The most common uninformed refrain in any scenario involving old and rare books: “why aren’t you wearing gloves?!” Bookdealers have to answer this question way too many times.

There is a very common misconception that old and rare books are supposed to be handled with white cotton museum gloves. The answer is NO! NO! Do not bother wearing gloves of any kind while handling any book (we’ll come back around to the single exception to this rule).

Books, especially books that are several hundred years old, were made to last. They were luxury items that not everyone could afford and made with quality paper, quality leathers and cloths. They have endured handling by possibly hundreds of pairs of bare hands through the centuries. They will endure for a long while more.

CLEAN, DRY HANDS. That’s all you need.

Why are gloves so bad? Because they inhibit your dexterity; books are just harder to handle with gloves, it’s very difficult to turn pages, and you lose grip. It’s easier to tear pages, it’s easier to drop the books. Also, during handling, the fibers in the gloves can rub against the pages and cause damage.

But the oils in your skin will damage the pages! Just clean and dry your hands, man. Oils are actually beneficial to leather covers, although I am sure there are more professional oils that you should use instead to keep your leather supple and less likely to dry out and flake off.

Every once in a while I’ll come across a bookdealer on Instagram sporting white gloves. I really wish they knew better. I also really don't want to come across as the asshole who chides them for it. I hope-hope-hope they are only doing it for the aesthetic, because they know normal uninformed folks will be more impressed and assume the book in question is that much more valuable. I don’t know. Frankly, that seems to be insulting to any book collector’s intelligence.

From my days as a bookdealer, we would have people come in with old books that might have been owned by their late parents, and be confused or appalled that we did not wear white gloves. In one instance my boss caved and we did get some gloves to use while the person was there. Frankly, my boss didn’t know much better, either: I was very much the specialist in old and rare books at the company.

So: the one exception. It was fairly common in the Victorian era to use arsenic to dye book covers green. From what I understand the danger isn’t too great if you handle these books with your bare hands (just clean them afterwards), but it seems to be agreed upon that it would be safer to handle them with gloves. Mostly you’ll want to avoid rubbing the book vigorously against your skin or eating any of it. But in this case, it is actually ok to don the gloves.

Just be careful and don't drop the book or rip any of the pages, please.