Arsenic and Old Bookcloth: the Safe Handling, Storage, and Treatment of Potentially Toxic Victorian-Era Cloth-Case Publisher’s Bindings

Abstract

Analysis of decorated cloth-case publisher’s bindings at the Winterthur Library revealed bookcloth colored with “emerald green,” or copper acetoarsenite, a pigment known to be extremely toxic. This pigment’s popularity in England and the United States during the Victorian era is well documented, and while the colorant was known to be widely used in textiles for home decoration and apparel, wallpaper, and toys, its use specifically in bookcloth has not been formally explored. Conservation staff and interns at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library conducted a survey of bookcloth pigments in order to correlate the presence of emerald green and other potentially toxic pigments with specific publishers and dates. English-language books published between 1837 and 1900 align with the rising use of bookcloth on publisher’s case bindings. At Winterthur, arsenical books which were formerly housed in the circulating collection have been moved into the controlled environment of the rare book collection. Additional measures, which will be described in the poster session, were taken. A description of the project and list of arsenical volumes can be publicly accessed on the Winterthur Wiki at http://wiki.winterthur.org/PoisonBookProject. A bookmark with color swatches and information to assist with non-instrumental identification of arsenical volumes will be available as a handout during the poster session.