University of California Berkeley 
 
 Gift of 
 CHARLOTTE AND NORMAN STROUSE 
 

The Publication Committee of the Grolier Club certify that this is one 
 of three hundred copies of a special edition of Modern Bookbinding Prac- 
 tically Considered, on Holland paper, and of three copies on vellum, all 
 of demy quarto size, which were printed in the month of November, 1889. 
 
MODERN BOOKBINDING 
 PEACTICALLY CONSIDERED 
 
THE ALHAMBRA. 
 
 OUTSIDE DESIGN. 
 
MODERN BOOKBINDING 
 PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED 
 
 A LECTURE 
 
 BEAD BEFOEE THE GROLIER CLUB OF NEW-YORK, MARCH 25, 1885 
 WITH ADDITIONS AND NEW ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM MATTHEWS 
 
 NEW-YORK 
 THE GKOLIER CLUB 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIX 
 
Copyright, 1889, by William Matthews. 
 
 The De Vinne Press. 
 
A DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTEATIONS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 1. THE ALDINE STYLE. (Italian.) 68 
 
 A contemporary design. The ornaments are of solid 
 face and not formed into scrolls. The frame is formed 
 of simple geometrical figures. 
 
 2. THE MAIOLI STYLE. (Italian.) 70 
 
 A contemporary design. The ornaments are chiefly 
 azured, which the reproduction but faintly illustrates. 
 The two shields are inlaid with color, and the inner field 
 is studded with gold dots enriching the center in contrast 
 to the outer field of the design. The scroll-work is graceful 
 and masterly. 
 
 3. THE G-ROLIER STYLE. (French.) 72 
 
 A contemporary design. The ornaments are all azured. 
 The frame is elaborately designed and intersected, form- 
 ing the chief feature of the design. The scroll-work is 
 meager and stiff. 
 
 4. THE EVE STYLE. (French.) 74 
 
 A contemporary design. The ornaments are circular 
 scrolls, flowers and branches. The frame is composed of 
 many variously shaped compartments skillfully connected 
 by intersected circles, the centers of which are filled with 
 flowers and circular scrolls. The branches of laurel and 
 other foliage surrounding these compartments form the 
 chief feature of an five design. 
 
 5. THE GASCON STYLE. (French.) 76 
 
 A contemporary design. The frame is similar in its com- 
 partments and connections to an five design. The orna- 
 ments are dotted on the face instead of solid line. This 
 dotted ornament is the distinguishing feature of a Gascon 
 design. 
 
PAGE. 
 
 6. THE KOGER PAYNE STYLE. (English.) 80 
 
 A contemporary design for a copy of u La Pucelle." 
 Though small this is a good example of the style. The 
 ornaments are characteristically floral and graceful in the 
 stalk. They are arranged in individual and not in con- 
 nected form. There is an entire absence of scroll-work 
 and fillets. Roger Payne seldom failed to decorate appro- 
 priately, so the wreath border and the fleur-de-lis are thus 
 used in this instance. The gold-dot studding a la Maioli, 
 another feature of this style, is shown in the four center 
 corners, and it is evident the four corners of the border 
 were intended to be studded in like manner. 
 
 7. A MODERN DESIGN (1853). (American.) . . Frontispiece 
 
 For a copy of the " Alhambra " by Owen Jones. The 
 cover is of light brown or yellow russia. The frame of the 
 outside design is inlaid with red and the panels with blue 
 morocco, leaving the scroll-work yellow. The frame of 
 the border of the inside design is inlaid with blue with the 
 intersected and quartered circles and diamonds in red. 
 The panel is of white vellum, the fillet and half-diamond 
 figures of which are inlaid with blue and the full- diamond 
 figures with yellow morocco. A special feature of this 
 design is its complete decorative treatment in outline, 
 without the aid of engraved ornaments. 
 
 8. A MODERN DESIGN (1865). (American.) 94 
 
 For a copy of Longmans' edition of the " New Testa- 
 ment," bound by William Matthews of New- York. The 
 cover is of light brown morocco. The frame is inlaid with 
 light blue and the centers of the four symbolic figures with 
 red. The scroll-work interlacing the frame fills every com- 
 partment without crowding and is graceful and masterly. 
 This design exemplifies perfectly a complete decorative 
 treatment without the aid of engraved tools, and the illus- 
 tration affords proof of the exactness of its execution. 
 
THE ALHAMBRA. 
 
 INSIDE DESIGN. 
 
AN ADDRESS ON MODERN BOOKBINDING 
 PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED. 
 
 HAVE been requested by the Council of 
 the Grolier Club to address you on the 
 subject of Modern Bookbinding Practi- 
 cally Considered. I take it for granted 
 that this means Extra Binding. By Extra Binding I 
 mean that which the binder is called upon to do for 
 private libraries, in distinction from publishers' work, 
 the former being chiefly done by hand, the latter by 
 machinery. It may be well to observe that these two 
 branches are distinct in character, and the processes 
 
10 MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 employed in each are so different that they demand 
 separate description. 
 
 Had I chosen the title of my address I would have 
 omitted the term "Modern," because I think the Com- 
 mercial binding of the day deserves that term, in dis- 
 tinction from the Library style which we designate as 
 "Extra Binding," the general character of which has 
 many features and processes resembling those of cen- 
 turies ago. The mechanical processes by which we 
 bind the enormous issues of the modern printing 
 press are the results largely American, I am pleased 
 to say of modern invention. When I was born, 
 the present cloth fabric that is now used so exten- 
 sively for commercial binding was then unknown. 
 Publishers' work was then bound in paper-covered 
 boards, with a paper label a style attractive to the 
 eye of the modern collector, as it insures him uncut 
 edges, unwrinkled and lightly sawed back, and the 
 absence of faults which machinery has introduced. 
 This machine binding, in spite of its faults, deserves 
 in a sense to be commended, for by the result of much 
 ingenuity it meets the demands of speed and cheap- 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEEED. 11 
 
 ness and affords a style of ornamentation suitable to 
 the requirements of the masses. A history of the 
 growth of this branch of bookbinding would not only 
 be interesting in setting forth the development of the 
 various machines and the struggles of their inventors, 
 but I am sure the statistics of its growth and capa- 
 bilities would appear marvelous to us. 
 
 I assume, however, that "Extra," or fine handwork, 
 binding is my subject, and that as it is principally 
 practiced in our time. Mine is not the pleasure to 
 narrate the historic past, with all its chivalry and 
 romance when kings and queens, nobles and men 
 of letters, all aspired to have their favorite authors 
 bound in tapestry and velvet, bedecked with rare and 
 costly jewels; when ivory and gold were none too 
 rich for their missals ; and when, at a later period, 
 artists of high repute invented designs for the decora- 
 tion of the covers, of such excellence that they have 
 served as patterns for all time since. No, that has 
 already been well done by our president ; but mine is 
 the more prosaic duty to describe as practically as 
 possible the principles of the art. To impart all 
 
12 MODEKN BOOKBINDING 
 
 important information regarding the manufacture of 
 books, to give every facility to its members to 
 acquire a knowledge of the art of book-making, and 
 to encourage the various branches connected there- 
 with is, as I understand it, the aim and purpose of 
 the Grrolier Club. I believe it is not by what we indi- 
 vidually accomplish, but by what we severally impart 
 to others, that Art is advanced ; and therefore I 
 cheerfully undertake to do my part, trusting in your 
 kind indulgence. My effort will be to specify the 
 principles that I consider constitute good binding : 
 not to describe all the minute processes necessary to 
 make you amateur binders, as most of the treatises 
 on the art attempt ; but to impart that information 
 which will qualify you to know the characteristics of 
 a well-bound book, to enable you to order your bind- 
 ing in a clear and technical manner, and to qualify 
 you with the ability of an expert to judge of the 
 excellences and defects of a binding, for in every 
 specimen both will be found. For, believe me, I have 
 never in my long experience seen a binding perfect 
 in all its parts. 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 13 
 
 It is a very important art : it has been patronized 
 and encouraged "by the learned and the wealthy in all 
 ages of its existence. Its purpose is to permanently 
 preserve the best and noblest thoughts of mankind. 
 It has made possible the founding of libraries, thus 
 preserving the literature of ages and affording the 
 student a facility of reference. Joined with printing, 
 of which it is a necessary part, it has afforded more 
 pleasure and happiness to people of culture than any 
 other art. And it is eminently deserving the study 
 and effort of patrons and artisans to raise it to a 
 higher perfection than it has ever reached. 
 
