AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Every batch of rare items that our lab receives from the Special Collections Library has a surprise. From artist books in odd shapes to miniatures that require specialized support, there’s always a new challenge. When we received two 18th century Spanish antiphonals we knew we were in for a challenge. After the conservation treatment was done, we still had the hurdle of housing. We needed an enclosure that would be lightweight, since the books were already large and difficult to handle. We also needed to protect the protruding metal furniture on one of the volumes.

We made two quilted book cozies which are modifications on a design made by Mary Baughman in 1996 at the University of Texas at Austin. In our case, we used a pre-quilted fabric from Test Fabrics, Inc. to speed up construction and inserted custom-cut ethafoam supports for the elaborately decorated covers.

This poster will include details of the construction and changes we made and provide advice for others who want to construct similar housings for oversized books.