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BOOKBINDING, AND THE CARE OF BOOKS
BOOKBINDING, AND THE CARE OF BOOKS
A HANDBOOK FOR AMATEURS BOOKBINDERS & LIBRARIANS BY DOUGLAS COCKERELL WITH DRAWINGS BY NOEL ROOKE AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1910 Copyright, 1901, By D. Appleton and Company All rights reserved White Pigskin. — Basle , 1512....
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EDITOR’S PREFACE
EDITOR’S PREFACE
In issuing this volume of a series of Handbooks on the Artistic Crafts, it will be well to state what are our general aims. In the first place, we wish to provide trustworthy text-books of workshop practice, from the points of view of experts who have critically examined the methods current in the shops, and putting aside vain survivals, are prepared to say what is good workmanship, and to set up a standard of quality in the crafts which are more especially associated with design. Secondly, in d
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
AUTHOR’S NOTE
It is hoped that this book will help bookbinders and librarians to select sound methods of binding books. It is intended to supplement and not to supplant workshop training for bookbinders. No one can become a skilled workman by reading text-books, but to a man who has acquired skill and practical experience, a text-book, giving perhaps different methods from those to which he has been accustomed, may be helpful. My thanks are due to many friends, including the workmen in my workshop, for useful
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PART I BINDING CHAPTER I
PART I BINDING CHAPTER I
The reasons for binding the leaves of a book are to keep them together in their proper order, and to protect them. That bindings can be made, that will adequately protect books, can be seen from the large number of fifteenth and sixteenth century bindings now existing on books still in excellent condition. That bindings are made, that fail to protect books, may be seen by visiting any large library, when it will be found that many bindings have their boards loose and the leather crumbling to dus
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
Entering—Books in Sheets—Folding—Collating—Pulling to Pieces—Refolding—Knocking out Joints On receiving a book for binding, its title should be entered in a book kept for that purpose, with the date of entry, and customer’s name and address, and any instructions he may have given, written out in full underneath, leaving room below to enter the time taken on the various operations and cost of the materials used. It is well to number the entry, and to give a corresponding number to the book. It sh
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
Guarding—Throwing Out—Paring Paper—Soaking off India Proofs—Mounting very Thin Paper—Splitting Paper—Inlaying—Flattening Vellum Guards are slips of thin paper or linen used for strengthening the fold of leaves that are damaged, or for attaching plates or single leaves. Fig. 8. Guards should be of good thin paper. That known as Whatman’s Banknote paper answers very well. An easy way to cut guards is shown in fig. 8 . Two or three pieces of paper of the height of the required guards are folded and
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
Sizing—Washing—Mending The paper in old books is sometimes soft and woolly. This is generally because the size has perished, and such paper can often be made perfectly sound by resizing. Fig. 17. For size, an ounce of isinglass or good gelatine is dissolved in a quart of water. This should make a clear solution when gently warmed, and should be used at about a temperature of 120° F. Care must be taken not to heat too quickly, or the solution may burn and turn brown. If the size is not quite clea
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
End Papers—Leather Joints—Pressing If an old book that has had much wear is examined, it will generally be found that the leaves at the beginning and the end have suffered more than the rest of the book. On this ground, and also to enable people who must write notes in books to do so with the least injury to the book, it is advisable to put a good number of blank papers at each end. As these papers are part of the binding, and have an important protective function to perform, they should be of g
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
Trimming Edges before Sewing—Edge Gilding When the sheets come from the press the treatment of the edges must be decided upon, that is, whether they are to be entirely uncut, trimmed before sewing, or cut in boards. Early printed books and manuscripts should on no account have their edges cut at all, and any modern books of value are better only slightly trimmed and gilt before sewing. But for books of reference that need good bindings, on account of the wear they have to withstand, cutting in b
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
Marking up—Sewing—Materials for Sewing This is drawing lines across the back of the sections to show the sewer the position of the sewing cords. Marking up for flexible sewing needs care and judgment, as on it depends the position of the bands on the back of the bound book. Nearly all books look best with five bands, but very large, thinnish folios may have six, and a very small, thick book may look better with four. Generally speaking, five is the best number. In marking up trimmed sheets for f
