Hi Lydart
Ooh, lovely book!
The repair method I would use for such nice old paper (which would be cotton rag at this date) is Japanese tissue strips and wheat starch paste, but this technique takes a fair bit of practise - luckily there is a not-too-bad substitute on the market: Lineco hayaku japanese hinging tape. It's a strip of Japanese tissue with a water-activated adhesive on one side. Google the name and you'll find quite a few suppliers.
You will be able to easily tear off lengths off the tape and then I recommend that you thin them down by folding along their length and tearing in half. Getting a feathered (torn) edge on all edges of the repair strip would be ideal, if you can manage it. To make it easier, you can wet out a small paintbrush and draw a water-line along the fold before tearing (hold one side of the strip down under a ruler while you tear the other side off).
When you wet out the strips for repairing, wait until most of the moisture has dried back before placing the repair onto the page. Once the repair is on, place a clean greaseproof paper sheet over it and rub it gently with a bone folder (if you have one for your bookbinding) or the back of a spoon. Place some greaseproof paper either side of the repaired page and place the repair under weight for a few hours until it's dry. Then trim off any edges of the repair that stick out.
Hope all that makes sense! Let me know if you want any more tips.
Cheers
Prue
