It can be very difficult to match the colours of the period as most of them were chemically applied, the book would be bound in a natural calf and then paste washed to prevent the chemicals penetrating the skin.
The skin is then washed with picric acid, a highly volatile compound that gives an even yellow reflective colour, this is changed to a medium tan by washing with "salts of tartar" (potassium tartrate).
Although I still practice the chemical applications a much safer method I use is by fermenting vegetables and vegetation extracting the pectins, colour and tannin, the spice turmeric is virtually the same yellow as picric acid, oak bark gives a mellow brown, horse chestnut is much darker, crushed green walnuts or ferrous sulphate for black, Brazil dust, woad, earth boles and pigments, cochineal , cherries, beets, more like a shopping list really. I've even boiled mahogany chippings and extracted the most amazing colour.
To begin this style of book binding the book is flexibly sewn on raised cords with laced-in boards which are splayed out and secured within.
The book is then bound in a natural vegetable tanned calf, the dyes having been strained and prepared earlier, the edges and spine are coloured before turning in. I usually "cap" the edges of the book before colouring, to prevent any accidental splashes marking the edges.
After applying the colours I make a "tallow" compound of bulls fat and other properties and coat the whole of the book, this prevents the hot tool from scorching the surface of the skin by cooling it slightly, it also acts to burnish and blacken the impression the tool leaves behind.
