I was at a book fair in Boston and saw a 200 year old binding fall apart in someone's hands.

4 comments

4 Comments

That's the saddest magic trick I've ever heard. Pull a book off the shelf and it turns into confetti. Guess 200 years is the warranty on old paper and glue. Should have kept it behind glass with a "do not touch" sign the size of a poster. Bet the person holding it wanted to melt into the floor right then and there.

theas283mo ago

Wanted to melt into the floor" is putting it lightly. But it makes me wonder, who even decides what gets handled and what stays behind glass? Like, was that book just sitting there waiting for this to happen because someone messed up the rules, or was it a total accident no one saw coming? Feels like there's a bigger story about how we treat old stuff. Do we risk losing it by letting people touch history, or lose the meaning by locking it all away forever? That book turning to dust is the worst possible answer to that question.

logan_gonzalez3mo ago

Was it insured for that?

simonk9821d ago

Insurance only covers stolen or damaged items if you have a specific rider for fragile antiques. Standard renter's or homeowner's policies won't pay out for accidental dusting like that unless you can prove negligence. Most people don't realize you need a separate appraisal and add-on policy for anything over 100 years old. The real question is whether the library or archive had it scheduled on their collections insurance as a "handled" item. If it was listed as a reference copy instead of a restricted artifact, they probably only got a few hundred bucks for a book worth thousands. The lesson here is to always check the fine print on what your policy actually covers for old materials.