Did I mess up? My restored Daguerreotype case spine

I received my dag back today from its restoration and I am very very impressed with the level of restoration/conservation this piece received. The picture looks amazing and I couldn't be more pleased. However..... I ran into something I am not sure about. I don't know if I screwed up or what. I had the spine repaired and paid for it I think $45. When I received the dag I opened it up but noticed it was super tight and only opened up somewhat pictured below. Well, I wanted to be able to see the picture without the front cover kind of obstructing so I opened it further and heard a tearing sound.......... low and behold in the internal spine repair ripped. It is still held together very strongly but it just opens a lot more. Did I open it too far??? Or was it originally supposed to open only like half way?

How far it opened when received

The spine tear, you can see how tight it was and how far it split apart... Looks like it was tighter towards the top thus tore there first and continued down

How far it opens now

 

What should I do? It doesn't bother me much in the fact that it tore but I mean i did pay to have it repaired and it is held together nicely still.... Thoughts?

 

the repair was not good, the case should open 180°, i.e. flat.
Send it back

 

I don't know......but these were meant to open up......

 

they obviously did not test it before returning it..

 

Yes a bad job on that part, these should open to 180 without a problem, they made it to tight, contact them to see if they can do something about it, perhaps a refund for the spine repair since it was not properly executed...if you can live with it like you mentioned.

 

Like a house door you couldn't open full...
Make a claim!

 

I agree, badly done, they should redo it or refund it.

 

Alright well I contacted them and fingers crossed it will be resolved fairly. It's quite a bummer that they did such amazing work with the photo and then this had to go so wrong!

 

Sorry to hear that! Fingers crossed that they make good on it.

 

I feel your pain.

 

They should open to about 90 degrees, they generally would not have been made to lie flat.

 

That's too bad. I agree with everyone - spine was put in too tight and tore when over stressed. Bad job.

 

They should open to about 90 degrees
VS
the case should open 180°, i.e. flat.

Who's correct?
or
or are both answers right?

There are enuf pics on the web to show both .....90 + 180.

 

They can be opened anywhere in that range but pushing it beyond 100 degrees should not cause the spine to tear...too tight a fit up.

 

I am not sure about this, I looked at a before picture and the leather that ripped was leather original to the case that was already beginning to rip. I'm not quite sure how they fixed it.

I did contact them and it was said that the 170 year old leather couldnt survive and that they tested opening it before sending out.

 

The case was completely torn hanging on by a tiny amount and now it is completely binded together so I mean they definitely fixed it I just cant understand what's going on or quite frankly what to do now.

 

now you eat it....cuz there's not much else to do....

 

Well I asked what my options were in regard to repairing or covering it up so we will see but in the end I think I will just deal with it.