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THE ARTISTIC CRAFTS SERIES
OF TECHNICAL HANDBOOKS
EDITED BY W. R. LETHABY
BOOKBINDING
[Illustration: WHITE PIGSKIN.--_Basle_, 1512.]
BOOKBINDING, AND
THE CARE OF BOOKS
A HANDBOOK FOR AMATEURS
BOOKBINDERS & LIBRARIANS
BY DOUGLAS COCKERELL
WITH
DRAWINGS BY NOEL ROOKE
AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1910
COPYRIGHT, 1901,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
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 doing this, we hope to
treat design itself as an essential part of good workmanship. During
the last century most of the arts, save painting and sculpture of an
academic kind, were little considered, and there was a tendency to
look on "design" as a mere matter of _appearance_. Such
"ornamentation" as there was was usually obtained by following in a
mechanical way a drawing provided by an artist who often knew little
of the technical processes involved in production. With the critical
attention given to the crafts by Ruskin and Morris, it came to be seen
that it was impossible to detach design from craft in this way, and
that, in the widest sense, true design is an inseparable element of
good quality, involving as it does the selection of good and suitable
material, contrivance for special purpose, expert workmanship, proper
finish and so on, far more than mere ornament, and indeed, that
ornamentation itself was rather an exuberance of fine workmanship than
a matter of merely abstract lines. Workmanship when separated by too
wide a gulf from fresh thought--that is, from design--inevitably
decays, and, on the other hand, ornamentation, divorced from
workmanship, is necessarily unreal, and quickly falls into
affectation. Proper ornamentation may be defined as a language
addressed to the eye; it is pleasant thought expressed in the speech
of the tool.
In the third place, we would have this series put artistic
craftsmanship before people as furnishing reasonable occupation for
those who would gain a livelihood. Although within the bounds of
academic art, the competition, of its kind, is so acute that only a
very few per cent. can fairly hope to succeed as painters and
sculptors; yet, as artistic craftsmen, there is every probability that
nearly every one who would pass through a sufficient period of
apprenticeship to workmanship and design would reach a measure of
success.
In the blending of handwork and thought in such arts as we propose to
deal with, happy careers may be found as far removed from the dreary
routine of hack labour, as from the terrible uncertainty of academic
art. It is desirable in every way that men of good education should be
brought back into the productive crafts: there are more than enough of
us "in the city," and it is probable that more consideration will be
given in this century than in the last to Design and Workmanship.
W. R. LETHABY.
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 suggestions and other help, and to the Society of
Arts for permission to quote from the report of their Special
Committee on leather for bookbinding.
I should also like to express my indebtedness to my master, Mr. T. J.
Cobden-Sanderson, for it was in his workshop that I learned my craft,
and anything that may be of value in this book is due to his
influence.
D. C.
_November_ 1901.
CONTENTS
PART I
_BINDING_
PAGE
Editor's Preface 7
Author's Note 11
CHAPTER I
Introduction 17
CHAPTER II
Entering--Books in Sheets--Folding--Collating--Pulling
to Pieces--Refolding--Knocking out Joints 33
CHAPTER III
Guarding--Throwing Out--Paring Paper--Soaking off India
Proofs--Mounting very Thin Paper--Splitting
Paper--Inlaying--Flattening Vellum 53
CHAPTER IV
Sizing--Washing--Mending 67
CHAPTER V
End Papers--Leather Joints--Pressing 80
CHAPTER VI
Trimming Edges before Sewing--Edge Gilding 92
CHAPTER VII
Marking up--Sewing--Materials for Sewing 98
CHAPTER VIII
Fraying out Slips--Glueing up--Rounding and Backing 114
CHAPTER IX
Cutting and Attaching Boards--Cleaning off Back--Pressing 124
CHAPTER X
Cutting in Boards--Gilding and Colouring Edges 139
CHAPTER XI
Headbanding 147
CHAPTER XII
Preparing for Covering--Paring Leather--Covering--Mitring
Corners--Filling-in Boards 152
CHAPTER XIII
Library Binding--Binding very Thin Books--Scrap-Books--Binding
in Vellum--Books covered with Embroidery 173
CHAPTER XIV
Decoration--Tools--Finishing--Tooling on Vellum--Inlaying
on Leather 188
CHAPTER XV
Lettering--Blind Tooling--Heraldic Ornament 215
CHAPTER XVI
Designing for Gold-Tooled Decoration 230
CHAPTER XVII
Pasting down End Papers--Opening Books 254
CHAPTER XVIII
Clasps and Ties--Metal on Bindings 259
CHAPTER XIX
Leather 263
CHAPTER XX
Paper--Pastes--Glue 280
PART II
_CARE OF BOOKS WHEN BOUND_
CHAPTER XXI
Injurious Influences to which Books are Subjected 291
CHAPTER XXII
To Preserve Old Bindings--Re-backing 302
SPECIFICATIONS 307
GLOSSARY 313
REPRODUCTIONS OF BINDINGS (Eight Collotypes) 319
INDEX 337
PART I
BINDING
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
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 dust. Nearly all librarians complain, that they have to
be continually rebinding books, and this not after four hundred, but
after only five or ten years.
