Mucros Bookbindery and Paper Conservation Workshop

Mucros Book BinderySpecialists in Conservation Book Repair and Rebinding. Consult us for advice and quotations, from a 16th Century archival volume to a modern presentation edition leather binding.

Call +353 64 6670151 or Email bindery@muckross-house.ie

  • - Custom Built Bindery and Paper Conservation Lab.
  • - Limited Edition bindings in calf leather, goatskins, vellum & hand marbled papers
  • - Limited Edition bindings in silk, handmade paper and gold leaf.
  • - 24 hr disaster Response for Flood/Fire damaged paper and books.
  • - Professional Advice on safe handling and storage.
  • - Paper Conservation and de-acidification.

Visit our website: www.muckross-house.ie/conservation-bookbinder

Wednesday 25 February 2015




Front cover of Leather box

Art and Architecture of Ireland
Five volume set.

                                                        

We were recently commissioned to create a leather presentation book
box to hold the five volume set...  ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF IRELAND .
A fully illustrated account of the art and architecture of Ireland from the Middle ages to the end of the twentieth century.

The solid wood box was bound in full calf skin leather, the title and logo were tooled in gold on the cover. The interior was finished using handmade Parisian Marble papers.The box closed with a  leather book strap and brass stud.  







Leather box containing 5 volume set



















Thirteen of these boxes were required in total with each box individually personalised with names gold tooled on the cover.
The solid timber and full leather box structure was necessary due to the impressive weight of the five volume set.






Friday 20 February 2015

Glucksman Burgess Exhibition




Searching for the New Jerusalem 


Condition of cartoon prior to repair

An Exhibition of the original Stained glass Drawings from Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork.
22 November 2013 - 23 March 2014 
 Searching for the New Jerusalem presents the original preparatory drawings designed by the Victorian architect William Burges (1827- 1881) for Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork. Commissioned to rebuild
the Cathedral in 1863, Burges would go on to design the architecture, stained glass, statuary, mosaics and furniture of the building.



Conservation repairs being carried out( tape removal)

We began work on this project back in 2006. The above image gives some idea of the condition
of the cartoons when we brought them to the workshop.
Consisting of over 100 Cartoons, The pieces displayed signs of poor storage and ad hoc repairs, brown packaging tape on the verso, tears, damaged edges,and handling and display damage.






The Collection is housed in the Special collections Archive in UCC, Cork.

 A small collection of the Conserved works were displayed in the Glucksman Gallery, UCC Cork, Autumn 2013.
The Conserved Cartoons were displayed float mounted with all irregular edges exposed.This allowed  historical wear and tear and the recent 
conservation to be clearly displayed.


Display was achieved by float mounting using japanese kozo tabs through slotted microchamber acid free 1300gm boards. Average 14 tabs per item.
 The large  full length cartoons were mounted on three 2.5 mt long microchamber boards requiring over 60 japanese kozo tabs, The mounts then fixed to a specially constructed black, back wall.   



The Glucksman Gallery, Cork
Display of the Largest Format Cartoon