Designing for Gold-Tooled Decoration
DESIGNING TOOLS
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).
[Illustration: 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 outline and
much conventionalised. A more or less naturalistic drawing of a
flower, showing the natural irregularities, may look charming, but if
a tool is cut from it, any marked irregularity becomes extremely
annoying when repeated several times on a cover. So with leaves,
unless they are perfectly symmetrical, there should be three of each
shape cut, two curving in different directions, and the third quite
straight (see fig. 101). To have only one leaf, and to have that
curved, produces very restless patterns. The essence of gold-tool
design, is that patterns are made up of repeats of impressions of
tools, and that being so, the tools must be so designed that they will
repeat pleasantly, and in practice it will be found that any but
simple forms will become aggressive in repetition.
[Illustration: FIG. 101.]
Designs for tools should be made out with Indian ink on white paper,
and they may be larger than the size of the required tool. The
tool-cutter will reduce any drawing to any desired size, and will,
from one drawing, cut any number of tools of different sizes. Thus, if
a set of five leaves of the same shape is wanted, it will only be
necessary to draw one, and to indicate the sizes the others are to be
in some such way as shown at fig. 102.
It is not suggested that special tools should be cut for each pattern,
but the need of new tools will naturally arise from time to time, and
so the stock be gradually increased. It is better to begin with a very
few, and add a tool or two as occasion arises, than to try to design a
complete set when starting.
[Illustration: FIG. 102.]
Tools may be solid or in outline. If in outline they may be used as
"inlay" tools, and in ordering them the tool-cutter should be asked to
provide steel punches for cutting the inlays.
COMBINING TOOLS TO FORM PATTERNS
It is well for the student to begin with patterns arranged on some
very simple plan, making slight changes in each succeeding pattern.
In this way an individual style may be established. The usual plan of
studying the perfected styles of the old binders, and trying to begin
where they left off, in practice only leads to the production of exact
imitations, or poor lifeless parodies, of the old designs. Whereas a
pattern developed by the student by slow degrees, through a series of
designs, each slightly different from the one before it, will, if
eccentricities are avoided, probably have life and individual
interest.
Perhaps the easiest way to decorate a binding is to cover it with some
small repeating pattern. A simple form of diaper as a beginning is
shown at fig. 104. To make such a pattern cut a piece of good, thin
paper to the size of the board of a book, and with a pencil rule a
line about an eighth of an inch inside the margin all round. Then with
the point of a fine folder that will indent, but not cut the paper,
mark up as shown in fig. 103. The position of the lines A A and B B
are found by simply folding the paper, first side to side, and then
head to tail. The other lines can be put in without any measurement
by simply joining all points where lines cross. By continual
re-crossing, the spaces into which the paper is divided can be reduced
to any desired size. If the construction lines are accurately put in,
the spaces will all be of the same size and shape. It is then evident
that a repeating design to fill any one of the spaces can be made to
cover the whole surface.
[Illustration: FIG. 103.]
In fig. 104, it is the diagonal lines only that are utilised for the
pattern. To avoid confusion, the cross lines that helped to determine
the position of the diagonals are not shown.
[Illustration: FIG. 104 (reduced)]
The advantage of using the point of a folder to mark up the
constructional lines of a pattern instead of a pencil, is that the
lines so made are much finer, do not rub out, and do not cause
confusion by interfering with the pattern. Any lines that will appear
on the book, such as the marginal lines, may be put in with a pencil
to distinguish them.
Having marked up the paper, select a flower tool and impress it at the
points where the diagonal lines cross, holding it in the smoke of a
candle between every two or three impressions. When the flower has
been impressed all over, select a small piece of straight line, and
put a stalk in below each flower; then a leaf put in on each side of
the straight line will complete the pattern.
