The Holy Bible

A Holy Bible produced in the mid-17th century by John Field. The image shows the spine, cover and pages of the bible which all show signs of deterioration.
The Holy Bible Before Treatment

Cultural History

Based on inscriptions and title pages found in the book, the palm-sized Bible was printed by John Field, an English printer who was employed by the parliament led by the English military leader Oliver Cromwell, in 1653 and 1654. It was given to the Fuller Baptist Church by the Baptist Missionary Society. The Bible was likely to be carried by missionaries who had travelled to places to preach the gospel.

The Bible was fully bound in calfskin, minimally decorated using gold leaf. The text was printed using a letterpress. Before the 18th century, paper was comparatively costly in England as the material had to be imported for printing. Books were mostly unbound and sold in loose sheets or simple temporary bindings. The buyer likely brought the contents to the binder to be bound according to individual preference and budget.

Condition Before Treatment

There was significant structural damage and active loss of surface material due to exposed leather and paper fibres. The condition was unstable. The following is a summary of key observations:

  • Past restorations of using adhesive tapes on the leather cover, spine and book pages
  • Brittle and discoloured book pages along the edges with loss of paper fibres
  • Missing copper alloy fastenings and leather clasp straps
  • Abraded and discoloured leather
  • Some detached book pages
  • Presence of surface accretions, growth of mould, tide lines and dog-eared corners on pages

Treatment

Photo of Pei Pei using a soft bristle brush removing loose dust from the pages. The book is on a foam support.
Cleaning every page of the brittle and extremely thin paper using a soft brush. A bespoke cradle was fabricated using scrap blocks of inert foam to offer optimum support for the book. 
photo of removal of the tape from the leather binding. a brush is shown, used to apply solvent to the tape to loosen the bond to the leather.
Removal of old adhesive tape on leather cover.
photo of the book with the tape removed. the top cover is loose now.
After removal of adhesive tape on leather cover.
In-painting and colour matching of toned tissue paper at the joint using acrylic paints.
Final appearance of the bible after treatment. The bible was placed on a white wrapped and padded cushion on a white plinth.
The conserved Holy Bible on display at the exhibition.

Reflection By The Conservator

The most challenging part of conserving the Bible is to access the risks involved and decide on the most appropriate approach to only undertake necessary steps to preserve its values.

Headshot of Pei Pei. She is a Southeast Asian Chinese female, wearing a grey turtleneck long-sleeved top. She has mid-length dark brown hair. She is smiling.

This object was treated by Pei Pei, click on her profile to learn more about her.