Christopher Clarkson’s Pioneering Work in the Development of the Conservation Book Support

ABSTRACT

By developing a modular book support system for the safe handling of open books being consulted in library reading rooms Christopher Clarkson created for the first time an awareness for the necessary support of open books. He thus contributed crucial, pioneering work for the development of conservation book supports. With Clarkson's pioneering work as the starting point, the author, together with Michaela Brand, book conservator at the German Historical Museum in Berlin, researched in a multiyear project the construction of book supports for open books in exhibitions. The project was published in 2019 as a handbook on conservation book supports and supplies information about their construction, function, manufacture, and use. The large variety of conservation book supports that has been developed since Clarkson's first idea makes clear that a single book support model cannot fulfil all the requirements that arise over time and in different places for conservation book supports. Over the years countless different, functional book support models have been developed that today are available for every exhibition design and every budget. A book support is optimal when it fulfils the essential, identified requirements of its uses.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Durch die Entwicklung eines modularen Buchunterlagen Systems, was der sicheren Handhabung geöffneter Bücher in Lesesälen dient, hat Christopher Clarkson erstmalig ein Bewusstsein für deren Notwendigkeit geschaffen. Er hat somit den ersten Impuls bzw. einen bedeutenden Beitrag zur Entwicklung von Buchstützen geleistet. Ausgehend von Clarksons Ursprungsidee hat die Autorin zusammen mit Michaela Brand, Buchrestauratorin am Deutschen Historischen Museum, Berlin, in einem mehrjährigen Projekt über die Entwicklung von Buchstützen für Bücher in Ausstellungen geforscht. Das Projekt wurde 2019 in Form eines Handbuches für konservatorische Buchstützen herausgegeben und enthält Informationen über deren Design, Funktion, Herstellung und Handhabung. Die große Vielfalt von konservatorischen Buchstützen, die seit Clarksons erster Idee entwickelt worden sind, zeigt, dass ein einziges Modell mit der Zeit nicht allen Ansprüchen an unterschiedlichen Orten gerecht werden kann. Über die Jahre wurden zahlreiche Stützen-Modelle entwickelt, die für unterschiedliche Ausstellungsdesigns wie unterschiedliche Budgets verfügbar sind. Eine Buchstütze ist optimal, wenn sie die essentiellen und genannten Vorgaben erfüllt.

KEYWORDS:

• Book Supports
• Exhibition
• Book Handling
• Book Opening Angle

SCHLÜSSELWÖRTER:

• Buchstützen
• Ausstellung
• Buch Handhabung
• Buch Öffnungswinkel

Notes

1 Books are constructed using various organic and inorganic materials, for which environmental standards of 18 to 20°C and 45 to 55% RH is recommended, allowing for small daily deviations (Kobold and Moczarski, 2012). For representative contributions to the current discussion on environmental guidelines see: Padfield (2013), Boersma et al. (2014); Burmester and Eibl (2014). Books on exhibit are exposed to light. Depending on various factors, the exposure of electromagnetic radiant energy, even if it is free of ultraviolet components, causes cumulative ageing affects that can lead to irreversible optical and mechanical damage. For further information and methods for determining light damage see: Hilbert and Fischer (2002); Fördergemeinschaft Gutes Licht ([s.d.], 2006). Light exposure must therefore be considered as an essential criterion for deciding whether a book can be exhibited or not. The risk of light exposure must be based on an assessment of the sensitivity of the materials to light and their aging characteristics. After Colby (1992), orientation aids for cellulose-based objects were further developed. See: Hilbert (2001), Ashley-Smith et al. (2002), Michalski (2013), Vinther Hansen et al. (2013).

2 Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, In die Wiege gelegt. Buchstützen für die Präsentation von geöffneten Büchern in Ausstellungen, Symposium 12–13 September 2013; Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington (DC), USA, Don’t Rock the Cradle: Books in Exhibition – Mounts, Materials, and Economy, Symposium 1–3 April 2015.

3 The handbook on the principles, designs and construction of conservation book supports by Gerhold and Brand (2019) was published by the Förderverein Papierrestaurierung (promotive association for paper conservation in Stuttgart, Germany) and is available on the publisher website (Förderverein Papierrestaurierung, 2019) with links on conservation book supports. Submissions to the authors of new relevant information are welcomed.

4 With regard to the terminology established in the “Language of Bindings”, see Ligatus 2019.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hanka Gerhold

Hanka Gerhold is working as a paper conservator at the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum for Prints and Drawings), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, since 2013. She is primarily responsible for the collection of modern art and the book collection. After her bookbinder training, she studied Conservation of Works of Art on Paper, Archive, and Library Materials at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, Germany. For her final thesis she dealt with book supports for opened books in exhibitions and systematically compiled various proven book support models. In 2014 she led a first time seminar on this topic within the training program of the Förderverein Papierrestaurierung Stuttgart (promotive association for paper conservation Stuttgart), for whom she has been working part-time since 2012.