Bookbinding
Modern bookbinding dates from the application of printing to literature,
and in essentials has remained unchanged to the present day, though in
those outward characteristics, which appeal to the touch and to the eye,
and constitute binding in an artistic sense, it has gone through many
changes for better and for worse, which, in the opinion of the writer,
have resulted, in the main, in the exaggeration of technical skill and
* * * * *
The first operation of the modern binder is to fold or refold the
printed sheet into a section, and to gather the sections, numbered or
lettered at the foot, in their proper order into a volume.
The sections are then taken, one by one, placed face downwards in a
frame, and sewn through the back by a continuous thread running
backwards and forwards along the backs of the sections to upright
strings fastened at regular intervals in the sewing frame. This process
unites the sections to one another in series one after the other, and
permits the perusal of the book by the simple turning of leaf after leaf
upon the hinge formed by the thread and the back of the section.
A volume, or series of sections, so treated, the ends of the string
being properly secured, is essentially "bound"; all that is subsequently
done is done for the protection or for the decoration of the volume or
of its cover.
The sides of a volume are protected by millboards, called shortly
"boards." The boards themselves and the back are protected by a cover of
leather, vellum, silk, linen, or paper, wholly or in part. The edges of
the volume are protected by the projection of the boards beyond them at
top, bottom, and fore-edge, and usually by being cut smooth and gilt.
A volume so bound and protected may be decorated by tooling or otherwise
upon all the exposed surfaces (upon the edges, the sides, and the back)
and may be designated by lettering upon the back or the sides.
The degree in which a bound book is protected and decorated will
determine the class to which the binding will belong.
(1) In cloth binding, the cover, called a "case," is made apart from
the book, and is attached as a whole after the book is sewn.
(2) In half binding, the cover is built up for and on each individual
book, but the boards of which it is composed are only partly covered
with the leather or other material which covers the back.
(3) In whole binding, the boards are wholly covered with leather or
other durable material, which in half binding covers only a portion of
them.
(4) In extra binding, whole binding is advanced a stage higher by
decoration. Of course in the various stages the details vary
commensurately with the stage itself, being more or less elaborate as
the stage is higher or lower in the scale.
The process of extra binding set out in more detail is as follows:--
(1) First the sections are folded or refolded.
(2) Then "end-papers"--sections of plain paper added at the beginning
and end of the volume to protect the first and last, the most exposed,
sections of printed matter constituting the volume proper--having been
prepared and added, the sections are beaten, or rolled, or pressed, to
make them "solid."
The end-papers are usually added at a later stage, and are pasted on,
and not sewn, but, in the opinion of the writer, it is better to add
them at this stage, and to sew them and not to paste them.
(3) Then the sections are sewn as already described.
(4) When sewn the volume passes into the hands of the "forwarder," who
(5) "Makes" the back, beating it round, if the back is to be round, and
"backing" it, or making it fan out from the centre to right and left
and project at the edges, to form a kind of ridge to receive and to
protect the edges of the boards which form the sides of the cover.
(6) The back having been made, the "boards" (made of millboard, and
originally of wood) for the protection of the sides are made and cut to
shape, and attached by lacing into them the ends of the strings upon
which the book has been sewn.
(7) The boards having been attached, the edges of the book are now cut
smooth and even at the top, bottom, and fore-edge, the edges of the
boards being used as guides for the purpose. In some cases the order is
reversed, and the edges are first cut and then the boards.
(8) The edges may now be coloured and gilt, and if it is proposed to
"gauffer" or to decorate them with tooling, they are so treated at this
stage.
(9) The head-band is next worked on at head and tail, and the back lined
with paper or leather or other material to keep the head-band in its
place and to strengthen the back itself.
The book is now ready to be covered.
(10) If the book is covered with leather, the leather is carefully pared
all round the edges and along the line of the back, to make the edges
sharp and the joints free.
(11) The book having been covered, the depression on the inside of the
boards caused by the overlap of the leather is filled in with paper, so
that the entire inner surface may be smooth and even, and ready to
receive the first and last leaves of the end-papers, which finally are
cut to shape and pasted down, leaving the borders only uncovered.
