The Ox Bindery was commissioned to rebind account books, guestbooks, staff wages, shares, cellar books, inventory and valuation ledgers, some dating back as far as 1869.
We collected the books from the ‘little museum’ – which was an annex of the old hotel lobby – and brought them to our studio in the Ox Mountains. The conservation, rebinding and gold tooling was carried out over a period of 5 months and finished in time for the re-opening of the new lobby. The new Shelbourne Hotel lobby was designed by the renowned interior designer Guy Oliver and the rejuvenated ledgers will feature prominently in a made to measure cabinet behind the reception desk.
Collecting books from the Shelbourne Hotel
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Valuable Guest books
1914 guest register and the 1916 guest register. Guests were locked in the hotel during the Easter rising
The ledgers in our studio
Ledgers in progress (top left) or in waiting (middle). A batch of goat skins for the new covers (front)
Dismantling the ledgers
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The old covers now obsolete…
Dog ears, paper repair and spillage of tobacco!
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Resewing and reinforment stitching
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Affixing loose sections with thread and needle… 
…or with PVA and a different needle.
Spine cleaning and adding new sewing supports
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Making new end leaves, sewing onto the text block and trimming to size.
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The final trim of the new endleaves.
New spine linings
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New mill boards, with rounded corners and edges
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Making ledger type ‘springback’ spines
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Leather
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Pressing
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Linen
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Almost finished…
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Goldtooling
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