Bookbinding, and the Care of Books Part 10

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 73.]

Autograph letters may be mounted in the following ways:--If the letter is written upon both sides of a single leaf, it may be either "inlaid," or guarded, as shown at fig. 74, A. A letter on a folded sheet of notepaper should have the folds strengthened with a guard of strong thin paper, and be attached by a guard made, as shown at fig.

74, B; or if on very heavy paper, by a double guard, as shown at fig.

74, C. Torn edges of letters may be strengthened with thin j.a.panese paper.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 74.]

Thin paper, written or printed only on one side, may be mounted on a page of the book. It is better to attach these by their extreme edges only, as if pasted down all over they may cause the leaves to curl up.

Letters or any writing or drawing in lead pencil should be fixed with size before being inserted.

Silver prints of photographs are best mounted with some very quick-drying paste, such as that sold for the purpose by the photographic dealers. If the leaf on which they are mounted is slightly damped before the photograph is pasted down, it will be less likely to c.o.c.kle. If this is done, waterproof sheets should be put on each side of the leaf while it dries. If photographs are attached by the edges only, they will not be so liable to draw the paper on which they are mounted; but sometimes they will not lie flat themselves.

In cases where very thick letters or papers have to be pasted in, a few more leaves of the book should be cut out, to make a corresponding thickness at the back.

VELLUM BINDINGS

Vellum covers may be limp without boards, and merely held in place by the slips being laced through them, or they may be pasted down on boards in much the same way as leather.

If the edges of a book for limp vellum binding are to be trimmed or gilt, that should be done before sewing. For the ends a folded piece of thin vellum may replace the paste-down paper. The sewing should be on strips of vellum. The back is left square after glueing, and headbands are worked as for leather binding, or may be worked on strips of leather, with ends left long enough to lace into the vellum (see p. 151). The back and headbands are lined with leather, and the book is ready for the cover.

A piece of vellum should be cut out large enough to cover the book, and to leave a margin of an inch and a half all round. This is marked with a folder on the under side, as shown at fig. 75, A. s.p.a.ces 1 and 2 are the size of the sides of the book with surrounding squares; s.p.a.ce 3 is the width of the back, and s.p.a.ce 4 the width for the overlaps on the fore-edge. The corners are cut, as shown at 5, and the edges are folded over, as at B. The overlap 4 is then turned over, and the back folded, as at C. The slips are now laced through slits made in the vellum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 75.]

A piece of loose, toned paper may be put inside the cover to prevent any marks on the book from showing through; and pieces of silk ribbon of good quality are laced in as shown, going through both cover and vellum ends, if there are any, and are left with ends long enough to tie (see fig. 76).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 76.]

If paper ends are used, the silk tape need only be laced through the cover, and the end paper pasted over it on the inside.

Another simple way of keeping a vellum book shut is shown at fig. 77.

A bead is attached to a piece of gut laced into the vellum, and a loop of catgut is laced in the other side, and looped over the bead as shown.

If the book is to have stiff boards, and the vellum is to be pasted to them, it is best to sew the sections on tapes or vellum slips, to back the book as for leather, and to insert the ends of the slips in a split board, leaving a French joint, as described for library bindings. Vellum is very stiff, and, if it is pasted directly to the back, the book would be hard to open. It is best in this case to use what is known as a hollow back.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 77.]

To make a hollow back, a piece of stout paper is taken which measures once the length of the back and three times the width. This is folded in three. The centre portion is glued to the back and well rubbed down, and the overlapping edges turned back and glued one to the other (fig. 78). This will leave a flat, hollow casing, formed by the single paper glued to the back of the book and the double paper to which the vellum may be attached. Or it is better to line up the back with leather, and to place a piece of thick paper the size of the back on to the pasted vellum where the back will be when the book is covered.

When the book is ready for covering, the vellum should be cut out and lined with paper. In lining vellum the paste must be free from lumps, and great care must be taken not to leave brush marks. To avoid this, when the lining paper has been pasted it can be laid, paste downwards, on a piece of waste paper and quickly pulled up again; this should remove surplus paste and get rid of any marks left by the brush. When the vellum has been lined with paper, it should be given a light nip in the press between blotting-paper, and while still damp it is pasted, the book covered, and the corners mitred. A piece of thin string is tied round the head-caps and pressed into the French joint.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 78.]

