Manual of Library Bookbinding Practical and Historical
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MANUAL OF LIBRARY BOOKBINDING PRACTICAL AND HISTORICAL BY HENRY T.iCOUTTS Branch Librarian Islington Public Libraries; Member of the Book Production Committee of the Library Association; Hon. Secretary Library Assistants' Association; AND GEO. A. STEPHEN Chief Assistant Librarian St Pancras Public Libraries; Member of the Book Production Committee of the Library Association; Author of "Commercial Bookbindinf^." WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DOUGLAS COCKERELL Author of " Bookbinding and the Care of Books," Examiner for the City and Guilds of London Institute, etc. WITH SPECIMENS OF LEATHERS AND CLOTHS. FORMS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON: Libraco Limited c/^\f / G. Printed at THE ARDEN PRESS. " Bound in " LEGAL BUCKRAM by W. H. SMITH & SON. Backed with Flexible Glue and cased with cold book g^lue of the ARABOL MANUFACTURING CO. The boards are T. <5? W. LUNNON'S best quality of machine-made millboards. C8C5 niy PREFACE. THE aim of this Manual is not to supersede the existing treatises on the craft of bookbinding, such as those by Messrs Cockerell and Zaehnsdorf, but to supplement such works by giving prominence to those phases of the subject which are of practical interest to the librarian, and incident- ally to the bookbinder who specializes in library binding. An endeavour has been made to give a succinct account of the pro- cesses of binding at the present day, by describing the methods of hand and machine binding respectively; to indicate the essential features of library binding; to describe and give actual examples of some of the best and most suitable materials for library binding; to describe the different methods of recording and checking books despatched to the binder; to give practi- cal information on the equipment of small binderies in libraries, and on the repairing of books, as well as to give recipes, miscellaneous information, and a glossary of terms. In preparing this work the Library Association's Professional Examinations were kept in view, with the object of affording information useful to students; for this reason an historical sketch of book- binding has been included, which, it is hoped, will provide an adequate introduction to the subject, the information being drawn from the best sources. Our best thanks are due and are hereby tendered to Mr. A. J Macdonald, for preparing the sketches of the various diagrams included herein; to the Editor of the Bookbinding Trades Jour- nal, for the loan of blocks of bindings and book-edges included vii 613930 in the historical section; to the Royal Society of Arts for per- mission to reproduce three diagrams; to Messrs Hampson, Bettridge & Co. for the loan of a block ; to the various firms who have provided cuttings of materials; and to our several colleagues who have willingly rendered assistance. To Mr Douglas Cockerell we desire to express our appreci- ation of his services in reading the proofs, and in offering practical advice concerning the book. A library binding requires good workmanship and good materials, for which librarians should be prepared to pay the price. If this book contributes to these desiderata its object will be attained. H.T.C. December, 1910 G.A.S. vui INTRODUCTION THIS book, written from the standpoint of the librarian of a public library, cannot fail to be of great interest to all who have to do with the binding of books. Mr Stephen's experience has given him unequalled facilities for studying the relative durability of the various binding ma- terials and methods of binding. He and his collaborator, hke all hbrarians, have to com- plain of the poor quality of the paper used for so many books. This is an old and famihar complaint, well justified by the facts. The truth is that Bookbinding is only one branch of the Master Craft of Book Production. In course of time it has be- come isolated, and to this cause can be traced many of the faults of modern books. To produce a satisfactory book it must be designed as a whole; the paper must be of the right weight for the size of the page; the type area must be designed to fit the page, and the pages must be made up into sections of the right thickness. Too often the binder is handed letterpress printed on rotten paper that cannot be held securely by the sewing thread, to- gether with a number of plates, stiff like playing-cards, and he is blamed if he fails to make a satisfactory volume from such ill-selected materials. A binder can easily make a bad job of binding any book, but there are many books that it is beyond his power to bind in a satisfactory way. The authors naturally have much to say as