Posted 9 years ago
whitman75
(349 items)
This was an Estate find in a junk Box I believe since the date was in Roman Numerals ask the spine has damage and pages have Foxing that it was thrown in the dollar bin. I was very excited to get my hands on aN original 1st Edition Dickens from 1845 no matter the condition. I am no huge book collector but I love history. This will need some TLC and restoration but it's a Beautiful old book from A Master story teller.
Thanks Bruns!!!
Maybe SpiritBear would be interested in helping with the restoration. NICE find !
If the binding is still good, it wouldn't be worth buying materials to try to fix it up.
SB. My cardiologist told me something very similar today. LOL !
Thanks Spirit and Blunder the cover is attached at the bottom of the spine the pages are all attached while the cover is 3/4 loose. Just having something from Dickens is cool.
I'm afraid that it looks like some of the pages are undergoing spotting due to the bleaching agent's being acidic. When you touch it, make sure you've washed (to get oils off; if you wonder about oily fingers, just give a polished chrome finish a good touch and see what gets left behind) and dried your hands. Don't let it get into too much humidity, and don't breath on it (many coin collectors would panic if they saw you breath on a uncirculated rare coin, because our breath can, most interestingly, do severe damage). Don't put a plastic 'protective' cover on it, either, nor seal it in a bag. I put all of my rare/very old books in a cool, dark cupboard, which also helps slow any acidification in my room which has low-medium humidity (which also works great for my desert-dwelling lizard). You could displays yours well away from direct natural light, but then dust gathers more. Thankfully yours is not leather-bound, because leather is one of the hardest to store materials.
I'd advise against attempting any restoration or chemical cleaning. 99% of what most people do is very damaging in the long run and cannot be undone without causing more damage; Google does have some great tips, but it also, even on sites that seem trustworthy, have some horrible suggestions. Tape, most glues, rivets, sewing, etc.-- people try it and destroy their books. Many glues are not acid-free, or removable. Tape is not removable. Rivets and needles put in more holes, which weaken the piece.
Thanks for all the advice
Was it 1845 or 1844?
``Publisher Chapman & Hall, Publication date 1844``
``The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, a short novel by Charles Dickens, was written and published in 1844``
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chimes
What`s the difference between 1844 and 1845 in terms of ``rare books``?
Ivan I'm not exactly sure maybe one of the experts could answer that