Sometimes, however, the first and last leaves of the "end-papers" are of
silk, and the "joint" of leather, in which case, of course, the
end-papers are not pasted down, but the insides of the boards are
independently treated, and are covered, sometimes with leather,
sometimes with silk or other material.
The book is now "forwarded," and passes into the hands of the "finisher"
to be tooled or decorated, or "finished" as it is called.
The decoration in gold on the surface of leather is wrought out, bit by
bit, by means of small brass stamps called "tools."
The steps of the process are shortly as follows:--
(12) The pattern having been settled and worked out on paper, it is
"transferred" to, or marked out on, the various surfaces to which it is
to be applied.
Each surface is then prepared in succession, and, if large, bit by bit,
to receive the gold.
(13) First the leather is washed with water or with vinegar.
(14) Then the pattern is pencilled over with "glaire" (white of egg
beaten up and drained off), or the surface is wholly washed with it.
(15) Next it is smeared lightly with grease or oil.
(16) And, finally, the gold (gold leaf) is applied by a pad of cotton
wool, or a flat thin brush called a "tip."
(17) The pattern, visible through the gold, is now reimpressed or worked
with the tools heated to about the temperature of boiling water, and the
unimpressed or waste gold is removed by an oiled rag, leaving the
pattern in gold and the rest of the leather clear.
* * * * *
These several operations are, in England, usually distributed among
five classes of persons.
(1) The superintendent or person responsible for the whole work.
(2) The sewer, usually a woman, who folds, sews, and makes the
head-bands.
(3) The book-edge gilder, who gilds the edges. Usually a craft apart.
(4) The forwarder, who performs all the other operations leading up to
the finishing.
(5) The finisher, who decorates and letters the volume after it is
forwarded.
In Paris the work is still further distributed, a special workman
(couvreur) being employed to prepare the leather for covering and to
cover.
In the opinion of the writer, the work, as a craft of beauty, suffers,
as do the workmen, from the allocation of different operations to
different workmen. The work should be conceived of as one, and be
wholly executed by one person, or at most by two, and especially should
there be no distinction between "finisher" and "forwarder," between
"executant" and "artist."
* * * * *
The following technical names may serve to call attention to the
principal features of a bound book.
(1) The back, the posterior edge of the volume upon which at the
present time the title is usually placed. Formerly it was placed on the
fore-edge or side.
The back may be (a) convex or concave or flat; (b) marked
horizontally with bands, or smooth from head to tail; (c) tight, the
leather or other covering adhering to the back itself, or hollow, the
leather or other covering not so adhering; and (d) stiff or flexible.
(2) Edges, the three other edges of the book,--the top, the bottom,
and the fore-edge.
(3) Bands, the cords upon which the book is sewn, and which, if not
"let in" or embedded in the back, appear on it as parallel ridges. The
ridges are, however, usually artificial, the real bands being "let in"
to facilitate the sewing, and their places supplied by thin slips of
leather cut to resemble them and glued on the back. This process also
enables the forwarder to give great sharpness and finish to this part of
his work, if he think it worth while.
(4) Between-bands, the space between the bands.
(5) Head and tail, the top and bottom of the back.
(6) The head-band and head-cap, the fillet of silk worked in
buttonhole stitch at the head and tail, and the cap or cover of leather
over it. The head-band had its origin probably in the desire to
strengthen the back and to resist the strain when a book is pulled by
head or tail from the shelf.
(7) Boards, the sides of the cover, stiff or limp, thick or thin, in
all degrees.
(8) Squares, the projection of the boards beyond the edges of the
book. These may be shallow or deep in all degrees, limited only by the
purpose they have to fulfil and the danger they will themselves be
exposed to if too deep.
(9) Borders, the overlaps of leather on the insides of the boards.
(10) Proof, the rough edges of leaves left uncut in cutting the edges
to show where the original margin was, and to prove that the cutting has
not been too severe.
