Japanese paper in book repair

Randy Silverman <rsilverm [at] alex__lib__utah__edu> writes

>I would deeply appreciate assistance in documenting the earliest use
>of Japanese paper for mending book paper.

I can't help Randy with an earlier date for the use of Japanese
paper in book repair, but I do have documentation of its use in the
1920s in the United States.

The reference is:  Kidd, Donal M.  Bookcraft: A New Industrial Art
Subject. Syracuse: Gaylord Bros., 1926.

This guide to book repair has a product section that includes
"margin paper" ("a special cream tinted Japanese Tissue cut in
convenient strips..."), and the illustrated manual shows how it can
be used mend tears and "to repair ragged margins, bites, and rumpled
pages." Techniques include using a feathered edge and creating
infills.  Interesting to see that Japanese paper was commercially
available from a major supplier.

Nancy Schrock
Chief Collections Conservator
Harvard College Library
Widener Library - Room D25
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-8871
Fax: 617-495-0403

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:51
                Distributed: Tuesday, December 15, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-12-51-014
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