Fonds RAS COLL8 - Royal Asiatic Society Collections Conservation

The British Library was created on 1 July 1973 as a result of the British Library Act 1972. Prior to this, the national library was part of the British Museum. The library is located on Euston Road, London, The British Library is a major research library, with items in many languages and in many formats, both print and digital: books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, videos, play-scripts, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings. The Library's collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial holdings of manuscripts and items dating as far back as 2000 BC. The library maintains a programme for content acquisition.

The Royal Armouries Museum, home to the national collection of arms and armour, is Britain's oldest museum. One of the ancient institutions of the Tower of London, its origins can be traced back to the working armoury of the medieval kings of England. The royal armours of Henry VIII, Charles I, Charles II and James II form the heart of the collection and are among its greatest treasures.

Green Street Bindery is part of the bindery of Alfred Maltby & Son Ltd. which was founded in 1834 by Henry Maltby and Charles Bloxham, and the first workshop was based in St Helen’s (Hell) Passage, New College Lane, Oxford.

Since then, three generations of Maltbys have passed through the business: Alfred Maltby, Alfred Henry Maltby and Raymond Maltby. In 1944 Maltby’s acquired the business of J. H. Fensham, Law Bookbinders, of Featherstone Buildings, Holborn, London, who bound for the Inns of Court. This is still a valuable part of the Company’s business.

Ronald Clargo MBE joined the firm in 1952 and was Managing Director when he retired in 2002. The present Managing Director, Tony Tanner, formed Green Street Bindery in 1982, and Green Street and Maltby’s became sister companies in 2002. The two companies trade under the umbrella of the Kemp Hall Bindery Group.

Whereas Maltby’s is a hand bindery specializing in single copies or a small number of copies, Green Street is a mechanical bindery producing hundreds or thousands of hardback books. The two binderies often combine when a client requires, say, 500 cloth bound copies plus 5 specially bound in leather. These leather bound editions are often for Royal Libraries.

The Wyvern Bindery is a small bindery situated on Hoxton Street, London, dedicated to preserving high standards of craftsmanship. Using traditional skills, they aim to produce quality work tailor made to our client's specific requirements for design, budget and deadline. It moved to the Hoxton Street premises in 2020 having previously been situated on Clerkenwell Road.

Nicholas Pickwoad has a doctorate from Oxford University in English Literature. He trained in bookbinding and book conservation with Roger Powell, and ran his own workshop from 1977 to 1989. He has been Adviser on book conservation to the National Trust of Great Britain since 1978, and was editor of the Paper Conservator.
He taught book conservation at Columbia University Library School in New York from 1989 to 1992 and was Chief Conservator in the Harvard University Library from 1992 to 1995. He is now project leader of the St Catherine’s Monastery Library Project based at the University of the Arts, London and is director of the Ligatus Research Centre, which is dedicated to the history of bookbinding. He gave the 2008 Panizzi Lectures at the British Library, was awarded the 2009 Plowden medal for Conservation and is a Fellow of the IIC and of the Society of Antiquaries. He also teaches courses in the UK, Europe and America on the history of European bookbinding in the era of the hand printing press, and has published widely on the subject. (Information taken from the Website of the Institute of English Studies: https://ies.sas.ac.uk/people/professor-nicholas-pickwoad

Caroline Bendix is an accredited freelance library conservator with 40 years’ experience, working for major national conservation bodies, (many on a continuing consultancy basis), cathedrals, churches, synagogues, learned societies and institutions, museums, historic houses, private collections, universities, municipal collections, schools, the Government, Historic Royal Palaces and independent libraries. (information taken from Bendix Library Conservation website: https://bendixlibraryconservation.com/about-caroline/).

Jonathan Rhys-Lewis is a self-employed, preservation and collections care consultant with over 35 years experience both within local government and as self-employed consultant. He is a professionally qualified archive conservator and an accredited member of the Institute of Conservation. He works with organisations to offer specialist advice on the preservation management of paper-based materials in heritage collections. (Information taken from his website: https://www.jonathanrhys-lewis.co.uk/about.php.)

Deirdre Mulley was educated at UCW Aberystwyth, The University of Edinburgh, Gateshead Technical College and the Courtauld Institute followed by a studentship at the Tate Gallery. She has previously run the studio at The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, and a conservation advisory service for South Eastern Museums Service. She is a PACR Accredited Conservator, by Icon, the professional body for conservation in the UK. Deirdre Mulley has extensive experience in assisting a diverse range of private collectors, museums, art galleries, historic homes, churches and other institutions in ensuring their collections will be conserved for future generations. (Information taken from her website: https://www.mulley.adrianbe.com/.)

The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Sir Henry Thomas Colebrooke on the 15th March 1823. It received its Royal Charter from King George IV on the 11th August 1824 'for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia'. It continues as a forum for those who are interested in the languages, cultures and history of Asia to meet and exchange ideas.