[Illustration: FIG. 105 (reduced)]
A development of the same principle is shown at fig. 105, in which
some gouges are introduced. Any number of other combinations will
occur to any one using the tools. Frequently questions will arise as
to whether a tool is to be put this way or that way, and whether a
line is to curve up or down. Whenever there is such an alternative
open, there is the germ of another pattern. All-over diaper patterns
may be varied in any number of ways. One way is to vary the design in
alternate spaces. If this is done one of the designs should be such
that it will divide down the centre both ways and so finish off the
pattern comfortably at the edges. The pattern may be based on the
upright and the cross-lines of the marking up, or the marking up may
be on a different principle altogether. The designer, after a little
practice, will be bewildered by the infinite number of combinations
that occur to him.
[Illustration: FIG. 106 (reduced)]
The diaper is selected for a beginning, because it is the easiest form
of pattern to make, as there is no question of getting round corners,
and very little of studying proportion. It is selected also because it
teaches the student the decorative value of simple forms repeated on
some orderly system. When he has grasped this, he has grasped the
underlying principle of nearly all successful tooled ornament. Diapers
are good practice, because in a close, all-over pattern the tools must
be put down in definite places, or an appalling muddle will result. In
tooling; a repeat of the same few tools, is the best possible
practice, giving as it does the same work over and over again under
precisely the same conditions, and concentrating, on one book cover,
the practice that might be spread over several backs and sides more
sparingly decorated, when variety of conditions would confuse the
student.
[Illustration: FIG. 107.]
When the principles of the diaper have been mastered, and the student
has become familiar with the limitations of his tools, other schemes
of decoration may be attempted, such as borders, centres, or panels.
A form of border connected with cross-lines is shown at fig. 106. This
is made up of a repeat of the spray built up of three tools and four
gouges shown at fig. 107, with slight modification at the corners.
Other schemes for borders are those in which flowers grow inwards from
the edge of the boards, or outwards from a panel at the centre, or on
both sides of a line about half an inch from the edge. A pattern may
also be made to grow all round the centre panel. Borders will be found
more difficult to manage than simple diapers, and at first, are best
built up on the same principle--the repeat of some simple element.
[Illustration: FIG. 108 (reduced)]
The decoration may be concentrated on parts of the cover, such as the
centre or corners. A design for a centre is shown at fig. 108, and
below is shown the way to construct it. A piece of paper is folded, as
shown by the dotted lines, and an eighth of the pattern drawn with a
soft pencil and folded over on the line A, and transferred by being
rubbed at the back with a folder. This is lined in with a pencil, and
folded over on the line B and rubbed off. This is lined in and folded
over on A and C, rubbed off as before, and the whole lined in. The
overs and unders of the lines are then marked, and gouges selected to
fit. Of course it will take several trials before the lines will
interlace pleasantly, and the tools fit in. Another centre, in which a
spray is repeated three times, is shown at fig. 109, and any number of
others will occur to the student after a little practice. A change of
tools, or the slight alteration of a line, will give an entirely new
aspect to a pattern. At page 334 is shown an all-over pattern growing
from the bottom centre of the board. In this design the leather was
dark green, with a lighter green panel in the centre. The berries were
inlaid in bright red. Although at first glance it seems an intricate
design, it is made up like the others of repetitions of simple forms.
[Illustration: FIG. 109 (reduced)]
When the student has become proficient in the arrangement of tools in
combination with lines, a design consisting entirely, or almost
entirely, of lines may be tried. This is more difficult, because the
limitations are not so obvious; but here again the principle of
repetition, and even distribution, should be followed. At fig. 110 is
shown a design almost entirely composed of lines, built up on the same
principle as the centre at fig. 108.
[Illustration: FIG. 110 (reduced)]
The ends of the bands form a very pleasant starting-place for
patterns. At pp. 330, 332-6 are shown ways of utilising this method.
To look right, a pattern must be consistent throughout. The tools and
their arrangement must have about the same amount of convention. Gold
tooling, dealing, as it does, with flat forms in silhouette only,
necessitates very considerable formality in the design of the tools
and of their arrangement on the cover. Modern finishers have become so
skilful, that they are able to produce in gold tooling almost any
design that can be drawn in lines with a pencil, and some truly
marvellous results are obtained by the use of inlays, and specially
cut gouges. As a rule, such patterns simply serve to show the skill of
the finisher, and to make one wonder who could have been foolish
enough to select so limited and laborious a method as gold tooling for
carrying them out.