It is no exaggeration to say that ninety per cent. of the books bound
in leather during the last thirty years will need rebinding during the
next thirty. The immense expense involved must be a very serious drag
on the usefulness of libraries; and as rebinding is always to some
extent damaging to the leaves of a book, it is not only on account of
the expense that the necessity for it is to be regretted.
The reasons that have led to the production in modern times of
bindings that fail to last for a reasonable time, are twofold. The
materials are badly selected or prepared, and the method of binding is
faulty. Another factor in the decay of bindings, both old and new, is
the bad conditions under which they are often kept.
The object of this text-book is to describe the best methods of
bookbinding, and of keeping books when bound, taking into account the
present-day conditions. No attempt has been made to describe all
possible methods, but only such as appear to have answered best on old
books. The methods described are for binding that can be done by hand
with the aid of simple appliances. Large editions of books are now
bound, or rather cased, at an almost incredible speed by the aid of
machinery, but all work that needs personal care and thought on each
book, is still done, and probably always will be done, by hand.
Elaborate machinery can only be economically employed when very large
numbers of books have to be turned out exactly alike.
The ordinary cloth "binding" of the trade, is better described as
casing. The methods being different, it is convenient to distinguish
between casing and binding. In binding, the slips are firmly attached
to the boards before covering; in casing, the boards are covered
separately, and afterwards glued on to the book. Very great efforts
have been made in the decoration of cloth covers, and it is a pity
that the methods of construction have not been equally considered. If
cloth cases are to be looked upon as a temporary binding, then it
seems a pity to waste so much trouble on their decoration; and if they
are to be looked upon as permanent binding, it is a pity the
construction is not better.
For books of only temporary interest, the usual cloth cases answer
well enough; but for books expected to have permanent value, some
change is desirable.
Valuable books should either be issued in bindings that are obviously
temporary, or else in bindings that are strong enough to be considered
permanent. The usual cloth case fails as a temporary binding, because
the methods employed result in serious damage to the sections of the
book, often unfitting them for rebinding, and it fails as a permanent
binding on account of the absence of sound construction.
In a temporary publisher's binding, nothing should be done to the
sections of a book that would injure them. Plates should be guarded,
the sewing should be on tapes, without splitting the head and tail, or
"sawing in" the backs, of the sections; the backs should be glued up
square without backing. The case may be attached, as is now usual. For
a permanent publisher's binding, something like that recommended for
libraries (page 173) is suggested, with either leather or cloth on the
back.
At the end of the book four specifications are given (page 307). The
first is suggested for binding books of special interest or value,
where no restriction as to price is made. A binding under this
specification may be decorated to any extent that the nature of the
book justifies. The second is for good binding, for books of reference
and other heavy books that may have a great deal of wear. All the
features of the first that make for the strength of the binding are
retained, while those less essential, that only add to the appearance,
are omitted. Although the binding under this specification would be
much cheaper than that carried out under the first, it would still be
too expensive for the majority of books in most libraries; and as it
would seem to be impossible to further modify this form of binding,
without materially reducing its strength, for cheaper work, a somewhat
different system is recommended. The third specification is
recommended for the binding of the general run of small books in most
libraries. The fourth is a modification of this for pamphlets and
other books of little value, that need to be kept together tidily for
occasional reference.
Thanks, in a great measure, to the work of Mr. Cobden-Sanderson,
there is in England the germ of a sound tradition for the best
binding. The Report of the Committee appointed by the Society of Arts
to investigate the cause of the decay of modern leather bindings,
should tend to establish a sound tradition for cheaper work. The third
specification at the end of this book is practically the same as that
given in their Report, and was arrived at by selection, after many
libraries had been examined, and many forms of binding compared.
Up to the end of the eighteenth century the traditional methods of
binding books had altered very little during three hundred years.
