{"id":5073,"date":"2019-04-16T10:04:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T15:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/preservation\/?p=5073"},"modified":"2023-06-21T12:13:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T17:13:42","slug":"mystery-of-the-mismatched-covers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/2019\/04\/16\/mystery-of-the-mismatched-covers\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery of the mismatched covers"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_5074\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5074\" style=\"width: 750px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Swapped-covers-e1555425349649.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5074 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Swapped-covers-e1555425349649-1024x582.jpg\" alt=\"There are two books. The one on the left has a front cover that is bigger than the textblock and the one on the right has a cover where the leather is lighter than the spine and back cover.\" width=\"750\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Swapped-covers-e1555425349649-1024x582.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Swapped-covers-e1555425349649-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Swapped-covers-e1555425349649-768x437.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Swapped-covers-e1555425349649-600x341.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Swapped-covers-e1555425349649-1800x1023.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Swapped-covers-e1555425349649-640x364.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Swapped-covers-e1555425349649.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5074\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first book (left) has a front cover that is too large and the second one (right) has a cover that is too light.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>[ezcol_1third]<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5075\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5075\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Oversized-cover-e1555425533945.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5075\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Oversized-cover-e1555425533945-300x191.jpg\" alt=\"The first book is upside down to show that the front cover is wider and taller than the back cover.\" width=\"300\" height=\"191\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Oversized-cover-e1555425533945-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Oversized-cover-e1555425533945-768x488.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Oversized-cover-e1555425533945-1024x651.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Oversized-cover-e1555425533945-600x381.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Oversized-cover-e1555425533945-1800x1144.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Oversized-cover-e1555425533945-640x407.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Oversized-cover-e1555425533945.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5075\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The front cover that came with the first book is both too wide and too tall for the text block.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5076\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5076\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Matching-covers.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5076\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Matching-covers-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"The image shows the front cover of the first book on the left and the back cover of the second on the right. They have matching designs in the leather.\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Matching-covers-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Matching-covers-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Matching-covers-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Matching-covers-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Matching-covers-1800x1013.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Matching-covers-640x360.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/files\/2019\/04\/Matching-covers.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5076\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The mismatched front cover of the first book matches the back cover of the second.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>[\/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]<\/p>\n<p>About a month ago the conservation department received a book for repair from the John Martin Rare Book Room in the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. Beth Stone, assistant conservator, noticed that the front cover of the book did not match the back cover. It was taller and wider than the text block and the leather did not match the back cover in color or design.<\/p>\n<p>A couple weeks later another book arrived for repair, yet again with a mismatched front cover. Stone immediately recognized the back cover of this second book for the design in the leather \u2013 it matched the detached front cover of the first book perfectly. The dimensions were correct, and the sewing supports on the spine of this second book matched up with the front cover from the first.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the front cover of the second book was not a match for the first book. The cover was too tall, and the leather was a way lighter color than the attached back cover. This means instead of direct swap, there must be a third mystery book involved.<\/p>\n<p>Now, in addition to searching for the missing cover of the first book, the conservation staff has other questions to consider. The two detached front covers both have bookplates from the same owner. One cover also has signatures from other previous owners. Were these covers attached to the proper books when they were signed? Were they switched during ownership or after accession to the library? Since it is important to preserve the history of these books, these questions need to be considered before the conservation department takes further steps to repair these books. <span style=\"float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; cursor: text; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;\">[\/ezcol_2third_end]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About a month ago the conservation department received a book for repair from the John Martin Rare Book Room in the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. Beth Stone, assistant conservator, noticed that the front cover of the book did not match the back cover. It was taller and wider than the text block and the leather did not match the back cover in color or design. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":5074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12,47],"tags":[],"syndication":[52],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5073"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5275,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073\/revisions\/5275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5073"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=5073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}