 It is also a difficult art. I think its difficulties 
 should be considered and borne in mind by every 
 patron and criticizing connoisseur. I may be very 
 ignorant of the difficulties of other arts that have 
 been mastered more successfully, but from the fact 
 that my own has for ages received such great patron- 
 age and encouragement, and that the productions of 
 the most eminent and successful of my craft are at 
 the best very imperfect, I am convinced that there 
 are difficulties peculiar to bookbinding. Every single 
 
14 MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 book that the binder receives requires a somewhat 
 different treatment that is, the processes must be 
 modified according to the material that constitutes 
 the book, or to the style that the caprice of his cus- 
 tomer demands. The publisher and the printer too 
 often ignore the possibilities of the binder's art 
 supplying him with paper as rigid as iron or as spongy 
 as tissue, and then looking for flexibility in the one 
 and solidity in the otner. Connected as binding is 
 with printing, and dependent as the printer is upon 
 the binder to set forth his art to good advantage, it is 
 wonderful how little the latter is consulted either in 
 the paper or form of imposition of any publication. 
 Another, difficulty is the sensitiveness, as it were, of 
 the material he has to work with and its unavoidable 
 imperfections. Leather cannot be procured without 
 some flaws the rugged and hardy goat must get 
 many a scratch and scar on his valuable hide, and his 
 skin should not be expected without blemish. Leather 
 also contracts with heat and expands with cold. Take 
 any of your well-seasoned bindings from a cool library 
 into an overheated parlor and you will soon observe 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEEED. 15 
 
 the curling of the upper cover. The millboard also 
 that he uses, however well seasoned, is subject to 
 damp and dryness, and the gold-leaf to the influence 
 of climate and impure gas. But the difficulty more 
 annoying than all is the demand which the arbitrary 
 fancies of ignorant customers often make, breaking 
 through all rules and established principles. Some 
 of these demands are so ridiculous that they are only 
 equaled by the request of the pious old lady who 
 desired a Bible made for her of large pica print of 
 pocket size. In your criticisms, therefore, on book- 
 binding weigh well these difficulties : Is the paper of 
 the book substantial enough to be made solid, or 
 pliable enough to be made flexible ? Is the morocco 
 of good quality though it has a flaw on its surface ? 
 Does the board warp and the gold tarnish because of 
 influences over which the binder has no control, and, 
 above all, is the taste displayed the binder's own or 
 that of his patron ? In addition to these difficulties 
 with the material part, it must also be borne in mind 
 that the mechanical parts of the binding are so 
 numerous and so dependent on each other that I 
 
16 MODERN BOOKBINDING 
 
 avow it would be almost a miracle if the binding 
 in all its parts was perfect. 
 
 Let me briefly mention these : Folding, Beating 
 and Pressing, Collating, Sewing, Papering, Bounding, 
 Backing, Cutting, Squaring of Boards, Gilding or 
 Coloring of Edges, Headbanding, Lining of Back, 
 Covering and Finishing not only with appropriate 
 design but in the perfect working of every separate 
 tool, besides many less important points, upon the 
 perfection of each of which the excellence of all the 
 other parts more or less depends. 
 
 The modern extra binder is a lineal descendant of 
 the ancient binder; his principles are the same, his 
 methods and tools are almost identical with those 
 used by the craft four hundred years ago the beat- 
 ing hammer, the sewing frame, the forwarder's ham- 
 mer, laying press, and cutting plow; and the finisher's 
 tools, fillets, and rolls are all similar to his. 
 
 Modern workmanship chiefly differs from the old 
 in its greater exactness and neatness ; its mechanism 
 is identical, but it is often lacking in the solidity and 
 strength of the old. The sewing of many old volumes 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDERED. 17 
 
 is as good to-day as when it was done centuries ago. 
 The old binder's aim was undoubtedly strength ; his 
 crudity of workmanship was largely owing to the 
 means he adopted to obtain this strength, and to his 
 application in all the branches of his art. By the 
 division of labor we are in general the gainers of 
 an exactness and neatness unknown to the ancient 
 binder. 
 
 The principal branches or departments of Extra 
 Binding are : 
 
 First, The Preparing, or getting ready. 
 
 Second, The Forwarding. 
 
 Third, The Covering. 
 
 Fourth, The Finishing, or decoration of the cover. 
 
 The preparing, or getting ready, involves the fold- 
 ing, or the pulling to pieces (if the volume has been 
 previously bound), the beating and pressing, the 
 plating, or insertion of illustrations, the collating, 
 and the sewing. 
 
 In getting ready the volume for binding, three of 
 the most important principles of a well-bound book 
 
18 MODEEN BOOKBINDING 
 
 are involved. These are Solidity, Strength, and 
 Flexibility. So important are these, I care not how 
 handsomely the cover is finished, whether by a 
 Trautz, a Cape, or a Lortic, the binding will be 
 lamentably deficient if these principles are not ob- 
 served. A careful master binder gives this depart- 
 ment his chief care, directing the initiatory parts of 
 the work with an intelligent foresight of the ulti- 
 mate requirements of the binding. The success of 
 his workmanship very largely depends on the volume 
 being properly prepared. 
 
 We all know that the printed sheet is so imposed 
 by the printer that it cannot be read until it is 
 folded, and that the several sheets do not become a 
 book until they are arranged consecutively. On true 
 folding depends equal margins and squareness of page. 
 
 The rules to observe in this department, though 
 simple, are important. The* first is careful collating. 
 The late Mr. James Lenox, whose equal among col- 
 lectors in this respect I never knew, collated every 
 volume before he sent it to, and after he received it 
 from, the binder. The bill was paid as soon as he 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEKED. 19 
 
 found every leaf perfect, both blank and printed; 
 never before. I shall never forget my first visit to 
 his house, where he summoned me on business. The 
 maid who admitted me locked the front door, taking 
 the key with her, and then closed the inner one, leav- 
 ing me standing in the vestibule a prisoner. I recol- 
 lect my sensation at the peculiarity of my situation. 
 Mr. Lenox, however, soon came, transacted his busi- 
 ness with me in the vestibule, and when through 
 unlocked the outer door and let me go, I none the 
 wiser as to the beautiful house and its contents. At 
 my next visit I was admitted to the inner hall, and 
 ultimately, after many visits, to his splendid library. 
 From him I first learned how to split paper, and some 
 of his De Bry I perfected with illustrations split off 
 from duplicate copies. He was one of the few col- 
 lectors who knew the inside as well as the outside of 
 his collection. 
 
