German 1939 Aviation Book

[stuartcox]

I was given an old German aviation book, published in 1939, in a rather sorry state.
Now I need some advice on what to do with it...
The adverts are quite stunning and almost art! But the book is falling to pieces.
Should I cut these out and preserve them behind glass frames or keep the book as a whole?
The page format is A3, so quite large.
These are just a few...:

Attachment 70247 Attachment 70248 Attachment 70249

[stiz]

personaly, it'd depend what the rest of the book is, if its not that rare etc then i'd put em behind glass, if its a rare book then i'd prolly pay to have to re-bound .. but that costs a fair bit :isadizzy:

[stuartcox]

Hi Stiz,

It's not really 'valuable' in monetry terms, but I find the Nazi propaganda adverts historically worth keeping!

Found the same book on this auction site:
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/4440613

Stuart

[OBIO]

If I had that book.....I would buy a lot of large frames, some acid free backing, and get busy decorating our place with really cool vintage aircraft and propaganda pages.

OBIO

[glh]

Depending upon how attached you are to that book, you could always donate it to a museum affiliated
with some aspect of English aviation history associated with the WW2 period.

[Lionheart]

I used to be a pro framer and had framed and created cases for such artifacts.

Note, instead of taking the book apart for work to frame, how about scanning instead? Scan a page nicely onto photo paper. Maybe even touch it up in Photoshop and frame that instead. Leave the book intact.

As Tim said, use all acid free materials if you frame it.

You can frame it many ways. Some will be expensive. A small frame shop will probably know how to do neat cases that can be reopened when you want to take the book out. Usually you would need a box that it fits into inside the frame and then the glass fits over it. Best to never let the glass press against the book as it has a tendency to bond/adhere to the glass and destroys it when you try to pull it apart. Glass is a crystal that will transfer sweat of condensation, which glues the book to glass over time.

Enjoy the book!


I once framed a newspaper, the day President Abraham Lincoln had died. The newspaper had been in that family, in a safe, for ages, and was disentegrating. I sewed the newspaper to a dark suede mat (looks like fuzz, neat material) and had just behind the paper, a thick, acid free sheet of protection paper backing. The small pieces of paper that were broken off (still in the folds) I also sewed in, using special super thin plastic twine, like fishing line, acid free also. Took a day or two to get it all together, looked brilliant when it was done in the box case frame. UV Glass also to keep UV damage from occurring. (Slows it down, mainly).

[stuartcox]

Thanks for all of your replies!
Well appreciated :salute:

The scanning solution was my first thought, but it's in A3 - too large for my scanner.
I think I will go for Tim's more radical suggestion, and cut it up carefully.
I would love to see some of the originals hanging on my wall.

Cheers again, Stuart

[OBIO]

I had an old book on WW2, The Photographic Time Line of World War Two....or something like that. The book binding was totally nuked, the covers looked like they had been used to potty train a full litter of Snauzers and then used as a teething ring for a Bengal Tiger. I was going to remove some of the nicer full page pictures, which were full 8 by 10, and frame them up in black wood frames. But, we had a garage sale earlier this year....and I added that book to the pile of stuff I was putting into the garage sale. Got $10 out of the book.....which was a $9.75 profit.

Also in the garage sale was a first edition/first printing copy of the Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs. In great condition. With the original dust jacket. This book I kick myself in the butt for letting go for $5.00. I recently found out that the book....being a true 1st edition, with original dust jacket, in great condition with no tears, no folded pages, no mold or stains....has a value of between $1000 and $1500. Talk about a great big OUCH!

OBIO

[thunder100]

I was given an old German aviation book, published in 1939, in a rather sorry state.
Now I need some advice on what to do with it...
The adverts are quite stunning and almost art! But the book is falling to pieces.
Should I cut these out and preserve them behind glass frames or keep the book as a whole?
The page format is A3, so quite large.
These are just a few...:

Attachment 70247 Attachment 70248 Attachment 70249

And you coud do the community a big(ger) Favour and scann the pages(every copy machine may do that) before you frame them

Roland

Vienna/Austria

[ian elliot]

The scanning solution was my first thought, but it's in A3 - too large for my scanner.

if you have a resonnable quality digital camera, and maybe a tripod, try taking pics, in natural light rather than using flash, then you can play with retouching and resizing on your pc.
cheers ian