Binding and aging

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2391004
AutoresDaniela K Rosner (0000-0001-9448-914X, University of California, Berkeley, autor de correspondencia), Alex S Taylor (Microsoft Research, UK), Alex Taylor (0000-0001-6311-3967, Microsoft Research (United Kingdom))
Año2012
Volumen17
Número4
Páginas405-424
Fecha de publicación2012-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183512459630
OpenAlexW2028779950
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas35

In many respects, we take the age of things for granted. Age is assumed to be an inherent quality, dictated by the time a thing has been in existence and put to use. Many of us have even developed an appreciation for the wear associated with age. The worn leather covers of old books, their mottled pages and the creases along their spines are all considered, in some circles at least, to be signs of age and thus value. This article examines such ideas of age through the practices of restoration bookbinding. First and foremost, it illustrates how age can be something produced through the interleaving of both social and material practices. Age is seen here not as an intangible, definite attribute. Rather, it is something actively worked on; it is co-produced through an ongoing relationship between materials, craftsmen and the world they work in. The article focuses, specifically, on the craft of restoration binding. From 200-year-old antique books to the most mundane paperbacks, restoration binding requires that manual skills and aesthetic sensitivity be distributed between the binders, the materials and tools of the trade. However, notions of age have changed over the years and these, we hope to show, are tightly interwoven with the social and material practices that make up restoration bookbinding

Aesthetics · Antique · Art · Craft · Epistemology · Quality (philosophy · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Visual arts · Computer Science · Conservation Techniques and Studies · Philosophy · Public Spaces through Art · Visual Culture and Art Theory