 From his careful collating I made the rule that 
 every book of value, on its receipt, should be collated 
 page by page ; its title, preface, and list of contents 
 examined; if an illustrated book, every plate checked 
 
20 MODEKN BOOKBINDING 
 
 by its list ; then, if found imperfect, I would have the 
 satisfaction of returning it to my customer in a con- 
 dition returnable by him to the person from whom 
 he had purchased it. If the volume is perfect it is 
 then divested of its old cover, and section by section 
 pulled apart or separated, and every thread and 
 particle of old glue removed. For the better beating 
 and pressing of the volume the illustrations or maps, 
 if any, are removed, then the texture of the paper 
 and date of publication are examined, and the vol- 
 ume subjected to beating and pressing accordingly. 
 If, as in many old volumes, the impressions of the 
 type are heavy, the leaves should be damped and 
 pressed in smooth boards, for no book can be made 
 solid with these impressions in. For the permanent 
 solidity of the volume beating is the best process to 
 obtain it. A spongy book is very unsatisfactory. No 
 process of pressing or rolling is equal to the old- 
 fashioned beating hammer. The impression of the 
 types having stretched the center of the page some- 
 what, while the margins have received no impression, 
 confines the stretch to the center, causing the cock- 
 
PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED. 21 
 
 ling that is always observed in old books. This 
 renders it necessary that the margins be equally 
 stretched by the hammer to give freedom to the swell. 
 Beating as it used to be practiced is now almost a lost 
 art. The workman takes eight or ten sheets in his 
 left hand, and with a hammer of twelve or fourteen 
 pounds weight in his right hand brings successive 
 blows on the sheets on a solid block of stone or iron, 
 shifting the sheets at every blow. 
 
 From the fear of set-off, books newly printed can 
 be beat only on the margins; but old printed vol- 
 umes should be beat all over the page. After this 
 the sheets in thin sections must be pressed for 
 twenty-four hours in smooth boards in a screw 
 or hydraulic press. Sometimes with very old books 
 it is necessary to repeat the operation; and here I 
 would remark that if the patron knew how often, 
 to produce first-class work, the binder has to repeat 
 his processes, he would be less strict in confining 
 him to a price. Good, conscientious binding cannot 
 be obtained without a frequent outlay of extra labor, 
 and therefore no comparison should be used by a 
 
22 MODEKN BOOKBINDING 
 
 patron of the dishonest work of one binder to reduce 
 the honest price of another. When the volume is 
 taken out of press every leaf should lie flat and the 
 volume should be as solid as a brick, provided the 
 paper is of proper quality. Many volumes bound in 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have large 
 notches cut in the back for the twine bands ; these 
 notches should be repaired if the volume is required 
 in best binding. The result will well repay the 
 tedious operation. 
 
 All plates and maps that have been removed can 
 now be replaced. If the illustrations are on thick 
 paper, they should be guarded with jaconet on both 
 sides ; if on moderately thin paper, one side will suf- 
 fice. The jaconet should then, to insure the free 
 opening up of the illustration to the back of the 
 book, be brought round the sheet, or section of the 
 sheet, to avoid the pasting of the illustration to the 
 leaf it backs or faces. This will insure flexibility 
 and free opening. The book, having been handled 
 since first collated, should now, immediately before 
 sewing, be re-collated. First, see that the half title, 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 23 
 
 the full title, the dedication, the preface, the list of 
 contents, the list of illustrations, all precede the text 
 in the order named; then the text, and lastly the 
 index, if any. Second, check the illustrations by 
 the list and see that they face the required pages. 
 When the illustrations are printed lengthways of the 
 book always place them with the title running from 
 bottom to top of the page. Placing this class of 
 illustrations both ways, as practiced by some pic- 
 torial paper and magazine printers, is an error which 
 should be immediately corrected. When so placed 
 the reader, to view them, has to turn the volume 
 from left to right and from right to left, and if the 
 volume is large this is an annoying labor. Some few 
 argue the opposite of this rule by asserting that the 
 title or reading on the plate should always go to the 
 foredge ; but which is more important, a convenient 
 view of the illustration or its title ? Lastly, collate 
 the sheets by signature marks from beginning to end. 
 And now the all-important branch of sewing must 
 engage our attention. Strength and Flexibility are 
 the principles involved. Strength is the first princi- 
 
24 MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 pie in binding we all acknowledge its importance ; 
 it is, in fact, the economy of the whole art. Flex- 
 ibility, however, is necessary to the convenient and 
 comfortable use of every book; it is a luxurious 
 quality. In the perfect binding of any book both 
 these principles must exist the sheets must be 
 firmly and permanently secured, and yet the vol- 
 ume when bound must open flexibly and freely. To 
 insure both these principles in the sewing is a diffi- 
 cult problem for the binder to solve, considering 
 the variety of material that comes to his hand. If 
 the volume has been previously bound as the ma- 
 jority of the publications are at the present day by 
 machine methods, with deep saw-cuts in the back, 
 then it is useless to sew the book so flexibly that the 
 free opening of the sheets exposes these defects ; it 
 becomes rather a necessity to hide them by making 
 the back rigid and difficult to open ; but we all know 
 what a dreadful sacrifice of comfort this is to the 
 reader. Again, if the volume is composed of single 
 leaves, perhaps of thin text and heavy illustrations, 
 or if the age of the volume has rotted or weakened 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 25 
 
 the back of the sections, the style of sewing best 
 adapted to insure flexibility and strength cannot be 
 adopted. And not only has the binder to take into 
 consideration the material to be sewed, but also the 
 leather with which the volume is to be covered; 
 for all leathers are not equally suitable for a flexible 
 back. Calf, whether dull or polished in the finish, is 
 not suitable for a flexible back, nor is crushed levant, 
 owing to its polished surface ; because the free open- 
 ing of a flexible back will wrinkle and destroy the 
 finish of these leathers. For these leathers a par- 
 tially flexible style may be aimed at. This is un- 
 doubtedly the reason why all books bound in Paris 
 in crushed levant are so rigid and difficult to open. 
 The French binders prefer to preserve the beauty 
 of the finished back of their bindings rather than to 
 give their customers the luxury of a flexible binding. 
 With these and some other exceptions considered, 
 the style best adapted to insure strength and flex- 
 ibility is that technically styled Raised bands, or 
 Flexible sewing. Whenever it is practicable it is 
 the very best for durability and convenience. It is 
 
 4 
 
26 MODEEN BOOKBINDING 
 
 the method adopted by the old binders, not so much 
 on their part for flexibility, however, as for strength; 
 they used double bands generally thongs of raw- 
 hide suitable for lacing into their wooden boards. 
 Strength was their mam object, and thankful ought 
 we to be to them that not only was it aimed at but 
 secured. 
 
 The ami in our day is cheapness ; hence strength 
 in sewing is avoided. The sewing is so effectually 
 covered up in the binding that the public cannot 
 examine its quality, and are therefore easily hood- 
 winked. Efforts to depart long ago from the system 
 of the old binders caused a law to be enacted in 
 England fining any binder who sewed his books on 
 false bands. Eaised-band sewing requires no saw 
 marks; the needle's point is all that can be seen. 
 There are no gashes or furrows for the glue to fill 
 and rigidly bind the back ; the back is perfectly flex- 
 ible. There are five bands of hard twisted cord 
 which act as so many springs at the back, throwing 
 the sheets up to open freely without danger of strain. 
 The thread takes its course through the center of 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEEED. 27 
 
 the sheet, making in succession an entire circle of 
 each band, hugging them close to the sections, thus : 
 
 " ^ IS ~ 
 
 This style of sewing is specially suited for Bibles, 
 Cyclopaedias, Dictionaries, and books of reference ; in 
 fact, it should be employed in every case of fine bind- 
 ing where the material and the style of cover renders 
 it practicable. Morocco of an unpolished finish is the 
 best leather to use where this style of sewing is 
 adopted. It is three or four times the cost of the 
 ordinary, or sunk-band, sewing, and must not be 
 expected in cheap work. It must also be understood 
 that the bands upon which the sheets are sewed in 
 this style are the veritable bands on the back of the 
 book when finished, whereas in the ordinary style of 
 sewing false bands are used. Sunk-band is the ordi- 
 nary style of the book sewing of our time. Here the 
 sheets are sawed with three or five furrows to admit the 
 bands of twine and give the needle greater freedom. 
 The band, and the glue that sinks into these saw- 
 cuts, together with the back lining necessary to cover 
 them, render the back very stiff and rigid, giving a 
 