Books were generally sewn round five cords, the ends of all of these
laced into the boards, and the leather attached directly to the back.
At the end of the eighteenth century it became customary to pare down
leather until it was as thin as paper, and soon afterwards the use of
hollow backs and false bands became general, and these two things
together mark the beginning of the modern degradation of binding, so
far as its utility as a protection is concerned.
The Society of Arts Committee report that the bookbinders must share
with the leather manufacturers and librarians the blame for the
premature decay of modern bindings, because--
"1. Books are sewn on too few, and too thin cords, and the slips are
pared down unduly (for the sake of neatness), and are not in all cases
firmly laced into the boards. This renders the attachment of the
boards to the book almost entirely dependent on the strength of the
leather.
"2. The use of hollow backs throws all the strain of opening and
shutting on the joints, and renders the back liable to come right off
if the book is much used.
"3. The leather of the back is apt to become torn through the use of
insufficiently strong headbands, which are unable to stand the strain
of the book being taken from the shelf.
"4. It is a common practice to use far too thin leather; especially to
use large thick skins very much pared down for small books.
"5. The leather is often made very wet and stretched a great deal in
covering, with the result that on drying it is further strained,
almost to breaking point, by contraction, leaving a very small margin
of strength to meet the accidents of use."
The history of the general introduction of hollow backs is probably
somewhat as follows: Leather was doubtless first chosen for covering
the backs of books because of its toughness and flexibility; because,
while protecting the back, it would bend when the book was opened and
allow the back to "throw up" (see fig. 1, A). When gold tooling became
common, and the backs of books were elaborately decorated, it was
found that the creasing of the leather injured the brightness or the
gold and caused it to crack. To avoid this the binders lined up the
back until it was as stiff as a block of wood. The back would then not
"throw up" as the book was opened, the leather would not be creased,
and the gold would remain uninjured (see fig. 1, B). This was all very
well for the gold, but a book so treated does not open fully, and
indeed, if the paper is stiff, can hardly be got to open at all. To
overcome both difficulties the hollow back was introduced, and as
projecting bands would have been in the way, the sewing cord was sunk
in saw cuts made across the back of the book.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
The use of hollow backs was a very ingenious way out of the
difficulty, as with them the backs could be made to "throw up," and at
the same time the leather was not disturbed (see fig. 1, C). The
method of "sawing in" bands was known for a long time before the
general use of hollow backs. It has been used to avoid the raised
bands on books covered with embroidered material.
If a book is sewn on tapes, and the back lined with leather, there is
no serious objection to a carefully-made hollow back without bands.
The vellum binders use hollow backs made in this way for great account
books that stand an immense amount of wear. They make the "hollow"
very stiff, so that it acts as a spring to throw the back up.
But although, if carefully done, satisfactory bindings may be made
with hollow backs, their use has resulted in the production of
worthless bindings with little strength, and yet with the appearance
of better work.
The public having been accustomed to raised bands on the backs of
books, and the real bands being sunk in the back, the binders put
false ones over the "hollow." To save money or trouble, the bands
being out of sight, the book would be sewn on only three or sometimes
only two cords, the usual five false ones still showing at the back.
Often only two out of the three bands would be laced into the board,
and sometimes the slips would not be laced in at all. Again, false
headbands worked by the yard by machinery would be stuck on at the
head and tail, and a "hollow" made with brown paper. Then leather so
thin as to have but little strength, but used because it is easy to
work and needs no paring, would be stuck on. The back would often be
full gilt and lettered, and the sides sprinkled or marbled, thus
further damaging the leather.
In every large library hundreds of books bound somewhat on these lines
may be seen. When they are received from the binder they have the
appearance of being well bound, they look smart on the shelf, but in a
few years, whether they are used or not, the leather will have
perished and the boards become detached, and they will have to be
rebound.
As long as librarians expect the appearance of a guinea binding for
two or three shillings, such shams will be produced. The librarian
generally gets his money's worth, for it would be impossible for the
binder to do better work at the price usually paid without materially
altering the appearance of the binding. The polished calf and
imitation crushed morocco must go, and in its place a rougher,
thicker leather must be employed. The full-gilt backs must go, the
coloured lettering panel must go, the hollow backs must go, but in the
place of these we may have the books sewn on tapes with the ends
securely fastened into split boards, and the thick leather attached
directly to the backs of the sections. (See specification III. page
307.)
