Trade Secrets: Recovering 19th and 20th Century Bookcloth Materials and Manufacturing Techniques

• Miranda Hermon, Art Conservation, University of Delaware

• Melissa Tedone, Art Conservation, University of Delaware

The Winterbottom Book Cloth Company of Manchester, England was one of the most successful companies in the bookcloth industry in the 19th and 20th centuries. Because the bookcloth industry was so competitive and lucrative, the techniques and materials used by the company were kept secret and unpublished, meaning that researchers and conservators today have very little accessible information regarding the topic. The Winterbottom Book Cloth Company archives house three handwritten journals kept by the Winterbottoms containing experimental techniques and materials used. The Poison Book Project, a research initiative devoted to the identification and proper storage of books containing toxic materials, would benefit greatly from access to these journals to better understand the formulation of bookcloths and the toxins that they may contain. 

This research project focused on the transcription of the journals to uncover previously unknown information about bookcloth manufacturing methods and materials. Procedure consisted of deciphering handwritten documents, typing up the transcriptions, and implementing a color-coded system of legibility. Unfamiliar terminology was noted and identified by consulting books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias from the libraries of the Winterthur and Hagley museums. Conservators and librarians were also consulted for their historical and technical expertise. The transcriptions were revised as more information was gathered. Glossaries were added to each document, defining industry terminology such as textile and chemical vocabulary. Additionally, a modernized version of the transcriptions were added to two of the documents for the purpose of better comprehension and usage in a lab setting. 

Although some words and terms remain illegible, the majority of the transcriptions were completed successfully. The documents will be extremely helpful for the experimental recreation of bookcloth in the future. They have informed ongoing research into decoding Victorian bookcloth as a trade secret to inform the better care of materials.