Conserving the Oldknow Book: History, Heritage and Treatment 

By Amber Russell and Zoë Lanceley

Oldknow SO 15/11 is no ordinary sample book. This tiny, pocket-sized catalogue from the late 18th century once helped drive the booming, fiercely competitive cotton trade in Manchester, then the beating heart of Britain’s textile industry.

Oldknow book before conservation work.

At the centre of that world was Samuel Oldknow (1756–1828), one of the most ambitious and influential industrialists of his day. Oldknow revolutionised muslin and cotton production in England, blending mechanised mill work with cottage industry to produce fine fabrics that could finally rival Indian imports. Oldknow’s story also reflected the volatility of his time: although he helped transform the British textiles industry, his enterprises were eventually undone by debt amid price wars and shifting global demand. 

The Oldknow Book (catalogue reference SO 15/11) is a rare survivor from this era of innovation and risk. Likely carried by a sales representative, it is a compact, portable textile sample catalogue designed to display cotton swatches produced at the Oldknow mills. Each fabric sample is unique: the checked designs, created by weaving undyed and indigo-dyed cotton in varying proportions, range from regular gingham-style patterns to more irregular, experimental designs. These variations reflect both the artistry and the technical precision of late-18th-century weaving. 

The book also holds a deeper, more complex story. Cotton textiles like these, produced to imitate popular Indian imports, were exported from Manchester via Liverpool to West Africa, where they were exchanged for enslaved people. Known as “Manchester Checks”, these fabrics were part of a global network of trade, industry, and exploitation that linked British manufacturing to the transatlantic slave trade. Today, the book serves as tangible evidence of this interconnected history of commerce, innovation, and human cost. 

Condition and Challenges 

When the Oldknow Book arrived at the Collection Care Lab it bore the scars of its long and eventful life. Years of handling, water damage, mould, and pest activity had left it in a fragile condition, so much so, that it could not be fully opened for study. The edges of each page were disintegrating, mould was active, and pest damage had caused severe losses to the paper, fabrics, and binding structure. 

Yet even in its damaged state, the object held unexpected beauty. During examination, conservators Zoë (textile conservator) and Amber (book conservator) discovered that the pest trails formed intricate, almost whimsical shapes. Finding dancing men, dogs, snails, fish, and even a love heart fittingly spotted on Valentine’s Day. These accidental artworks served as poignant reminders that damage, too, can tell its own story.

Left: Oldknow SO 15/11 (leaf 8) an example of evidence of mould and pest damage
Right: Close up of “Our Little Dancing Man” a favourite pest drawing found during disbinding.

Conservation Strategy and Treatment 

The first stage of treatment was irradiation. The book was sent to Harwell for this process to safely eliminate active mould spores and all pests (alive and dead) without further compromising the delicate materials. 

Next came disbinding, which involved removing the sewing from the spine and separating each folio. A crucial step to allow thorough condition assessment. The process revealed that the sewing of only seven central folios remained attached by a single pamphlet stitch, while outer folios, particularly folio 1, were heavily fragmented and fused by mould accretions. Once disbound, treatment was divided naturally into paper and textile work. 

Zoë working on the “bridge” between fabric and paper.

Textile conservation began with surface cleaning using a museum vacuum, followed by gentle humidification and repositioning to improve legibility and structural coherence. The cotton samples were remarkably resilient compared to the surrounding paper, which required consolidation in several places with funori, a seaweed-based adhesive, to support weakened fibres. In severely compromised areas, such as folio 1, toned Japanese tissue was used to bridge losses in the cloth where both paper and textile had deteriorated.

The “bridge”: Japanese tissue toned to the blue of the indigo dyed.

Paper conservation involved dry cleaning with smoke sponges and soft brushes, with local flattening achieved using Industrial Methylated Spirit (IMS) under light weights. Early stabilisation tests with Klucel G and remoistable tissues proved unsuitable, as they either lacked strength or caused buckling. The most successful repair method used RK00 Japanese tissue, toned to match the original paper and applied with a fine layer of wheat starch paste (WSP). This combination offered flexibility, strength, and a visually discreet finish. 

Example of a finished folio with large amount of paper repairs along the edges.

Every folio was photographed creating a complete digital record of the book in its disbound state. This digital surrogate now provides global access for researchers and reduces the need for direct handling of the fragile original. 

Reassembly and Access 

After treatment, the decision was made not to resew the book. Although resewing with a pamphlet stitch would have been historically accurate, it would have introduced stress to weakened areas and limited accessibility. Instead, the folios were refolded and rehoused in protective boxes, respecting the book’s original format while allowing for safe handling and study. 

This approach balances preservation and access, ensuring that the object’s physical structure is stabilised while its evidential and research value remains intact. The full photographic documentation allows the book’s contents to be viewed online, opening this extraordinary object to scholars, conservators, and the public worldwide. 

Left: A picture taken during the digitisation process to show the extent of the pest damage
Below: A portrait of a bookworm? By: Beetle.

Interpretation and Legacy 

Beyond its physical conservation, the Oldknow Book offers a unique lens into the intersection of industry, artistry, and global history. The object embodies the material culture of early industrial capitalism. Its ingenuity, its fragility, and its complicity in global systems of exploitation. 

For conservators Zoë and Amber, the project was about more than preservation. It was about revealing layers of meaning and how something so small could carry within it stories of technological progress, economic ambition, and human endurance. 

CANDID MOMENT: Conservator Zoë showing the disbound folios to a group of academics and researchers, including Arianna Tozzi, studying Indian Cottons and Edmond Smith, curator of the upcoming Cottonopolis exhibition in Nov. 2025.

As they worked, they saw not just loss, but life: traces of the people who made, handled, and traded these textiles centuries ago. Thanks to their careful treatment, the Oldknow Book can now continue to inform and inspire, an enduring testament to the skill of its makers, the complexity of its history, and the craft of conservation itself. 

The conservation of Oldknow SO 15/11 underscores the vital role of interdisciplinary collaboration between conservators, curators, and historians. Through such efforts, fragile artifacts like this one can survive, not only as relics of the past but active participants in our understanding of Britain’s industrial and global heritage. 

Oldknow SO 15/11 is on display in Cottonopolis: the origins of global Manchester, a free exhibition at the John Rylands Library. Open until Saturday 9 May 2026. The exhibition is curated by Edmond Smith, author of the book Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power, 1600-1800.