28 MODEEN BOOKBINDING 
 
 resistance to the free opening of the book, and when 
 force is used the result is often a broken back. The 
 sewing is also much weaker than in the raised-band 
 style, the thread only making a half instead of a full 
 circle of the band. This style of sewing is customary 
 on much of our best library work, because American 
 publishers have a greater regard for cheapness than 
 the fitness of their publications for rebinding. The 
 publishers of France and Germany favor the better 
 style by issuing most of their publications either in 
 paper or cloth sewed cheaply with a sharp pointed 
 needle, not needing saw marks. Every one who com- 
 pares an English and an American cloth-bound book 
 will observe how much more freely the English book 
 opens. True, it may be said the binding is too free 
 and the back not strong enough; but the English 
 consider cloth as a temporary binding, whereas we 
 try to make it a permanent one by sawing it and 
 glueing it, and lining it with muslin and paper, as 
 though flexibility was entirely abandoned as a prin- 
 ciple of bookbinding. Were our publishers of stand- 
 ard literature willing to pay two or three cents extra 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 29 
 
 per volume to have their publications sewed on tape 
 without saw-marks, they would effect a great im- 
 provement in binding and confer a benefit on the 
 book-loving community. A demand of this kind 
 would help to bring about what I have for some 
 time been promoting, the invention of a sewing 
 machine that did not require saw-cuts. 
 
 There is another style of sewing, called overcast- 
 ing, for single leaves, as in volumes of steel illus- 
 trations, music, and the like. Four or six of these 
 leaves are overcast neatly together and then sewed 
 through like folded sheets, but better still if the 
 illustrations are guarded with jaconet. The first 
 and last sheet of every well-bound book should be 
 overcast, as this enables these sheets the better to 
 hold the end-paper and withstand the working of 
 the boards. The sewing of the volume finishes the 
 work in the preparatory department, and the col- 
 lector will bear in mind the important principles 
 here involved solidity in the thorough beating and 
 pressing of the sheets, and the style of sewing that 
 will insure both strength and flexibility. If the book 
 
30 
 
 MODEEN BOOKBINDING. 
 
 is to be bound in morocco, and the sheets have 
 not been deeply sawed in, order the raised band 
 sewing; the difference of cost will be small on a 
 binding costing dollars. 
 
|HE volume now goes to the forwarding de- 
 partment. The term forwarding is some- 
 what technical, and implies that the volume 
 in this department is forwarded from the preparing 
 to the finishing. The processes here are largely 
 mechanical in distinction from the finishing; they 
 are more dependent on the skill of the hand than 
 the head. The chief principle involved is trueness. 
 Forwarding is literally the forming or shaping of 
 the book. The operations are the attaching of the 
 end-papers, the glueing, rounding, and backing of 
 the volume, the squaring and lacing in of the boards, 
 and the cutting of the edges. 
 
 The selection of suitable inside linings or ends has 
 always been a difficult question of taste and judg- 
 ment. That which is alike suitable, appropriate, and 
 beautiful cannot easily be obtained. In determining 
 the question it must be remembered the lining is the 
 
 31 
 
32 MODEEN BOOKBINDING 
 
 inside finish, to the cover, the first attraction on open- 
 ing it. The eye therefore seems to look for some- 
 thing in consonance with the cover not necessarily 
 similar in tint or richness, but either in harmony or 
 agreeable contrast. If the cover is plain the linings 
 may also be simple, though we often see exceptions 
 to this in richly decorated insides to Janseniste bind- 
 ing ; if the cover is handsomely tooled the linings are 
 more appropriate if rich. To establish their suitable- 
 ness the quality of the linings should be permanent 
 in character, especially in tint, resisting the grease of 
 the leather, the stain of paste, and the fading of color 
 by time. Their appropriateness and beauty depend 
 on the color and richness of the cover. Therefore 
 these points must be borne in mind in the selection. 
 
 The French, whom we are apt to acknowledge as 
 our best guides in taste, often select for the insides of 
 their handsome bindings moire silk ; but this does not 
 work well with leather, and is more pleasing to the 
 feminine eye than to the taste of either the binder or 
 collector. In their more costly bindings they adopt 
 the double style, which is leather inside the board 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 33 
 
 similar in quality though different in color to the 
 outside. This leads to expensive ornamentation and 
 only half solves the question, leaving the selection of 
 the fly-leaf a matter still to be determined. In their 
 ordinary library bindings they use marbled paper. 
 Crimson, lavender, and violet tinted papers were very 
 much used by Mackenzie, Lewis, and other English 
 binders during the time of Dibdin, who approved 
 their use ; but time has condemned them : they show 
 the stain of grease from the turning in leather and 
 by the fading of the colors. Marbled paper does not 
 show the stains of grease and paste, and is more 
 durable in color than the tinted paper. Unfortu- 
 nately, the bad taste of marblers and the careless 
 judgment of binders in selection have justly created 
 a distaste for marbled paper ; but its suitableness is 
 established by the use of centuries. Its permanent 
 character has been proved by time: it resists the 
 stains of grease and paste, and its colors are unfad- 
 ing. It is true it lacks the richness necessary for a 
 very richly decorated binding. In such case there 
 is nothing left but to adopt the double style. In 
 
34 MODEKN BOOKBINDING 
 
 general bindings I favor, from the lack of anything 
 better, marbled paper ; it should, however, be paper 
 of the very best quality, the marbling in good taste, 
 and the prevailing color either in harmony or agree- 
 able contrast with the color of the cover. If mar- 
 biers would produce patterns with the principal color 
 favoring or agreeable in contrast to the prevailing 
 shades of leather, instead of intermingling in a hodge- 
 podge manner every color they possess, they would 
 help to correct the distaste for marbled paper that 
 now prevails. I have lately had a paper marbled 
 with one color only it is a deep crimson; I have 
 used it in a volume covered in dark olive morocco, 
 and the effect is agreeable. Vellum fly-leaves are 
 very subject to the stain of the turning in leather 
 and are likely to warp and curl; they should only 
 be used for books printed on vellum, or for pur- 
 poses of inside decorative illumination. The richly 
 decorated papers introduced by De la Kue from de- 
 signs by Owen Jones, though extensively used many 
 years ago, did not become popular. In richness I 
 have never seen them surpassed. 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 35 
 
 The fly-leaves, whatever they may be, having been 
 securely attached, the volume is forwarded. Strength 
 and flexibility, the principles named as all impor- 
 tant in preparing the volume, are dependent in a 
 measure on the forwarding and covering processes : 
 for instance, strength in the thorough rubbing of 
 good and hot glue between the sections, and flexi- 
 bility in the careful lining of the back preparatory 
 to covering. But, as I have said, the important 
 principle to be observed in forwarding is trueness. 
 The form and shape of the book depends on the 
 forwarder, and the test of the quality of his work 
 is its trueness. The back of the volume must be 
 rounded true, otherwise when the foredge is cut the 
 concave of that edge will be untrue ; the millboards 
 must be squared truly, or the volume will stand 
 unevenly and the finisher's design be untrue; the 
 squares by these are meant the projections of the 
 boards that extend beyond the book when it is cut 
 must be equal and regulated in size according to the 
 size of the volume ; and, more important than all, 
 on trueness of cutting depends trueness of margins. 
 
