Rebinding an old dictionary

A neighbour brought me a 1932 pocket dictionary with a broken spine and a cover held by tape. Two weekends later, it opens flat again.

The text block was in good shape: sewn on tapes, with only a few loose signatures near the front. The real damage was the cover, cracked along the joints from ninety years of being opened in a hurry.

The steps

1. Remove the old cover and the tape residue, slowly, with a bone folder and patience.
2. Resew the three loose signatures onto the original tapes.
3. Line the spine with mull and a strip of kraft paper.
4. Make a new case in grey bookcloth, with the old paper label saved and reapplied.

The hardest part was not technical. It was resisting the urge to make it look new. A dictionary that has been used for ninety years should look like it.

When I gave it back, my neighbour opened it at random, read the word sedulous out loud, and smiled. That was the whole point.