This well-loved children’s book was in very poor condition and was  held together securely with masking tape –  in fact there was masking tape or selotape on every page. The two pastedowns were the first and last pages of the book so had to be saved.   And because so much of each page was illustrated, it was important to save as much of the original pages as possible.  All edges were worn and ragged and the sewing was coming adrift.

The boards were removed, the book was disbound, and the masking tape was lifted off destroying all inner folds.  Every folio needed to be guarded (ie centre fold reinstated) with Japanese paper; page tears were repaired with Japanese paper; the text block was resewn; a new case was made using existing covers and new buckram cloth for spine; the fore-edge was trimmed 3mm; book re-cased; fragile spine paper containing title was photocopied and the photocopied spine glued to new spine.