Leather Reback with Previous Repair

I picked this book off the cart because it had a lot of previous repairs. The sewing had broken and the text block was in two pieces. The sections closest to the break were being held in place with pressure sensitive tape. Being a tight backed book, the spine had also broken. The book was being held together by what looked like maroon duct tape. This tape was also on a few pages in the first section. There was also approximately ten pages of images, which had be cut down and taped together, in a random order, with pressure sensitive tape behind the title page.

I began be removing the tape from the spine. The adhesive was delaminating, so it peeled off easily, but did leave some residue on the leather. Next I removed the pressure sensitive tape from the pages of the text block with a tacking iron. I repositioned the now loose folios, cleaned the spine, and lined it with Japanese tissue and linen. Then I repaired the sewing at the break.
I worked on the images while my spine liners were drying. I removed the tape from all the images and lined the sheets with heat set tissue. The images were on single sheets, which I collated and guarded together. Then I tipped them on to the front of the text block with a thin strip of Japanese tissue.
Then I lifted the leather on the cover and attached the text block via the linen. I constructed a new spine piece from linen lined Morike and added a 10 pt board stiffener. I attached this under the leather, the glued the leather back down. Finally, I put some PVA and Japanese tissue on the corners to reshape them, and covered the linen hinge with a strip of Japanese tissue (paste).

This book was an experiment in toning techniques for leather. I toned the new spine piece prior to attaching, and I tried to stipple a variety of hues to better match the leather. My colors were a little light for this book, but overall I was pleased with how it looked. I plan on trying this technique again on other books.