Design, Production, Sample Chapters
Design and Production
The book is set in 11 pt Minion. A contemporary typeface designed by Robert Slimbach, Minion is inspired by old style typefaces of the late Renaissance, a period of beautiful and highly readable type designs. It is a warm, well balanced face that combines classic tradition with modern functional elegance.
The large, 8.5 x 9 inch page format leaves generous room for the 1300 photographs and 200 technical drawings. The bindings will be sewn and cased for durability and to ensure the volumes open flat for ease of consultation. The boards will be covered with a high quality, tightly woven linen cloth and each volume will be individually slip cased.
In keeping with the conservation-minded principles governing the project, the book will be printed with soy-based inks on high quality, non-coated, acid-free, post-consumer recycled paper that is 100% ancient-forest free, processed chlorine-free.
Sample Chapters
These two sample chapters will provide a better idea of the book’s format and the breadth of its content from theoretical reflection to technical application:
- Reversibility: A Fragile Concept
- by Robert L. Barclay
- Replacing a Pearl Eye in the Frog: An Improved Method Using Hydrochloric Acid
- by David Hawthorne
Robert L. Barclay holds an interdisciplinary PhD from the Open University (UK) and held posts of conservator and senior conservator at the Canadian Conservation Institute from 1975 to his retirement in 2008, specializing in the care and preservation of wooden objects, historic and technical artifacts, and musical instruments. He lectures extensively on the conservation of historic collections for Canadian and overseas audiences and his work has been recognized with awards such as the 1993 Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize of the American Musical Instrument Society for his book The Art of the Trumpet-maker (Oxford 1996), the 2002 Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal “for contributions to the care and conservation of historic musical instruments,” and the 2003 Anthony Baines Memorial Prize of the Galpin Society for services to organology. He is also the author of The Care of Historic Musical Instruments (CCI/CIMCIM, 1997), The Preservation and Use of Historic Musical Instruments (Earthscan, 2004), and of four articles in the present publication: “Museum or Concert Hall: Pragmatic and Aesthetic Views”; “Documentation of Stringed Instrument Repair", "Cyanoacrylate Adhesives in Bow-Making and Repair”; and “Cleaning and Gluing of Bone, Ivory, Horn, and Tortoiseshell.”
David Hawthorne grew up playing the violin and began making instruments from an early age. He studied bow making under William Salchow and Stéphane Thomachot. For six years, he worked at Reuning & Sons Violins in Boston as head of the bow department, specializing in fine restoration. David Hawthorne holds degrees in music from the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory in Boston. One of his violin bows received a Certificate of Merit at the 2002 Violin Society of America competition.