The life of bookbinding is in the dainty mutation of its mutable
elements--back, bands, boards, squares, decoration. These elements admit
of almost endless variation, singly and in combination, in kind and in
degree. In fact, however, they are now almost always uniformly treated
or worked up to one type or set of types. This is the death of
bookbinding as a craft of beauty.
The finish, moreover, or execution, has outrun invention, and is the
great characteristic of modern bookbinding. This again, the inversion of
the due order, is, in the opinion of the writer, but as the carving on
the tomb of a dead art, and itself dead.
A well-bound beautiful book is neither of one type, nor finished so that
its highest praise is that "had it been made by a machine it could not
have been made better." It is individual; it is instinct with the hand
of him who made it; it is pleasant to feel, to handle, and to see; it is
the original work of an original mind working in freedom simultaneously
with hand and heart and brain to produce a thing of use, which all time
shall agree ever more and more also to call "a thing of beauty."
T. J. COBDEN-SANDERSON.
More
-
Bookbinding
Modern bookbinding dates from the application of printing to literature, and in essentials has remained unchanged to the present day, though in those outward characteristics, which appeal to the touch and to the eye, and constitute binding in an a... Carpenters' Furniture
It requires a far search to gather up examples of furniture really representative in this kind, and thus to gain a point of view for a prospect into the more ideal where furniture no longer is bought to look expensively useless in a boudoir, but s... Colour
It is not unusual to hear said of textiles and embroideries, "I like soft quiet colouring; such and such is too bright." This assertion is both right and wrong; it shows an instinctive pleasure in harmony combined with ignorance of technique. To b... Design
"Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well."--SOLOMON. "Produce; produce; be it but the infinitesimallest product, produce."--CARLYLE. For the last sixty years, ever since the Gothic Reviv... Fictiles
Earliest amongst the inventions of man and his endeavour to unite Art with Craft is the Fictile Art. His first needs in domestic life, his first utensils, his first efforts at civilisation, came from the Mother Earth, whose son he believed himself... Furniture
The institution of schools of art and design, and the efforts of serials and magazines devoted to artistic matters, have had their proper effect in the creation of a pretty general distaste for the clumsy and inartistic forms which characterised c... Furniture And The Room
The art of furnishing runs on two wheels--the room and the furniture. As in the bicycle, the inordinate development of one wheel at the expense of its colleague has been not without some great feats, yet too often has provoked catastrophe; so furn... Intarsia And Inlaid Wood-work
Although decoration by inlaying woods of different colours must naturally have suggested itself in very early times, as soon indeed as there were workmen of skill sufficient for it, the history of this branch of art practically begins in the fifte... Metal Work
In discussing the artistic aspect of metal work, we have to take into account the physical properties and appropriate treatment of the following metals: the precious metals, gold and silver; copper, both pure and alloyed with other metals, especia... Of Book Illustration And Book Decoration
Book illustration is supposed to have made a great advance in the last few years. No doubt it has, but this advance has not been made on any definite principle, but, as it were, in and out of a network of cross-purposes. No attempt has been made t... Of Carving
It is not uncommon to see an elaborate piece of furniture, in decorating which it is evident that the carver has had opportunity for the exercise of all his skill, and which, indeed, bears evidence of the most skilful woodcutting on almost every s... Of Cast Iron
Cast iron is nearly our humblest material, and with associations less than all artistic, for it has been almost hopelessly vulgarised in the present century, so much so that Mr. Ruskin, with his fearless use of paradox to shock one into thought, h... Of Decorated Furniture
Decorated or "sumptuous" furniture is not merely furniture that is expensive to buy, but that which has been elaborated with much thought, knowledge, and skill. Such furniture cannot be cheap, certainly, but the real cost of it is sometimes borne ... Of Decorative Painting And Design
The term Decorative painting implies the existence of painting which is not decorative: a strange state of things for an art which primarily and pre-eminently appeals to the eye. If we look back to the times when the arts and crafts were in their ... Of Designs And Working Drawings
