“The deal was cancelled”

Two quotes dated 4 March 2009, handrwitten in one of my notebooks:

“The author recalls asking an American buyer of a Gould bird book for shipping instructions, and we were told to keep the covers and send the contents. The deal was cancelled and the book was eventually sold elsewhere.”

-John Maggs, “Conservation priorities: a bookseller’s view,” in Petherbridge (1987) Conservation of Library and Archive Materials and the Graphic Arts, p. 232.

“A codex book is an object constituted of multiple and separable components; gatherings, binding construction, metal furniture, fastenings, etc. Combined, these form numerous subtleties of historical interest and theoretical evidences, indicating period fashion and provenance; divided, they lose much of their meaning and power to conjure human thought. Bibliographical integrity is not something we can dismantle and recreate. Judged in this way, the integrity of the individual volume is only as strong as its most fragile part; as with a painting when only one colour may fade but the artists’s intention is altered forever, leaving its integrity fragmented.”

-Christopher Clarkson, “Conservation priorities: a library conservator’s view,” in Petherbridge (1987) Conservation of Library and Archive Materials and the Graphic Arts, p. 236.