{{short description|English bookbinder and conservator (1936-2020)}}
{{Infobox person | name = Anthony Cains | image = | caption = | birth_name = Anthony Gerald Cains<ref name="JPCcamp">{{cite journal |last1=Campagnolo |first1=Alberto |last2=Poirier |first2=Julia |title=A Volume in Commemoration of Tony Cains |journal=Journal of Paper Conservation |date=2021 |volume=22 |issue=1-4: Anthony Cains, Pioneering Conservator |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/18680860.2021.2023423 |access-date=11 April 2025}}</ref> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1936|12|28|df=y}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|2020|11|04|1936|12|28|df=y}} | death_place = Dublin, Ireland | known_for = | education = | employer = | occupation = Book conservator | title = | spouse = Elaine McCory (m. 1965) | children = 3 | parents = | nationality = }}
'''Anthony Gerald (Tony) Cains''' (28 December 1936 – 4 November 2020) was a bookbinder, book conservator, and director of conservation at the Library of Trinity College Dublin.<ref name="a&r">{{cite journal |last1=Baldwin |first1=Jessica |title=Anthony Cains (1936–2020) |journal=Archives and Records |date=2021 |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=217–218 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/23257962.2021.1953967 |access-date=10 April 2025}}</ref> Cains was known for his conservation and rebinding of many significant manuscripts including the 8th-century Book of Mulling for Trinity College Dublin,<ref name=gillis2016>{{cite web|last=Gillis|first=John|title=Conservation on the Book of Mulling|url=https://www.tcd.ie/library/early-irish-mss/conservation-on-book-of-mulling/|website=Trinity College Dublin|date=6 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220722221631/https://www.tcd.ie/library/early-irish-mss/conservation-on-book-of-mulling/|archive-date=22 July 2022|url-status=dead}}</ref> the early medieval Stowe Missal for the Royal Irish Academy, and the 15th-century Ellesmere Manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales for the Huntington Library.<ref name="itobit">{{cite news |title=Anthony (Tony) Cains obituary: Book binder and pioneering conservator |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/anthony-tony-cains-obituary-book-binder-and-pioneering-conservator-1.4452296 |access-date=10 April 2025 |work=Irish Times |date=9 January 2021}}</ref>
==Early life and training== Cains was born in London in 1936, the only child of Alfred and Vera Cains. He grew up in Kilburn, a London suburb. While his father served in the army during World War II, a young Cains was evacuated to the New Forest.<ref name="itobit" /> In the 1950s, he performed military service in the catering corps. He had an interest in becoming a gunsmith, but his father encouraged him to pursue bookbinding.<ref name="itobit" />
Cains studied at the London College of Printing and was an apprentice bookbinder with Messrs E. A. Neale from 1953 to 1960.<ref name="itobit" /> He worked as an assistant to bookbinder Sydney (Sandy) Cockerell (son of Douglas Cockerell) from 1961 to 1965, and then briefly as a bookbinder for HMSO Bindery in 1965<ref name="distlist2005">{{cite web |title=Montefiascone Project |url=https://cool.culturalheritage.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/2005/0096.html |website=Cons DistList |access-date=11 April 2025 |date=18 January 2005}}</ref> before setting up his own workshop in St Albans. Cains was also a part-time instructor at Camberwell School of Art and Crafts, the London College of Printing, and the Farnham School of Art.<ref name="a&r" />
==Career== Cains traveled to Italy with a team of British conservators in response to the catastrophic flooding of the River Arno in Florence in November 1966. He remained in Florence and served as technical director of conservation at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze from 1967 to 1972, managing a staff of 90 to conserve thousands of books damaged by water and mud.<ref name="icri">{{cite web |last1=McParland |first1=Maighréad |title=Tony Cains R.I.P |url=https://www.icriconservation.ie/news/tony-cains-r-i-p |website=ICRI |access-date=11 April 2025 |date=12 November 2020}}</ref>
In 1972, Cains was recruited by the Library of Trinity College Dublin and appointed Technical Director of Conservation,<ref name="a&r" /> a position he held until his retirement in 2002.<ref name="icri" /> He created the binding for The Great Book of Ireland (1989–1991), an anthology of modern Irish art and poetry, now in the collection of the University College Cork Library.<ref name="itobit" /> In the 1990s, he was involved in designing and implementing a new display system for the Book of Kells that included security and environmental controls.
In the mid-1990s, Cains, along with Christopher Clarkson and others, set up the European School of Conservation and Restoration in Spoleto, Italy, where he also taught.<ref name=gillis>{{cite journal |last1=Gillis |first1=John |title=A Master at My Shoulder: Tony Cains, Mentor |journal=Journal of Paper Conservation |date=2021 |volume=22 |issue=1–4: Anthony Cains, Pioneering Conservator |pages=6–12 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/18680860.2021.1970499 |access-date=15 April 2025}}</ref>
Cains was a founding member and later director of the Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (now the Institute of Conservator-Restorers in Ireland) and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the organization in 2014.<ref name="itobit" />
==Personal life== Cains married Elaine McCoy in 1965 and the couple had three sons. They owned a Georgian home, and Cains managed its restoration. He enjoyed fly-fishing and tied his own flies.<ref name="itobit" />
==Death== Cains died in 2020 at his home in Dublin<ref name="a&r" /> on the 54th anniversary of the 1966 Florence flood.<ref name="itobit" />
==See also== * Preservation (library and archive) * Conservation and restoration of illuminated manuscripts
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKJpDnSwzDo Anthony Cains: A Decorative Leather Covering Technique] on YouTube
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Cains, Anthony}} Category:1936 births Category:2020 deaths Category:20th-century English male artists Category:20th-century English educators Category:21st-century English male artists Category:21st-century English educators Category:Academics of Camberwell College of Arts Category:Academics of the London College of Communication Category:Academics of the University for the Creative Arts Category:Alumni of the London College of Printing Category:Artists from Dublin (city) Category:Artists from the London Borough of Brent Category:Artists from the London Borough of Camden Category:Bookbinders Category:Book conservators Category:English expatriates in Ireland Category:English expatriates in Italy Category:English founders Category:Library of Trinity College Dublin Category:Organization founders Category:People associated with Trinity College Dublin Category:People from Kilburn, London