Structure & Materials: Find out more

When we date objects we need to look carefully at their different parts. The need for well-used books to be re-bound, or the decision to rebind for aesthetic reasons, means that the binding of a book might be much newer than the pages it contains, and it is therefore important to consider the elements separately.

Objects have histories, and the way they have been treated over time can also give us further information about their usage. An object may have been heavily used or left on a shelf, or it might have been damaged, and then altered, repaired or rebound.

These factors can offer clues about how the object has been valued at different points during its history. Well-thumbed or annotated books have been well used at certain points in their history. This can highlight the centrality of the books in the everyday lives of their owners.

Image credit Leeds University Library