I recently bought some first edition old books at an estate sale, they are very dusty and dirty. Any recommendations on how to clean them up? Advice on what not to do?

Please also let me know if you have any ideas on what makes a book valuable.
Thanks!

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Originally Posted by uvware

I recently bought some first edition old books at an estate sale, they are very dusty and dirty. Any recommendations on how to clean them up? Advice on what not to do?

Please also let me know if you have any ideas on what makes a book valuable.
Thanks!

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cool! What are the books?

first you have to consider how old the books are. Do you have any sense of their history? Are they rare? Are they first or early editions? Have they been signed? Are they bound or covered in a special way? What is their condition, more or less? Are they individual books, or did you acquire a series?

if you're just talking about dust on the cover, light sweeping with a very soft, dry cloth shouldn't do any damage. There are special schools for people who make a career out of book restoration. One of my neighbors does rare and old book restoration for Harvard. If you think you have books of value and they need a significant amount of care, I would not recommend trying to do it yourself.