Participants will familiarize themselves with history and characteristics of Chinese, Korean and Japanese paper-making, including an overview of contemporary Asian paper production. Each participant will be presented with a set of different paper samples and will study the papers first hand and examine the fibers, sheet formation, alkali content and the results of different manufacturing processes and drying methods. Different Asian paper fibers will be compared with the help of microscopic images.

In a practical session, participants will make small-sized paper samples using simple tools with paper mulberry fibers and formation aid. They will also use cotton fibers as a comparison. Participants will make modern equivalent of drying board (karibari) using a honeycomb board and mulberry paper.

Participants will study and share details of various methods of repair and lining techniques using different Asian papers, depending on their opaqueness, texture, and strength, appropriate for specific objects. For example, participants will try double-sided lining with thin mulberry tissue, drying a lined object on a drying board, and making pre-coated tissue with different adhesives. Useful tips in toning techniques with acrylic paints for mulberry paper will be discussed.

For further details and online registration see:
www.minahsong.com/workshop

Contact the instructor: [email protected]

Frances Casey, PhD Research Placement

It is perhaps not widely known that the British Library has a diverse and fascinating range of textiles which span all collection areas. These textiles range from fabric covers for Torah scrolls and silk escape maps of Berlin, to a Japanese children’s book resembling a baby in a sleeping bag and Captain Cook’s samples of bark cloth from the South Pacific Islands. Yet, despite the number of textiles in the collections, many of these have not been recorded or catalogued in their own right, although most have a Library shelfmark. If textile items have been catalogued in the Library, then their descriptions can be inconsistent.

Following on from an investigation by the Library’s Textile Conservator, Liz Rose, my role as part of the British Library’s PhD placement scheme was to identify textiles in the Library and record information about them into a textile specific database. This involved referring to and searching the Library catalogues, as well as liaising with curators across collections to view textile items, photograph them, and input their details into the textile database using the Library’s shelfmark system.

Despite the wide variety of textiles in the Library, it is possible to identify three general forms that they take in the collections. These can be loosely termed: Textual Textiles; Associated Textiles; and Component Textiles – although some can be a combination of these.

Textual Textiles

As the library is primarily concerned with written content as well as images and sound, books and manuscripts comprise the main part of the Library collections. In some cases, textiles can take the form of the text and image items. For example, the theatrical playbill shown here is printed on silk. This playbill is the ‘textual’ item of interest to the library.

Theatrical Playbill, 1850 (Tab 689 a 2).

 

Associated Textiles

Textile items can also be associated with written content or image items, although they may not form the specific item of interest to the Library. For example, the Torah mantle illustrated is associated with a written Torah. This mantle may have been re-used from another purpose, and so this textile potentially has an alternative history and associations, e.g. those of design, which are in addition to those of its role as a mantle. Associated textiles are often items that have been obtained by the Library alongside text or image items, i.e. they have not been collected in their own right.

Torah Mantle, 1750-1899 (OMS/Or 13027/2).

Component Textiles: These can be Symbolic and Functional

Textiles can also be a component part of the text item: symbolic or functional. For example, the embroidered book cover shown here refers to the content of the bible through the symbolism of the cover design. It therefore has both a symbolic and functional role. There are many textile book jackets and doublures in the Library, and these textile features often add significance to the text content.

Holy Bible, 1648 (C.8.g .13).

This placement research project has emphasised that textiles are part of the story of the objects in the Library. They have a relationship to the written content, and understanding them can help us to understand that content.

Although the British Library catalogues are a rich source of textile information, there is not one foolproof or consistent way of extracting textile information from them. It is helpful to cross reference catalogues for further information, in particular textiles can be found in the Explore, Archives and Manuscripts, Illuminated Manuscripts, Digitised Manuscripts and Bookbindings catalogues.

The Textile Database

The textile specific database has been designed to incorporate details of textile features, whilst also maintain a link and reference to the existing catalogue records. The information recorded in the database includes details of the Library Division/Department/Collection; Shelfmark; British Library catalogue description; Textile related description and components; and assessment photographs. At the moment, this database is only used for in-house Library reference by the textile conservator, but there may be the potential to make this information accessible to the public in the future.

During this research, 155 shelfmarks were recorded resulting in a total of 1,074 textile items identified in the textile database. The discrepancy between the shelfmark numbers and the number of textile items is due to the way in which more than one textile can be recorded under a single shelfmark. As a result of information gathered during the placement, there are 190 more shelfmarks to add to the database, and the records associated with these are prepared for continuation of this useful research.

Bradford Manufacturing Company, cloth sample, c1880, (Evan. 7152).

In the future, the quantity of textile items recorded will continue to grow as items are discovered in the collections or acquired by the Library. As textiles are present in all collecting Divisions of the Library, and they continue to enter the collections, recording textiles is best seen as an ongoing activity rather than a finite project. Based upon the fact that textiles span the Library, it is likely that there are at least 10,000 textile items across the British Library collection, although this is likely to be quite a conservative estimate.

Aḍhāī-dvīpa, Hindi Jain cosmic diagram, 1830, (Add.Or.1814). Polychrome water based paint on cotton.

Future Research

We are then left with the question, what use might this research be put to in the future? Once textile items are identified and located, it is possible to plan for their long-term care. Preventative conservation can take place and storage needs can be assessed. It is also possible to carry out remedial conservation work. For example, as a result of enquiries into textile items in the collections, the Cosmic Jain Diagram shown here was identified for treatment to reduce folds, stabilise flaking paint and rehouse.

Information about textiles also has the potential to enrich our knowledge about the Library’s collections. It can be used to develop research and inform Library exhibitions. Research which starts with textile information has the potential to draw out associations that we might otherwise miss. This placement project therefore lays a foundation to be built upon in the future.

For further information about textiles in the Library, or to book a tour of textile items, contact Liz Rose, Textile Conservator on [email protected]