Waterproof sheets are placed inside the covers, and the book then nipped in the press and left to dry under a light weight. If the vellum is very stiff and difficult to turn in, it may be moistened with a little warm water to soften it.

Books with raised bands have sometimes been covered with vellum, but the back becomes so stiff and hard, that this method, though it looks well enough, cannot be recommended. Vellum is a durable material, and can be had of good quality, but it is so easily influenced by changes of temperature, that it is rather an unsuitable material for most bindings.

BOOKS COVERED WITH EMBROIDERY AND WOVEN MATERIAL

To cover a book with embroidered material bind it with split boards, a French joint, and a hollow back, as described for vellum (see fig.

78). Glue the back of the book with thin glue well worked up, and turning in the head and tail of the embroidery, put the book down on it so that the back will come exactly in the right place. Press down the embroidery with the hand to make sure that it sticks. When it is firmly attached to the back, first one board and then the other should be glued, and the embroidery laid down on it. Lastly, the edges are glued and stuck down on the inside of the board, and the corners mitred. Velvet or any other thick material can be put down in the same way. For very thin material that the glue would penetrate and soil, the cover should be left loose, and only attached where it turns in. A loose lining of good paper may be put between the book and the cover.

The inside corners where the cover has been cut should be neatly sewn up. The edges of the boards and head-caps may be protected all round with some edging worked in metal thread. It is well in embroidering book covers to arrange for some portion of the pattern to be of raised metal st.i.tches, forming bosses that will protect the surface from wear.

Should any glue chance to get on the surface, the cover should be held in the steam of a kettle and the glue wiped off, and the cover again steamed.

CHAPTER XIV

Decoration--Tools--Finishing--Tooling on Vellum--Inlaying on Leather

DECORATION OF BINDING--TOOLS

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).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 the leather.

Tools for blind tooling are best "die-sunk," that is, cut like a seal.

The "sunk" part of the face of the tool, which may be more or less modelled, forms the pattern, and the higher part depresses the leather to form a ground. In tools for gold tooling, the surface of the tool gives the pattern.

Tools may be either complex or simple in design, that is to say, each tool may form a complete design with enclosing border, as the lower ones on page 323, or it may be only one element of a design, as at fig. 100. Lines may be run with a fillet (see fig. 88), or made with gouges or pallets.

Gouges are curved line tools. They are made in sets of arcs of concentric circles (see fig. 80, A). The portion of the curves cut off by the dotted line C will make a second set with flatter curves.

Gouges are used for tooling curved lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 80.]

A "pallet" may be described as a segment of a roll or fillet set in a handle, and used chiefly for putting lines or other ornaments across the backs of books (see fig. 81). A set of one-line pallets is shown at fig. 80, B.

Fillets are cut with two or more lines on the edge. Although the use of double-line fillets saves time, I have found that a few single-line fillets with edges of different gauges are sufficient for running all straight lines, and that the advantage of being able to alter the distances between any parallel lines is ample compensation for the extra trouble involved by their use. In addition to the rigid stamps, an endless pattern for either blind or gold tooling may be engraved on the circ.u.mference of a roll, and impressed on the leather by wheeling.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 81.]

The use of a roll in finishing dates from the end of the fifteenth century, and some satisfactory bindings were decorated with its aid.

The ease with which it can be used has led in modern times to its abuse, and I hardly know of a single instance of a modern binding on which rolls have been used for the decoration with satisfactory results. The gain in time and trouble is at the expense of freedom and life in the design; and for extra binding it is better to build up a pattern out of small tools of simple design, which can be arranged in endless variety, than to use rolls.

Tools for hand-tooling must not be too large, or it will be impossible to obtain clear impressions. One inch square for blind tools, or three-quarters of an inch for gold tools, is about the maximum size for use with any certainty and comfort. Tools much larger than this have to be worked with the aid of a press, and are called blocks.

FINISHING