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
Fraying out Slips—Glueing up—Rounding and Backing After sewing, the book should be looked through to see that all sheets and plates have been caught by the thread, and special attention should be given to end papers to see that the sewing lies evenly. The ends of the cords should next be cut off to within about two inches of the book on each side, and the free portions frayed out. If proper sewing cord is used, this will be found to be very easily done, if a binder’s bodkin is first inserted bet
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
Cutting and Attaching Boards—Cleaning off Back—Pressing The first quality of the best black board made from old rope is the best to use for “extra” binding. It will be found to be very hard, and not easily broken or bent at the corners. In selecting the thickness suitable for any given book, the size and thickness of the volume should be taken into account. The tendency of most modern binders is to use a rather over thick board, perhaps with a view to bulk out the volume. For manuscripts, or oth
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
Cutting in Boards—Gilding and Colouring Edges The knife for cutting edges may be ground more acutely than for cutting boards, and should be very sharp, or the paper may be torn. The plough knife should never be ground on the under side, as if the under side is not quite flat, it will tend to run up instead of cutting straight across. Before beginning to cut edges, the position of the knife should be tested carefully by screwing the plough up, with the press a little open, and noting whereabouts
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
Headbanding Modern headbands are small pieces of vellum, gut, or cord sewn on to the head and tail of a book with silk or thread. They resist the strain on the book when it is taken from the shelf. The vellum slip or cord must be of such a depth, that when covered with silk it will be slightly lower than the square of the boards. The cut edge of the vellum always slants, and the slip must be placed in position so that it tilts back rather than forward on the book. To start, ease the boards sligh
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
Preparing for Covering—Paring Leather—Covering—Mitring Corners—Filling-in Boards After the headband is worked, a piece of brown or other stout paper should be well glued on at the head and tail, care being taken that it is firmly attached to the back and the headband. When dry, the part projecting above the headband is neatly cut off, and the part on the back well sand-papered, to remove any irregularity caused by the tie-downs attaching the headband. For most books this will be quite sufficient
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
Library Binding—Binding very Thin Books—Scrap-Books—Binding on Vellum—Books covered with Embroidery To produce cheaper bindings, as must be done in the case of large libraries, some alteration of design is necessary. Appearance must to some extent be sacrificed to strength and durability, and not, as is too often the case, strength and durability sacrificed to appearance. The essentials of any good binding are, that the sections should be sound in themselves, and that there should be no plates o
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
Decoration—Tools—Finishing—Tooling on Vellum—Inlaying on Leather The most usual, and perhaps the most characteristic, way of decorating book covers is by “tooling.” Tooling is the impression of heated (finishing) tools. Finishing tools are stamps of metal that have a device cut on the face, and are held in wooden handles ( fig. 79 ). Fig. 79. Tooling may either be blind tooling, that is, a simple impression of the hot tools, or gold tooling, in which the impression of the tool is left in gold on
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
Lettering—Blind Tooling—Heraldic Ornament Lettering may be done either with separate letters, each on its own handle, or with type set in a type-holder and worked across the back as a pallet. Although by the use of type great regularity is ensured, and some time saved, the use of handle letters gives so much more freedom of arrangement, that their use is advocated for extra binding. Where a great many copies of the same work have to be lettered, the use of type has obvious advantages. A great de
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CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
Designing for Gold-Tooled Decoration For gold tooling, such tools as gouges, dots, pieces of straight line, and fillets are to be had ready-made at most dealers. Other tools are best designed and cut to order. At first only a few simple forms will be needed, such as one or two flowers of different sizes, and one or two sets of leaves (see fig. 100 ). Fig. 100 (reduced) In designing tools, it must be borne in mind that they may appear on the book many times repeated, and so must be simple in outl