Generally speaking, successful gold-tooled patterns show evidence of
having been designed with the tools; of being, in fact, mere
arrangements of the tools, and not of having been first designed with
a pencil, and then worked with tools cut to fit the drawing. This does
not of course apply to patterns composed entirely of lines, or to
patterns composed of lines of dots.
If artists wish to design for gold tooling without first mastering the
details, probably the safest way will be for them to design in lines
of gold dots. Some successful patterns carried out in this way were
shown at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition some years ago.
Designs for gold-tooled binding should always be constructed on some
geometrical plan, and whatever pattern there is, symmetrically
distributed over the cover.
If lettering can be introduced, it will be found to be most useful
when arranging a pattern. It gives dignity and purpose to a design,
and is also highly decorative. Lettering may be arranged in panels, as
at page 332, or in a border round the edge of the board, and in many
other ways. It may either consist of the title of the book, or some
line or verse from it or connected with it, or may refer to its
history, or to the owner. Anything that gives a personal interest to a
book, such as the arms of the owner, the initials or name of the giver
or receiver of a present, with perhaps the date of the gift, is of
value.
The use of the small fillet makes it possible to employ long,
slightly-curved lines. Gold-tooled lines have in themselves such
great beauty, that designers are often tempted to make them meander
about the cover in a weak and aimless way. As the limitations enforced
by the use of gouges tend to keep the curves strong and small, and as
the use of the small fillet tends to the production of long, weak
curves, students are advised at first to restrict the curved lines in
their patterns to such as can be readily worked with gouges.
[Illustration: FIG. 111.]
It must be remembered that a gouge or fillet line is very thin, and
will look weak if it goes far without support. For this reason
interlaced lines are advocated.
Gouge lines are easier to work, and look better, if a small space is
left where the gouges end. This is especially the case where lines
bearing leaves or flowers branch from the main stem (see fig. 111).
Gouges and fillets need not always be of the same thickness of line,
and two or three sets of different gauges may be kept. A finisher can
always alter the thickness of a gouge with emery paper.
One method of arranging gold-tooled lines is to treat them in design
as if they were wires in tension, and knot and twist them together.
Provided the idea is consistently adhered to throughout, such a
pattern is often very successful.
[Illustration: FIG. 112.]
A simple arrangement of straight lines will be sufficient
ornamentation for most books. Three schemes for such ornamentation are
shown. In fig. 112 the "tie-downs" may be in "blind" and the lines in
gold. The arrangement shown at fig. 113 leaves a panel at the top
which may be utilised for lettering.
[Illustration: FIG. 113.]
[Illustration: FIG. 114.]
[Illustration: FIG. 115.]
[Illustration: FIG. 115.]
DESIGNING FOR BACKS
The decoration of the back of a book is difficult owing to the very
small space usually available in the panels. The first consideration
must be the lettering, and when that has been arranged, as described
in Chapter XV, a second paper is got out for the pattern. The back
panel should generally be treated in the same style and, if possible,
with the same tools as the sides, if they are decorated. It will often
be found far easier to design a full-gilt side than a satisfactory
back.
A design may be made to fit one panel of the book and repeated on all
those not required for lettering (see pages 332-34), or it may be made
to grow up from panel to panel (see fig. 115). In the case of sets of
books in which the volumes vary very much in thickness, some pattern
must be made that can be contracted and expanded without altering the
general look of the back (see fig. 115).
DESIGNING FOR INSIDE OF BOARDS
The inside margins of the board permit of a little delicate
decoration. At fig. 116 are shown two ways of treating this part of
the binding. The inside of the board is sometimes covered all over
with leather, and tooled as elaborately, or more elaborately, than the
outside. If there are vellum ends, they may be enriched with a little
tooling.
[Illustration: FIG. 116.]
The edges of the boards may have a gold line run on them, and the
head-cap may be decorated with a few dots.