When handling rare books, experts say that bare, just-cleaned hands are best. Why won’t the public believe them?
Credit... Photo Illustration by Bobby Doherty for The New York Times Christmas Decorations
Jennifer Schuessler writes frequently about rare books and recently held the Codex Sassoon in her bare hands.
Last month, The New York Times reported on an ultrarare medieval Hebrew Bible that was headed to auction with a record-smashing estimate of up to $50 million.
“Why are they handling this without cotton gloves? Shame on them,” one reader wrote in the comments section, referring to photographs showing someone touching the worn pages.
“This photo is disturbing,” wrote another. “Why is this person touching such an old book with ungloved hands?”
The alarmed tweets and emails kept rolling in. At the same time, a silent scream of exasperation arose at rare book libraries around the world.
People who handle rare books for a living are used to doing battle with a range of dastardly scourges, including red rot, beetles and thieves. But there is one foe that drives many of them particularly crazy: the general public’s unshakable — and often vehemently expressed — belief that old books should be handled with Mickey Mouse-style white cotton gloves.
“The glove thing,” Maria Fredericks, the director of conservation at the Morgan Library and Museum, said when contacted about the matter, sounding slightly weary. “It just won’t die.”
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