A Wave from the Past

ABSTRACT In this paper, 31 sample books in the collection from Museum the Lakenhal in Leiden, the Netherlands will be investigated for their curious form of deformation: the bookblocks of all the 31 Lakenhal sample books are heavily deformed, with the pages curling up, down and around each other, almost like a wave. All the books are examined to determine a possible cause for this deformation. Both external causes, such as water damage, as well as internal factors and problems caused by their construction will be considered. To aid the search for a possible explanation for the deformation, a reconstruction was made of the bookblock to see how the pages move in relation to each other and to the bookblock as a whole. The reconstruction also illustrates how the addition of samples on the pages inhibits the movement of the pages and how they fall into place when the book is closed. The spatial distribution of the samples on the page, and the empty space this leaves between samples and pages, appears to cause problems in the bookblock.