The drawings which most deeply interest the workman are working drawings--just the last to be appreciated by the public, because they are the last to be understood. The most admired of show drawings are to us craftsmen comparatively without intere... Of Dyeing As An Art
Dyeing is a very ancient art; from the earliest times of the ancient civilisations till within about forty years ago there had been no essential change in it, and not much change of any kind. Up to the time of the discovery of the process of Pruss... Of Embroidery
The technicalities of Embroidery are very simple and its tools few--practically consisting of a needle, and nothing else. The work can be wrought loose in the hand, or stretched in a frame, which latter mode is often advisable, always when smooth ... Of Lace
Lace is a term freely used at the present time to describe various sorts of open ornament in thread work, the successful effect of which depends very much upon the contrasting of more or less closely-textured forms with grounds or intervening spac... Of Materials
Almost every fabric that is good of its kind is suitable for a ground for needlework, and any thread of silk, linen, cotton, or wool, is suitable for laying on a web, with the purpose of decorating it. Yet these materials should not be wedded indi... Of Modern Embroidery
If we wish to arrive at a true estimate of the value of modern embroidery, we must examine the work being sold in the fancy-work shops, illustrated in ladies' newspapers or embroidered in the drawing-rooms of to-day, and consider in what respect i... Of Mural Painting
There seems no precise reason why the subject of this note should differ much from that of Mr. Crane's article on "Decorative Painting" (pp. 39-51). "Mural Painting" need not, as such, consist of any one sort of painting more than another. "Decora... Of Sgraffito Work
The Italian words Graffiato, Sgraffiato, or Sgraffito, mean "Scratched," and scratched work is the oldest form of graphic expression and surface decoration used by man. The term Sgraffito is, however, specially used to denote decoration scratch... Of Stucco And Gesso
Few things are more disheartening to the pursuer of plastic art than finding that, when he has carried his own labour to a certain point, he has to entrust it to another in order to render it permanent and useful. If he models in clay and wishes i... Of The Room And Furniture
The transient tenure that most of us have in our dwellings, and the absorbing nature of the struggle that most of us have to make to win the necessary provisions of life, prevent our encouraging the manufacture of well-wrought furniture. We mea... Of Wall Papers
While the tradition and practice of mural painting as applied to interior walls and ceilings of houses still linger in Italy, in the form of often skilful if not always tasteful tempera work, in more western countries, like England, France, and Am... Printing
Printing, in the only sense with which we are at present concerned, differs from most if not from all the arts and crafts represented in the Exhibition in being comparatively modern. For although the Chinese took impressions from wood blocks engra... Stained Glass
In these days there is a tendency to judge the merits of stained glass from the standpoint of the archaeologist. It is good or bad in so far as it is directly imitative of work of the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The art had reached to a surpr... Stitches And Mechanism
As a guiding classification of methods of embroidery considered from the technical point of view, I have set down the following heads:-- (a) Embroidery of materials in frames. (b) Embroidery of materials held in the hand. (c) Po... Stone And Wood Carving
The crafts of the stone and wood carver may fairly be taken in review at the same time, although they differ in themselves. It is a misfortune that there should be so great a gulf as there is between the craftsman who is called, and considers hi... Table Glass
Few materials lend themselves more readily to the skill of the craftsman than glass. The fluid or viscous condition of the "metal" as it comes from the "pot," the way in which it is shaped by the breath of the craftsman, and by his skill in making... Textiles
There are several ways of ornamenting a woven cloth: (1) real tapestry, (2) carpet-weaving, (3) mechanical weaving, (4) printing or painting, and (5) embroidery. There has been no improvement (indeed, as to the main processes, no change) in the ma... The English Tradition
The sense of a consecutive tradition has so completely faded out of English art that it has become difficult to realise the meaning of tradition, or the possibility of its ever again reviving; and this state of things is not improved by the fact t... Woods And Other Materials
The woods in ordinary use by cabinetmakers may be divided broadly into two classes, viz. those which by their strength, toughness, and other qualities are suitable for construction, and those which by reason of the beauty of their texture or grain...