Renovation of family heirlooms
RESTORATION OF PRINTS, WATERCOLORS, MAPS
Imagine how wonderful it would be to pass on to your children or grandchildren the treasures that carry your family history.
Old books, documents, maps, albums and posters are not just objects – they are carriers of memories and testimonies of family history. Unfortunately, the passage of time, environmental factors and use inevitably lead to their degradation, exposing them to irretrievable destruction.
Our mission is to stop this process. We specialize in the conservation and restoration of antique books and documents. With the highest standards of work, we restore these valuable objects to their former glory and secure them for decades to come.
Consider:
What value will these souvenirs gain when future generations can hold them in their hands?
How much joy will it bring your loved ones to interact with your family’s material history?
How important is saving the testimonies of the past to our common identity?
We believe that family heirlooms should not only be an aesthetic artifact, but also an emotional bridge connecting generations. Our activities are not limited to improving the appearance – we restore the objects’ soul and authenticity.
Don’t let your heritage disappear into the shadows of oblivion. Entrust us with the care of your family treasures – we’ll make sure they retain their value, beauty and power of transmission for generations to come.
We bring old and valuable prints, valuable leather objects, especially book bindings, to a condition close to that of the period of creation.
When subjecting books and other objects to restoration, we use only hand tools, faithfully reproducing the process of making a binding in a given era, using old techniques and materials. We reglue torn and damaged pages with properly selected paper or using a method that allows us to leave a minimal amount of fastener on the original pages. We sew the book block according to the technique used in the original binding, we sew the books on a bookbinding loom on strings, thongs or ribbons. We supplement the covers of the original in leather with leather selected by species and type of texture.
Most often we follow the principle of preserving, as far as possible, all the elements of the original, for example, the decorative elements of the old leather binding are placed on the new lining pulled with appropriately selected leather.
We have all the necessary means for cleaning old prints and books.
We provide an accurate cost estimate for restoration and conservation work after a visual inspection at the studio or, upon special request, at the location where the book collection is stored.
– MOST COMMON BOOK DAMAGES
Cracking of the threads binding the pages in the block and falling out of the book, separation of the covers from the block, ripping, tearing, cracking, bending of the binding, discoloration, staining and scratching of the covers, tears, deformations, losses, stains, discoloration of pages, crusted, rotten, molded paper, soiled with losses page edges, torn capitals, faded decorations, torn and blurred signboards, traces of amateur “repairs”, etc.
This is the most common subject of work in book restoration and conservation activities.
LEATHER BINDING RESTORATION
Old leather or half-leather bindings are the most durable, beautiful and valuable bindings to this day, if they have managed to survive. A binding is the seat of a book, always open to the eager, inviting to go to the other side, a wall standing against the inconveniences of fate. So the binding clearly shows the signs of the times, the history of each book. Is it worth saving the binding if it is badly damaged, torn, dirty, partly lost? From the answer to this question we usually start our work, so that we can most effectively preserve what is most important.
The most common damages and deficiencies of bindings: tearing, cracking of the binding where the covers are bent (at the joint), tearing of the leather at the edges of the covers and corners, scratches, rubbing, insect marks, fractures of entire covers, discoloration, staining and molding of the leather, and the fatal consequences of unprofessional repairs.
REPAIR OF CLOTH COVERS
Canvas publishing bindings are often damaged. Canvas is a durable material, though less so than leather, and lends itself to rich decoration, which book publishers have taken advantage of since the mid-19th century. Colorfully printed, deeply embossed, relief-printed linen covers are usually subject to damage such as, staining, discoloration of the linen, tearing where the covers bend, the linen wipes or tears at the edges and corners of the binding, also whole covers become deformed.
RENOVATION OF PAPER PRINTS
Book pages, maps, illustrations, posters, prints and official documents.
Pages falling out of books, torn, with losses, frayed, deformed, crusted, yellowed, stained, rotted, molded pages, cards, sheets are the effects of the conditions under which the paper was found and the properties of its chemical composition and method of manufacture. The oldest papers, such as those of the 15th century, have survived to this day often in much better condition than those mass-produced in the 20th century.
Prints and colored maps, handwritten dedications, autographs, paintings on paper, i.e. watercolor, gouache, tempera, acrylic, among prints, woodcut, copperplate, etching, aquatint, linocut, lithography, intaglio, heliogravure, etc.., drawings, e.g., charcoal, crayon, sepia, pastel, as well as manuscripts, autographs, diplomas, certificates, documents, plans and handwritten sketches, bills, diaries, banknotes, postage stamps – these are objects that require special treatment due to their low durability, exposed especially to blurring, rubbing, color changes of the painting, drawing, graphic layer.
