About Amanda

Amanda Lancaster is a book and paper conservator working in Cambridge, London, and across the UK. Her practice brings together conservation treatment, material research, craft history, and close object study.

Her work spans rare books, archival documents, manuscripts, prints, and ephemera. She is particularly interested in how an object’s materials, structure, function, and historical context inform both its use and its conservation. Her approach combines hands-on treatment with historical and technical research, supporting both the physical stability of objects and a deeper understanding of their material context.

Conservation practice

Trained at the City & Guilds of London Art School, Amanda specialises in the conservation of printed and manuscript materials. She works with private clients, collectors, archives, libraries, and cultural organisations, offering object treatment, condition assessment, collection surveys, and practical advice for the care, handling, and display of books and paper materials.

Recent projects have included seventeenth-century bindings, archival and manuscript material, collection surveys, and ongoing research into East Asian paper traditions, historical craft processes, and konnyaku-treated paper.

Amanda’s background in Art History, studied at UCLA and Birkbeck, University of London, continues to shape her approach to conservation. Treatment decisions are guided not only by condition and function, but also by historical context, evidence of use, and the integrity of the object as a made thing.

Teaching, writing and material research

Alongside conservation practice, Amanda teaches and writes about books, paper, and material culture. Her teaching and workshops explore historical materials, East Asian paper and book traditions, conservation methods, and the relationship between material science and heritage practice.

Her writing explores the material histories of books, paper, craft, and conservation, from public-facing research notes to longer essays and commissioned articles.

Through conservation, teaching, research, and writing, Amanda’s work aims to make the material life of objects more visible, supporting both their long-term preservation and a more informed understanding of their material context.

Have an object, collection survey, workshop, article or collaboration in mind?