Endpapers: Book Binding Through the Ages

Join renowned bookbinder Brian Cole in the Archive, as he explores the history of bookbinding.

Find out how and why various innovations have been introduced throughout the centuries to arrive at the books we now use and read every day. From methods of sewing and binding, to the tools and materials used, this is a hands on exploration of bookbinding through the ages.

Your ticket price includes access to the talk and object presentation with Brian, followed by a Q & A session and an exploration of the Archive and some of its very own bookbinding gems.

This session is suitable for participants over 16 years of age.

About Brian

Having initially trained at Grimsby College of Art under Mark Ramsden, head conservator at Aberdeen University, Brian Cole established The Castle Bindery in Whitby in 2005. Working mainly on conservation projects for organisations such as the Captain Cook Memorial Museum, Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society and the Lady Lever Gallery in Port Sunlight, Brian went on to work as in-house bookbinder and conservator at the Leeds Library where he established a bindery, trained volunteers in basic repairs and also introduced the use of archival phase boxes and paper de-acidification using colloidal calcium hydroxide.

He has carried out workshops on phase box construction at the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society and on cloth repairs at the Elizabeth Gaskell House Museum.

In 2016 he collaborated with artist Martino Gamper for a project for the British Art Show 8 at Leeds Art Gallery and the Festival Hall, London.

Publications:

Conservation of Books at the Leeds Library, Through the Pages, Ed. Ruth Robbins & Christopher Webster, 2018. The Leeds Library

Cedric Chivers and the Duro-flexile Library Binding, The Bookbinder, Vol.33, 2018, the Society of Bookbinders

Aspire to the Beautiful, The life of Cedric Chivers, 2020, Second Beck Press

Host or Publisher Sunny Bank Mills