36 MODEKN BOOKBINDING 
 
 The backing of the volume, which is the spreading 
 of the back with a hammer to form grooves for the 
 boards and joints for the book, must be exactly true, 
 or the boards will open askew like a door crookedly 
 hinged. Thus the processes of the forwarder are 
 important in the production of a well-bound book. 
 
 After the processes of glueing, rounding, and back- 
 ing, the boards are laced to the book with the bands 
 the volume was sewed on ; then the volume is placed 
 in the standing press for at least twenty-four hours 
 to set solidly the new form it has assumed. While 
 in the press the back is soaked with paste and all the 
 refuse or outside glue cleaned from it, rendering it 
 more flexible. When the back is dry the volume is 
 taken from the press, cut on the edges and then sent 
 to the gilder or marbler as the order may require. 
 
 A gilt edge is the only proper edge for a hand- 
 somely bound volume; the metal leaf preserves the 
 edge of the paper, dust is easily removed from it, and 
 it is elegant in appearance. Gilding over carmine or 
 marble adds richness and beauty to the edges. The 
 gilding of the f oredge in the round is very superior 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEKED. 37 
 
 to gilding flat, as in ordinary binding it is usually 
 done. As a collector, I should preserve uncut all 
 books that came into my hands in that state, gild- 
 ing the tops only; but if the edges have once been 
 cut and I desired a handsome and permanent bind- 
 ing, I should full gild. 
 
 It is often a doubtful point with the collector 
 what leather is best for the cover of his volumes. 
 This is best determined by a knowledge of the 
 qualities of the various skins. 
 
 Sheepskin is the commonest leather used for bind- 
 ing. When unsplit it is called a roan ; when split in 
 two the upper half is called a skiver, the under or 
 fleshy half a fleslier. The surface of sheep, whether 
 as a roan or skiver, is very tender, easily rubs, and 
 soon looks shabby. In the substance of a roan the 
 skin is fairly strong, but slightly weaker as a skiver. 
 
 I was called lately to see a law library by its bind- 
 ing committee. You know the profession has a style 
 of binding peculiar to itself a tan-colored sheep or 
 calf of an "underdone pie-crust" color, as I have 
 lately heard it called. I was astonished to see fully 
 
38 MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 one-eighth of the books with the hollow backs 
 broken at one joint and pointing out at right angles 
 from their proper position, like so many indexes or 
 open doors. I was shown .the rottenness of the 
 leather crumbling into dust and was asked the 
 reason. I informed the committee that the covers 
 of law books are generally washed with oxalic acid 
 to give them a clean appearance, and the binder is so 
 careless a chemist that its strength is seldom tested 
 with accuracy ; that this, with the heat and gas of 
 the library, soon renders the leather as rotten as 
 blotting-paper. This, then, as one of the committee 
 observed, is one of the tricks of the trade. I recom- 
 mended a morocco back, and with a view to suiting 
 their taste in color I bound them a volume in a tan- 
 colored morocco, but I fear the few extra cents of 
 expense caused them to resolve to continue sheep- 
 skin, and even skiver sheep at that. I know that if 
 morocco backs were used in the binding of volumes 
 in all our public libraries the binding bills would be 
 less in the long run and the volumes less often 
 absent from their shelves to the binder's. Eepeated 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEEED. 39 
 
 rebinding is destructive to books. Library commit- 
 tees as a rule adopt a false cheapness. Wlien Dr. 
 Cogswell was organizing the Astor Library, over 
 thirty-five years ago, he insisted on having a con- 
 siderable number of the volumes he collected bound 
 in blue skiver backs and corners. Low prices he 
 certainly attained : he afterwards prided himself on 
 getting so many books bound for so little money. 
 How long these bindings stood I know not ; if any of 
 them are still intact they must have been very little 
 used. Sheepskin is therefore not durable for the 
 covers of books that are to receive much usage, nor 
 is it suitable for elegant finish. 
 
 Of late years a skin has been introduced for 
 bookbinding called a Persian, or bastard; in the 
 substance it is as strong as goatskin and resists 
 tearing, but on the surface is tender like sheep 
 and shows many imperfections. It is by far a 
 better skin than sheep for school and library books. 
 It is very little higher in price than roan. Calfskin, 
 especially the colored calf of English manufacture, 
 is very beautiful. It is soft and pleasant to the 
 
40 MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 hand; its delicate tints and brilliant colors, with 
 contrasting colored labels for titles, add variety 
 and much beauty to the bookcase. True, it soils 
 from the moist hand and is not in strength as 
 desirable as we would wish, but is nevertheless an 
 excellent leather for the covers of duodecimos and 
 is very suitable for ordinary standard literature. 
 I will say here that I do not recommend pol- 
 ished calf or tree-marbled calf as superior in wear 
 to the plain; the covers of both are more liable 
 to warp and show scratching and rubbing. A 
 few samples of these styles are well to possess. 
 
 Russia seems to be a cowhide certainly not the 
 buffalo hide I was led in my apprenticeship to be- 
 lieve. It is of the same nature as calfskin liable 
 to crack; in fact, is more brittle than English 
 calf and its red color fades very quickly. It has 
 nothing but its scent to recommend it, and it cer- 
 tainly has not the quality to resist insects, as many 
 suppose. In my youth it was very expensive and 
 consequently held in great esteem for strength 
 and durability; hence many a noble folio got clad 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 41 
 
 in it that their possessors now wish had been in 
 morocco. 
 
 No skin for fine binding is equal to that of the 
 goat. Webster says morocco is chiefly from the 
 goat, though a cheaper kind is made from sheep; 
 and I see also a similar definition in Stormonth's 
 new dictionary. He says morocco is a fine kind 
 of grained leather prepared from goatskin and often 
 from sheepskin. These definitions are misleading: 
 morocco is goatskin and goatskin only ; sheepskin is 
 used only for an imitation. The difference existing 
 in the ordinary turkey morocco is simply a difference 
 in the breed of the animal, the grain, stoutness, and 
 quality depending on the locality of the breed. 
 
 Levant morocco is the skin of the monarch breed 
 of goat, the skin de luxe for bookbinding, superior 
 to all other skins in strength and grain and the 
 beauty of finish which its surface is capable of tak- 
 ing. If the breed came originally from the Levant, 
 which we are led to believe, the great demand for 
 it lately has no doubt extended its geographical limit, 
 and some Cape and other district goatskins are now 
 
 6 
 
42 MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 undoubtedly used; one satisfaction in this is that 
 the strength is just as great. 
 
 The ordinary turkey morocco is so called from the 
 pebble grain which it takes, and to distinguish it 
 from the smooth and straight-grained morocco that 
 was in use before its introduction. It has all the 
 requisite qualities for fine and durable binding: it 
 is stronger than any other kind of skin excepting 
 levant, and when properly tanned is very difficult to 
 tear ; its surface when grained hard will resist wear 
 longer than other leathers, while its appearance is 
 always rich and satisfactory. Bind, therefore, your 
 volumes as often as you can in turkey morocco, and 
 your choice ones in levant. For your better guid- 
 ance I repeat, that colored skiver will answer for 
 books to which you seldom refer, and for volumes 
 you desire to bind at a low price ; it will even answer 
 for your periodicals. Calfskin is best for standard 
 literature, especially volumes of the duodecimo size. 
 Kussia should be used sparingly, just enough to vary 
 the library ; it is particularly appropriate for bibliog- 
 raphy. But for all books of constant reference, like 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEEED. 43 
 
 cyclopaedias, all large and heavy volumes, all fine 
 art works, all books of choice value, use morocco, 
 and all your rare and precious treasures cover in 
 levant and have it crushed. 
 