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CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
Pasting down End Papers—Opening Books When the finishing is done, the end papers should be pasted down on to the board; or if there is a leather joint, the panel left should be filled in to match the end paper. To paste down end papers, the book is placed on the block with the board open (see fig. 117 , A), the waste sheets are torn off, the joints cleared of any glue or paste, and the boards flattened, as described at page 171 for pasting down leather joints. One of the paste-down papers is the
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CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
Clasps and Ties—Metal on Bindings Some books need to be clasped to keep the leaves flat. All books written or printed on vellum should have clasps. Vellum unless kept flat is apt to cockle, and this in a book will force the leaves apart and admit dust. If a book is tightly wedged in a shelf the leaves will be kept flat, but as the chance removal of any other book from the row will remove the pressure, it is much better to provide clasps for vellum books. Very thick books, and those with a great
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CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XIX
Leather Of all the materials used by the bookbinders, leather is the most important and the most difficult to select wisely. It is extremely difficult to judge a leather by its appearance. “We find now, that instead of leather made from sheep, calf, goat, and pigskins, each having, when finished, its own characteristic surface, that sheepskins are got up to look like calf, morocco, or pigskin; that calf is grained to resemble morocco, or so polished and flattened as to have but little character
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CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XX
Paper—Pastes—Glue Paper may be made by hand or machinery, and either “laid” or “wove.” “Laid” papers are distinguished by wire marks, which are absent in “wove” paper. A sheet of hand-made paper has all round it a rough uneven edge called the “deckle,” that is a necessary result of its method of manufacture. The early printers looked upon this ragged edge as a defect, and almost invariably trimmed most of it off before putting books into permanent bindings. Book-lovers quite rightly like to find
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PART II CARE OF BOOKS WHEN BOUND CHAPTER XXI
PART II CARE OF BOOKS WHEN BOUND CHAPTER XXI
Injurious Influences to which Books are Subjected Gas Fumes. —The investigation of the Society of Arts Committee shows that— “Of all the influences to which books are exposed in libraries, gas fumes—no doubt because of the sulphuric and sulphurous acid which they contain—are shown to be the most injurious.” The injurious effects of gas fumes on leather have been recognised for a long time, and gas is being, very generally, given up in libraries in consequence. If books must be kept where gas is
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CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXII
To Preserve Old Bindings—Re-backing It is a well-known fact that the leather of bindings that are much handled lasts very much better than that on books which remain untouched on the shelves. There is little doubt that the reason for this is that the slight amount of grease the leather receives from the hands nourishes it and keeps it flexible. A coating of glair or varnish is found to some extent to protect leather from adverse outside influences, but, unfortunately, both glair and varnish tend
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SPECIFICATIONS SPECIFICATIONS FOR BOOKBINDING
SPECIFICATIONS SPECIFICATIONS FOR BOOKBINDING
These specifications will require modification in special cases, and are only intended to be a general guide....
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GLOSSARY
GLOSSARY
Arming press , a small blocking press used for striking arms-blocks on the sides of books. Backing boards , wedge-shaped bevelled boards used in backing (see Fig. 40 ). Backing machine , used for backing cheap work in large quantities; it often crushes and damages the backs of the sections. Bands , (1) the cords on which a book is sewn. (2) The ridges on the back caused by the bands showing through the leather. Band nippers , pincers with flat jaws, used for straightening the bands (see Fig. 61
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REPRODUCTIONS OF BINDINGS
REPRODUCTIONS OF BINDINGS
I., II., AND III. Fifteenth Century Blind-Tooled Bindings IV. Sixteenth Century Binding with Simple Gold-Tooling V., VI., VII., AND VIII. Modern Bindings Designed by the Author German Fifteenth Century. Pigskin. I.—German Fifteenth Century. Pigskin. Actual size, 8¾″ × 6¼″. German Fifteenth Century. Calf. II.—German Fifteenth Century. Calf. Actual size 12½″ × 8½″. Italian Fifteenth Century. Sheepskin, with coloured roundels. III.—Italian Fifteenth Century. Sheepskin, with coloured roundels. Actua
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