Workshop: Italian Tacketed Stationery Bindings with Katherine Beaty

Workshop: Italian Tacketed Stationery Bindings with Katherine Beaty

During this workshop, we will explore the structure of early Italian tacketed stationery bindings based on the Medici family account book collection at Harvard Business School’s Baker Library. From the 14th through the 19th centuries, tacketed stationery books were used for day, letter, and account books. These books were designed for daily use and had to live up to the task. In this 2-day workshop, we will construct the most common style of tacketed stationery binding: a limp vellum binding with laced overbands and a fore-edge flap. The textblock will be sewn over split thongs, which will lace through the front cover and be secured under the overbands. The cover will be reinforced with stiff leather overbands, secured to the cover with decorative alum tawed lacings. During this workshop, we will discuss terminology, binding variations, and examine images from the Medici collection.

Participants should have previous bookbinding experience, and be comfortable using paper, parchment, and leather.

When: Saturday – Sunday, November 18th and 19th
Where: Third Year Studios, 369 Congress Street, Floor 6, Boston, MA 02210

Cost: $125 for GBW members, $175 for non-members

Additional materials fee of $65 due to Katherine on the first day of the workshop.

Katherine Beaty is a rare book conservator in the Weissman Preservation Center, Harvard Library’s special collection conservation facility, where she has worked for the past 10 years. Prior to her appointment at Harvard, Katherine interned at the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Harry Ransom Center. Katherine received an MA in art conservation with a specialization book from the Art Conservation department at Buffalo State College. She has taught workshops for the North Bennett Street School, for local chapters of the Guild of Bookworkers in New England and New York, and presented at the Guild of Bookworkers Standards of Excellence. Katherine has spent the last four years working on collections of early Italian account books at Harvard Business School’s Baker Library.

The workshop will be accompanied by a lecture given by Katherine: Tackets, Overbands, Lacings and Buckles: early Italian stationery bindings of Harvard’s Baker Library. The lecture will be open to the public.

Friday, November 17th. Location and time TBD.

Any questions regarding the workshop can be directed to Kate Levy at newgbwprograms@gmail.com.

For registration click here: https://gbw.formstack.com/forms/italian_tacketed_stationery_bindings_with_katherine_beaty