 The selection of color is another vexed question. 
 Some are in favor of classification by colors, such as 
 red for military, green for botany, brown for divin- 
 ity, and so on. This is largely a matter of fancy 
 and might work well in a mixed library, but there 
 are sore and perplexing hindrances to the best laid 
 schemes. Others again favor sober colors, are quiet 
 in their taste, and think to make the least offense 
 or mistake by the selection of quiet browns. I have 
 seen the error of both these. The late Thomas P. 
 Barton, to whom Richard Grant White dedicated 
 his Shakspere, told me that the greatest error he 
 ever made in his library was in deciding that his 
 Shaksperian collection, which was very large, should 
 all be bound in red morocco. He did not see the 
 expense, risk, and trouble he was resolving upon. 
 For instance, so large a collection is made through 
 many years of one's life and supplied from distant 
 
44 MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 points and unforeseen circumstances. He told me lie 
 often had to order the purchase of a Shaksperian 
 work from the sale of a celebrated library in Europe, 
 and when he received it he often found it gorgeously 
 bound in purple or green ; but in order to carry out 
 his whim the beautiful cover had to be torn off and 
 the volume rebound in red to match his collection. 
 And even then, as we stood in front of over a thou- 
 sand volumes on Shakspere, he pointed out after all 
 his pains the various shades of red he had been 
 obliged to accept. "Never again," said he, "will I 
 arbitrarily determine a certain color for a class of 
 literature." 
 
 Again, the late George T. Strong, who was a gen- 
 tleman of very quiet taste, began his collection with 
 a preference for sober browns. Antique calf and 
 brown morocco were his usual orders. After several 
 years he moved into a new house, and allowed his 
 cabinet-maker to build his bookcases of black wal- 
 nut, the then prevailing taste in cabinet work, with- 
 out thinking of the effect of his brown bindings ; he 
 told me that when his books had been placed in the 
 
PBACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 45 
 
 cases he went to his library expecting the most 
 pleasing effect, but instead was overcome with the 
 most depressing sensation of disappointment. From 
 that time he ordered me never to bind any book of 
 his, religious or not, in brown, but in red, green, 
 or any other bright color, that he might brighten 
 up the dead effect of his library. Here an ardent 
 and persevering collector, from indulging a severe, 
 quiet taste, had destroyed what would otherwise 
 have produced great pleasure. The most satisfac- 
 tory determination in the selection of color is not 
 to be arbitrary. Favor one color for certain litera- 
 ture if you like, but do not let it control you ; favor 
 bright colors rather than dark, and largely encourage 
 crimson. When I argued in favor of the latter color 
 to a gentleman who was much of a wag, by asserting 
 that the volumes in the Bibliotheque Eoyale were 
 mostly red, he said he hoped they were. 
 
 As another instance of arbitrary taste in color of 
 binding I will mention that it is usual to put In 
 Memoriam volumes in black or dark brown. A lady 
 eminent for her benevolence and devotion to the 
 
46 MODEBN BOOKBINDING. 
 
 Church was astounded at my suggestion of crimson 
 for the cover of a volume she had collected as a 
 memorial of her father; but on my stating the fact 
 that the clergy had always favored crimson for their 
 church books and pulpits she decided at once, and 
 one of the handsomest memorial books I ever bound 
 is covered in crimson levant richly decorated. To 
 my taste the very handsomest memorial books I ever 
 bound were for a lady in Boston, in white vellum 
 inlaid with black kid in Etruscan design. We are 
 often very set in our notions of taste and think we 
 are right; but experience often proves we are wrong. 
 Notice how almost geographically our taste in color 
 is limited. In New York our houses are mostly 
 brown, in Philadelphia red, in Boston grey. In 
 Italy books are bound mostly in white parchment, 
 in Paris in red morocco; in England royal purple 
 was the favorite tint, and in America it is brown. 
 Of one hundred dozen of morocco that I use ninety 
 dozen are brown, so prevailing is the taste here for 
 that color. 
 
II 
 
 |HE perfect covering of the volume is a 
 very important and difficult branch of the 
 work. A great deal of time is spent in 
 covering a volume in levant as it should be, and 
 hence much time can be saved in covering it care- 
 lessly ; excellence of workmanship is an item of cost 
 that must be estimated by the patron. 
 
 Preparatory to the covering of the volume the 
 back of it has to be lined. There is much diversity 
 of opinion regarding hollow, or spring, backs and 
 tight backs. It is recorded that hollow backs were 
 first used in the eighteenth century, but the Maz- 
 arin Bible that we saw here the other evening, that 
 was said to be in its original binding, had a hollow 
 back. It certainly was the first I ever saw on a fif- 
 teenth or sixteenth century binding. I have always 
 looked on the hollow back as useful for only one 
 purpose, and that is the prevention of the wrink- 
 ling of the leather on the back. Though by a 
 
48 MODEKN BOOKBINDING 
 
 properly constructed muslin hollow prope,r strength 
 can be given, yet I have always looked upon a tight 
 back as more durable, especially where morocco is 
 the leather used. Morocco does not show wrinkling. 
 On the proper lining of the back the durability and 
 flexibility largely depend. If you take a book with- 
 out any lining on its back and open it, you will find 
 it very flexible; but a very little use in this state 
 would develop its weakness. Therefore a muslin lin- 
 ing must be used to give the back strength, and two 
 pieces if the paper of the volume is heavy ; though 
 recollect that every additional lining renders the back 
 less flexible. Usually a single lining and the leather 
 cover is sufficient to insure both strength and flexi- 
 bility. This is what is called a tight back, and is 
 by far the best and most durable. 
 
 For calf binding a hollow back is customary, 
 though Bedford often made his calf bindings with 
 tight backs. Were tight backs used for our public 
 libraries none would be seen in the condition of the 
 law library I have mentioned ; that condition is only 
 possible with hollow backs. 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEKED. 49 
 
 In all large volumes, even in octavos, where price 
 of binding will permit, a narrow joint of morocco 
 should be used inside; paper, as it is now made, 
 is not strong enough for the constant working of 
 the board in the joint. To obtain this, order narrow 
 leather joints. A book, when neatly and cleanly 
 covered, is in a very satisfactory condition without 
 any finishing or decoration. Handle it ; open it. 
 Do the boards open freely and close flatly and 
 solidly? Is the joint square, the board evenly on 
 the top of it? Run your thumb along it, and if 
 flat and square, without any ridges, so far well ; 
 and now open the book. Here I will detain you a 
 moment to instruct you how to open it. Hold the 
 book with its back on a smooth or covered table ; 
 let the front board down, then the other, holding the 
 leaves in one hand while you open a few leaves at the 
 back, then a few at the front, and so go on, alter- 
 nately opening back and front, gently pressing open 
 the sections till you reach the center of the volume. 
 Do this two or three times and you will obtain the 
 best results. Open the volume violently or care- 
 
DO MODEEN BOOKBINDING 
 
 lessly in any one place and you will likely break the 
 back and cause a start in the leaves. Never force 
 the back ; if it does not yield to gentle opening rely 
 upon it the back is too tightly or strongly lined. A 
 connoisseur many years ago, an excellent customer 
 of mine, who thought he knew perfectly how to 
 handle books, came into my office when I had an 
 expensive binding just brought from the bindery 
 ready to be sent home ; he, before my eyes, took 
 hold of the volume, and tightly holding the leaves 
 in each hand, instead of allowing them free play, 
 violently opened it in the center and exclaimed, 
 " How beautifully your bindings open." I almost 
 fainted. He had broken the back of the volume, 
 and it had to be rebound. 
 
