Recently, Bainbridge Conservation, a London-based business, has been working on stabilising and repairing Pepys’s bookcases (or “presses” as he called them) at Magdalene College. They contain his thousands of books and manuscripts, and need to be moved temporarily during building works.
They documented some of the process on their Instagram account and have kindly allowed me to share the photos from the two posts here.
In January 1667, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary, “The truth is, I have bought a great many books lately to a great value; but I think to buy no more till Christmas next, and those that I have will so fill my two presses that I must be forced to give away some to make room for them, it being my design to have no more at any time for my proper library than to fill them.”
By his death the collection was 3,000 printed books and manuscripts in 12 presses, or bookcases, arranged by size. He left the library to Magdalene College with the conditions that it be left exactly as-is, no books rearranged or removed. The furniture team has been working to stabilise the presses and dismantle them to move them temporarily out of the library while major building works are carried out (see link in bio for more on this and the fundraising appeal). Luckily the bookcases were designed to be taken apart, but this still required repairs to loose and detached elements of the woodwork, removal of panels attached to the back in the 1970s as a fireproofing measure, and repairs to the glass doors.
To stabilise the breaks in the glass doors on Pepys’ bookcases, we brought in Tiago Oliveira. He lightly cleaned the broken glass panes and break edges, then had a tricky job of aligning the misaligned sections within the wooden doors. He held them in place with strips of sellotape and then dotted conservation-grade clear epoxy resin over the break edges. Capillary action sucks the adhesive in place. This procedure both ensures the safety of the glass panes, making opening and closing the door less risky, and also improves the appearance of the break: the resin minimises the mirror effect on the break edges, making it less noticeable.
All photos copyright Bainbridge Conservation. Visit them on Instagram.
1 Comment
Third Reading
Nicolas • Link
Such beautiful books, thank you. They must’ve cost Pepys a fortune.