to binding ix specifications and forms of tender for binding. While un- doubtedly these things have a useful side, they are, in the hands of indiscriminating librarians, a possible source of dan- ger. Rigid specifications and fonns of tender have undoubtedly brought down the price of public library binding to a very low point in cost and in technique. The price paid is so low that it is impossible for the binder to give that attention to the needs of individual books that is so necessary if satisfactory work is to be turned out. It would often pay to give a binder of good standing rather a freer hand than is usual. He usually knows more about his business than the average librarian or library committee can possibly do. Competition on price alone is not healthy; quality as well as price should be considered. As a binder I am very glad to welcome this book, which shows on every page the painstaking care of the writers. DOUGLAS COCKERELL, Controller, W. H. Smith and Son's Binding Workshops, Letchworth. CONTENTS PAGE Preface vii Introduction by Douglas Cockerell ix PART I. PRACTICAL. I. Hand Bookbinding i II. Machine Bookbinding 14 III. Library Bookbinding 28 IV. Materials 42 V. History and Principles of Paper-making ... 62 VI. Modern Book Paper 74 VII. Tender and Specification 83 VIII. Records and Checks 93 IX. Home Binderies no X. Book-Repairing 125 XL General Information and Recipes 139 PART II. HISTORICAL. XIL Early History of Bookbinding 153 XIII. Bookbinding in Italy 161 XIV. Bookbinding in France 171 XV. Bookbinding in Germany and the Netherlands . 183 XVI. Bookbinding in England. Embroidered Book- bindings. Book-edge Decoration. Publishers' Bindings 194 GLOSSARY 221 INDEX 245 XI MANUAL OF LIBRARY BOOKBINDING CHAPTER I HAND BOOKBINDING By Geo. A. Stephen 1. The binding of books at the present day is divided into two main classes, viz. " bound " work, which is effected by hand labour, and " cased " work, which is produced almost entirely by machinery. There are many differences between the two me- " thods; the essential difference is that the boards of a " bound book are securely attached to the book before the covering material is attached, whereas the cover of a " cased " book is made separately and then simply stuck to the sides of the book. The present chapter will briefly describe the successive opera- tions for hand-work; these do not differ very much from the methods that obtained two or three centuries ago, although from a mechanical point of view the hand-made bindings of the present day generally combine strength and elegance to a greater degree. The various processes in bookbinding are divided into two large branches, viz. " forwarding " and " finishing." The term " fonvarding " is applied to all the processes from folding (but strictly it should be from sewing) to covering and pasting down; and " finishing " is applied to all the subsequent operations, which comprise lettering, tool- ing, polishing, and so forth. 2. If the bookbinder receives the book in sheets from the printer, the first operation is to fold them in sections. Books vary in size according to the size of the printed sheets and the number of folds given to them. The ordinary defined sizes of books are known as folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo, etc., and these sizes signify the number of leaves into which a B 2 MANUAL OF LIBRARY BOOKBINDING sheet is folded. Thus a foho consists of sheets folded once, making two leaves or four pages; a quarto has sheets folded twice, making four leaves or eight pages; and an octavo has sheets folded three times, making eight leaves or sixteen pages. According to the size of the book the sheets are folded into four, eight or sixteen or more leaves to form a " section," the top of which is known as the " head," the bottom as the " tail," and the front edge as the " fore-edge." This folding is done with great rapidity by the application of a bone fold- ing knife, the sheets being doubled and doubled again until the desired number of folds has been made; needless to say, great accuracy must be observed in this operation to see that the headlines and margins are perfectly even. 3. If a book has already been bound or cased, it is first taken to pieces, or " pulled," as this operation is technically termed. To separate a cased book from its cover the boards should be opened until they meet at the back; a knife may then be inserted between the co\'er and the book, and a cut made through the whole length of the hinge of mull and the tapes or cords, first at the front and afterwards at the back of the book. If the book has been bound the slips (i.e. the tapes or cords) which are laced to the boards must be carefully cut before the boards can be removed.