 Having now described the preparing, the forward- 
 ing, and the covering of the volume, I now declare 
 the book in this condition is bound, and he who has 
 skillfully mastered these various processes through 
 which the volume has passed deserves the name of 
 binder ; he who is called upon to decorate it, finisher. 
 At present the custom is the reverse : the finisher 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEEED. 51 
 
 or decorator is credited with being the binder, 
 whereas he has done none of the binding. This is 
 where the critics and connoisseurs err. The decora- 
 tors of ancient binding were goldsmiths, enamellers, 
 etc., and the finishers are really book decorators, 
 not book binders. Is it just to ignore the workmen 
 who have bound the book and made it serviceable to 
 our use, who have prepared it accurately, given it 
 solidity, strength, and flexibility, who have shaped 
 it in perfect trueness and dressed it neatly with a 
 cover of taste and appropriateness, and credit only 
 the decorator? Is it proper to say that Francis 
 Bedford, the truest forwarder of modern times, is 
 only a second-class binder, because a Parisian can 
 surpass him in delicacy of tooling or decoration ? 
 I say no. Value true and good forwarding, and credit 
 the workman in his true merit if you wish to have 
 pleasure in reading your books; but if you wish to 
 have them " Potiphar " like, merely like so many 
 wooden blocks to show, then procure Parisian bind- 
 ing so rigid in the back that you cannot open it 
 though decorated exquisitely. I do not wish here 
 
52 MODEKN BOOKBINDING. 
 
 to be misunderstood. I do not desire to lessen the 
 high appreciation which book finishing has and de- 
 serves, but simply to demand credit for that branch 
 on which depends the important principles that con- 
 stitute good binding solidity, strength, flexibility, 
 trueness, and the skillful manipulation of leather. 
 
 There is little satisfaction in having a book elabo- 
 rately finished if it is not well forwarded. I know 
 full well that finishing is an art, and that forwarding 
 is simply a handicraft ; but I know by a long experi- 
 ence that it is a very difficult one and deserving of 
 its just honors. 
 
HI 
 
 |E now come to the finishing of the volume. 
 
 Finishing is the decoration of the cover. 
 
 The decoration of books has for ages con- 
 stituted one of the principal branches of ornamental 
 art. Mr. Libri asserts that "Ancient figured monu- 
 ments often show personages holding in their hands 
 books of which the covers are ornamented in various 
 styles. In the Christian monuments of the primitive 
 church not only are Jesus Christ and the Evangel- 
 ists generally represented with books in their hands, 
 but also other saints are portrayed bearing books 
 bound very similarly to those of the present day, 
 the sides of which are generally ornamented in dif- 
 ferent ways." It is an art that has engaged the abil- 
 ities of the most distinguished artists in all ages. 
 It has also at times, when other forms of decora- 
 tion have failed, been the object that has kept alive 
 and advanced art in its decorative forms, and much 
 
 63 
 
54 MODEEN BOOKBINDING 
 
 of the goldsmith's best early work can be found on 
 the covers of valuable books. De Quincey, in ref- 
 erence to its connection with the fine arts, places 
 bookbinding, printing of books, coining and making 
 of gold and silver plate, on an isthmus, connecting 
 them on one side with the vast continent of merely 
 mechanical arts and on the other side with the far 
 smaller continent of fine arts. And Mr. Wheatley 
 says in regard to this remark of De Quincey's that 
 "this is true in a double sense: for in one point of 
 view every good binder who tries to work out an 
 idea is an artist, whether the result is plain or orna- 
 mental; and in another the finished side of some 
 richly tooled book is as much a work of art as any 
 picture or drawing." 
 
 Were it required of me to treat the subject of 
 book decoration in a purely art sense I should feel 
 myself quite unequal to the task. I lay no claim to 
 a knowledge of art in its higher sense, but I will 
 endeavor to present the subject from a practical 
 standpoint as I have forwarding, that you may 
 be made acquainted with the practical principles 
 
PBACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 55 
 
 which constitute the art and be enabled to better 
 appreciate its difficulties. 
 
 The three usual styles of decoration are blind tool- 
 ing, gilt tooling, and illuminated, or inlaid, work. 
 Blind tooling is the impression of the tools upon the 
 leather without gold or color. It is produced by the 
 tools, slightly warmed, being impressed upon the 
 leather when damped, and by the same impression 
 being often repeated to brighten its effect. It is the 
 oldest style of decoration on leather, and at first was 
 of the simplest description, though later many beau- 
 tiful designs were used. Many specimens of this 
 style of decoration are seen in old vellum, parch- 
 ment, and hogskin bindings. In the earliest the 
 impressions have undoubtedly been made by a single 
 stamp, and later these are found duplicated and mul- 
 tiplied. Mr. Libri says that it would not be difficult 
 to prove that these stamps on leather for book covers 
 preceded every other impression on paper of figures 
 engraved on wood or metal. Blind tooling is very 
 suitable for the decoration of old books and is now 
 appropriately called antique. 
 
56 MODERN BOOKBINDING 
 
 The more usual style of tooling is in gold, and we 
 all know how rich it looks, how decorative it is to 
 the cover, and how durahle it can be done. This 
 style of decoration is said to have had an Eastern 
 origin. A great deal in bookbinding is -credited to 
 the East, and it would be interesting to have it traced 
 to some foundation whether the dyeing of leather 
 and the introduction of morocco as well as gilt tooling 
 really originated in Arabia and Persia. 
 
 Wherever gilt tooling took its rise, it seems in 
 Europe to have been first practiced in Italy. It is so 
 beautiful a decoration and is now so extensively used 
 that its origin and early history should certainly be 
 investigated and established. Gold tooling produces 
 a rich effect more especially on certain colors, such 
 as crimson, purple, and green. It exemplifies the 
 design more effectively than blind tooling, especially 
 when the tools are delicate, like the fine dotted tools 
 of the style of Le Gascon. All delicate tooling must 
 be done in gold to obtain its proper effect. A broad 
 border of Gascon tooling in gold, though in charac- 
 ter as delicate as the finest lace, is marvelously rich 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEEED. 57 
 
 in effect. The best result of gilt tooling can only be 
 secured by first blinding in the design that is, im- 
 pressing the tools in blind prior to gilding; then a 
 solidity, a brightness, and an exactness are better ob- 
 tained. Much inferior work is now done abroad, for 
 the sake of cheapness, without blinding in, which can 
 be best detected by observing a shiny stickiness on 
 the surface of the leather, which in time will turn 
 gray, and by a ragged finish to the tooling. 
 
 The illuminated style of decoration was most 
 likely derived from the beautiful colored designs 
 mixed with gold of Persian and Arabian MSS. The 
 Maioli, or Italian, designs are especially adapted for 
 illumination. In the earliest examples of this style 
 the colors were painted on the leather; but the supe- 
 rior modern method is to inlay with different colors 
 of morocco or kid. This is, when well done, the rich- 
 est style of book decoration the art has ever reached. 
 
 It is important to bear in mind that the limit of 
 book-finishing as a decorative art is necessarily very 
 narrow from the arbitrary character of the brass 
 engraved tools the finisher uses to work his designs. 
 
58 MODERN BOOKBINDING. 
 
 In some shops they are very limited, and even in the 
 largest the number affords but little variety. We all 
 copy one from the other; a copyright of design is 
 unknown among us. It is right then to judge of 
 the finisher's work by the limited character of the 
 tools he has to execute his designs. We judge of 
 tapestry recollecting it is the work of the needle ; and 
 of the steel engraving by its being the work of the 
 graver. It might be easy for an artist with his pen- 
 cil to improve to his taste the designs of the binder, 
 but if the latter cannot work the designs with his 
 tools it would be useless. Suffice it for our present 
 purpose to explain that these tools consist of scrolls 
 of various sizes and styles, of upright figures, ro- 
 settes, stars, circles, etc., with which, by the aid of 
 straight and curved lines technically called gouges, 
 the finisher works his various designs. 
 
UPRIGHT FIGURES. 
 
 STRAIGHT LINES AND GOUGES. 
 