Such a binding would look well and not be more expensive than the
usual library binding. It should allow the book to open flat, and if
the materials are well selected, be very durable, and specially strong
in the joints, the weak place in most bindings. The lettering on the
back may be damaged in time if the book is much used, but if so it can
easily be renewed at a fraction of the cost of rebinding, and without
injury to the book.
While the majority of books in most libraries must be bound at a small
cost, at most not exceeding a few shillings a volume, there is a large
demand for good plain bindings, and a limited, but growing, demand for
more or less decorated bindings for special books.
Any decoration but the simplest should be restricted to books bound as
well as the binder can do them. The presence of decoration should be
evidence that the binder, after doing his best with the "forwarding,"
has had time in which to try to make his work a beautiful, as well as
a serviceable, production.
Many books, although well bound, are better left plain, or with only a
little decoration. But occasionally there are books that the binder
can decorate as lavishly as he is able. As an instance of bindings
that cannot be over-decorated, those books which are used in important
ceremonies, such as Altar Books, may be mentioned. Such books may be
decorated with gold and colour until they seem to be covered in a
golden material. They will be but spots of gorgeousness in a great
church or cathedral, and they cannot be said to be over-decorated as
long as the decoration is good.
So, occasionally some one may have a book to which he is for some
reason greatly attached, and wishing to enshrine it, give the binder a
free hand to do his best with it. The binder may wish to make a
delicate pattern with nicely-balanced spots of ornament, leaving the
leather for the most part bare, or he may wish to cover the outside
with some close gold-tooled pattern, giving a richness of texture
hardly to be got by other means. If he decides on the latter, many
people will say that the cover is over-decorated. But as a book cover
can never be seen absolutely alone, it should not be judged as an
isolated thing covered with ornament without relief, but as a spot of
brightness and interest among its surroundings. If a room and
everything in it is covered with elaborate pattern, then anything with
a plain surface would be welcome as a relief; but in a room which is
reasonably free from ornament, a spot of rich decoration should be
welcome.
It is not contended that the only, or necessarily the best, method of
decorating book covers is by elaborate all-over gold-tooled pattern;
but it is contended that this is a legitimate method of decoration for
exceptional books, and that by its use it is possible to get a
beautiful effect well worth the trouble and expense involved.
Good leather has a beautiful surface, and may sometimes be got of a
fine colour. The binder may often wish to show this surface and
colour, and to restrict his decoration to small portions of the
cover, and this quite rightly, he aiming at, and getting, a totally
different effect than that got by all-over patterns. Both methods are
right if well done, and both methods can equally be vulgarised if
badly done.
A much debated question is, how far the decoration of a binding should
be influenced by the contents of the book? A certain appropriateness
there should be, but as a general thing, if the binder aims at making
the cover beautiful, that is the best he can do. The hints given for
designing are not intended to stop the development of the student's
own ideas, but only to encourage their development on right lines.
There should be a certain similarity of treatment between the general
get-up of a book and its binding. It is a great pity that printers and
binders have drifted so far apart; they are, or should be, working for
one end, the production of a book, and some unity of aim should be
evident in the work of the two.
The binding of manuscripts and early printed books should be strong
and simple. It should be as strong and durable as the original old
bindings, and, like them, last with reasonable care for four hundred
years or more. To this end the old bindings, with their stout sewing
cord, wooden boards, and clasps, may be taken as models.
The question is constantly asked, especially by women, if a living can
be made by setting up as bookbinders. Cheap binding can most
economically be done in large workshops, but probably the best
bindings can be done more satisfactorily by binders working alone, or
in very small workshops.
If any one intends to set up as a bookbinder, doing all the work
without help, it is necessary to charge very high prices to get any
adequate return after the working expenses have been paid. In order to
get high prices, the standard of work must be very high; and in order
to attain a high enough standard of work, a very thorough training is
necessary. It is desirable that any one hoping to make money at the
craft should have at least a year's training in a workshop where good
work is done, and after that, some time will be spent before quite
satisfactory work can be turned out rapidly enough to pay, supposing
that orders can be obtained or the books bound can be sold.
There are some successful binders who have had less than a year's
training, but they are exceptional. Those who have not been accustomed
to manual work have usually, in addition to the necessary skill, to
acquire the habit of continuous work. Bookbinding seems to offer an
opening for well-educated youths who are willing to serve an
apprenticeship in a good shop, and who have some small amount of
capital at their command.
In addition to the production of decorated bindings, there is much to
be done by specialising in certain kinds of work requiring special
knowledge. Repairing and binding early printed books and manuscripts,
or the restoration of Parish Registers and Accounts, may be suggested.