 # # & % * 
 
 o o O O o o 
 
 STARS, CIRCLES, AND DOTS. 
 
 SCROLLS. 
 59 
 
60 MODEKN BOOKBINDING 
 
 The quality of his work depends largely also on 
 the fineness of these engraved tools, and this is no 
 small reason why the Parisians excel both the Eng- 
 lish and ourselves, their engravers cutting deeper, 
 smoother, and more delicately than the English 
 and our own engravers. It is difficult to get hand 
 tools cut decently well, the engraving of plates 
 for common work paying our engravers so much 
 better. 
 
 It has been well stated by Mr. Wheatley that " it 
 is hopeless to expect the art to revive until means 
 are taken to raise the standard of appreciation in 
 which binding is held. There are few connois- 
 seurs who understand the principles of artistic 
 binding, and many men and women who would be 
 ashamed to admire a bad picture will admire a 
 cheaply bound book by inferior workmen." I my- 
 self have been astonished that so few women in 
 America I know none are encouragers of the art; 
 they certainly could not bestow their taste on any- 
 thing that would do them more credit, or as a study 
 give them more lasting satisfaction. That you may 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDERED. 61 
 
 be better qualified to judge I will describe the differ- 
 ence between the decoration of common and first- 
 class work. 
 
 In the decoration of modern binding there are two 
 distinctive processes : the one called stamping or 
 blocking, the other hand-finishing. Stamping is 
 done with an entire engraved plate and stamped 
 upon the cover by one impression of the press. 
 The design may be just as beautiful as that of a 
 hand-tooled binding, but the impression is multi- 
 plied on hundreds and thousands of books and 
 has much the quality and value that an engraving 
 has to an original drawing. Its value is nothing, 
 because numbers possess it. The appearance of 
 the workmanship also, to the practiced eye, is 
 blocky and coarse. 
 
 But first-class hand-tooling has the merit of having 
 been designed and executed for your especial book. 
 The design is seldom exactly duplicated ; the tooling 
 is more delicate, and has a freeness and charm, as 
 though in comparison it was traced upon the cover, 
 which stamped work cannot imitate. 
 
62 MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 The process of working a design in the best man- 
 ner on morocco is very tedious, more so than even 
 connoisseurs imagine. First, the design is made on 
 paper, then impressed with the tools through the 
 paper on to the leather ; then the paper is removed, 
 and the design again gone over with the tools to 
 make the impression sharp and clear; then, after 
 washing, sizing, and laying on the gold leaf, the 
 design is gone over for the fourth time before one 
 side of the cover is completed. This having to be 
 repeated on the other side of the volume, and the 
 back also tooled, will afford some idea of the labor 
 in executing the finest hand-tooling. Better work 
 than we are now doing will never be done till the 
 book-buyers can discriminate between the cheap 
 work of the stamping press, encouraged by pub- 
 lishers for their editions, and the artistic effort of 
 hand labor to produce rare and hence valuable book 
 decoration. 
 
 Go to the finishing room often ; see your work in 
 progress; mark well the careful and patient effort 
 of the workman to develop his design ; better still 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDERED. 63 
 
 if you can discern the difficulties he encounters in 
 harshness or greasiness of leather, and you will 
 then appreciate more highly a good piece of work. 
 But be careful and not get, by any thoughtless 
 remark to the workman, such a reproof as old Dr. 
 Vinton received. He had ventured in to see his 
 books in progress, and the finisher had a quantity 
 of them laid over with gold-leaf previous to tooling ; 
 the doctor, horrified at the sight of his books, made 
 some annoying expression of "gingerbread appear- 
 ance" to the workman, who turned upon him and 
 said, " Excuse me, sir, but I was about to be hasty." 
 "In what way?" asked the doctor. "I was about to 
 say," the workman replied, "that fools and children 
 should never see their work half done ! " 
 
 The qualifications required to make a first-class 
 finisher are of a higher order of merit than that of 
 the forwarder; the one is largely ideal, the other 
 practical. He must be possessed of artistic taste and 
 be somewhat of a draughtsman, and have some 
 knowledge of the standard styles and designs of his 
 art, also a right judgment of appropriateness ; and in 
 
64 MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 addition to these gifts of the mind he must have 
 the more practical ability to work his designs on 
 all leathers with accuracy, solidity, and brightness. 
 To excel he will need great patience and to have 
 a perfect love of his art, an admiration for what 
 he does akin to that of the painter and those who 
 occupy the higher field of art : he will never 
 succeed if he is a mere bread-and-butter workman. 
 These are no mean qualifications, and they are very 
 rarely to be found in the youth that offers himself to 
 the bookbinding trade. When a youth has the art 
 taste, and ability, he usually seeks employment of a 
 higher grade than bookbinding, and it is only by 
 chance that the trade possesses the few it has. The 
 ability to design is very rare among finishers, and I 
 do not believe there are more than six in New York 
 who can even work any intricate pattern with fair 
 ability. In London I question if the number is 
 greater in proportion to the population; and in Paris, 
 where the art flourishes most, where the patronage is 
 encouraging, and the workmen have superior advan- 
 tages, I doubt if the number of finishers qualified to 
 
PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED. 65 
 
 work intricate designs in first-class manner exceeds 
 twenty. This fact is worthy of consideration, that 
 you may properly appreciate first-class work when 
 you see it, and understand more fully the difficulties 
 of the art. 
 
 It is very certain in my mind that none of the 
 working finishers of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
 turies designed any of the examples we so much 
 admire ; otherwise they would have worked them 
 with greater precision. No artist would have been 
 satisfied in so inaccurately exemplifying his own 
 design. But it is quite likely that some of the seven- 
 teenth century and later styles were the designs of 
 the working finishers of the time, because these 
 designs are mostly a combination of tools, and quite 
 within the ability of the trade. 
 
IV 
 
 |OW shall we bind our books ? is a common 
 question with our collectors, but, How 
 shall we decorate them ? is an equally im- 
 portant one. At present the style of decoration is 
 usually left to the binder, hence, as he often studies 
 convenience rather than appropriateness, the result 
 is often a disappointment to the customer. Dread- 
 ful mistakes have been made in this way. Literal 
 copies of old designs have been used for modern 
 literature, and ornaments selected quite inappropri- 
 ate to the subject or date of the publication. I, 
 therefore, recognize the great importance of stating 
 briefly a few points that will help to satisfactory 
 
 % 
 
 conclusions. I hold that a study of the several 
 styles of design hitherto used in the decoration of 
 bindings through the centuries should be made both 
 by collector and binder. It will certainly be a great 
 help to a solution of the question if the leading 
 features or characteristics of the several styles are 
 better understood. 
 
 66 
 
THE ALDINE. 
 
 The ornaments used by Aldus and other early 
 Italian printers were of solid face, Arabic in shape, 
 without any shading whatever. They undoubtedly 
 preferred this solid ornament because it gave strong 
 color and richness to the page, and for this reason it 
 has retained favor with printers even to our time. 
 The binder's Aldine ornaments are copies in shape 
 and design from the early printers, and have the 
 same especial feature of solid face ; hence, when 
 worked brightly in gold on leather, no style of orna- 
 ment he uses presents a stronger or richer effect. 
 The ornaments were generally used by the early 
 printers independent of gouges or curved lines, by 
 
 G7 
 
68 MODEEN BOOKBINDING. 
 
 a repetition of the same ornament forming very 
 effective borders and bands. In the binder's pub- 
 lished examples of this style the composition of the 
 design is generally a diamond and square, with semi- 
 circles in double outline intersected and the orna- 
 ments displayed in the corners and centers, but less 
 formal designs have been made in flowing scrolls 
 with the same style of ornament. This style of 
 design is most appropriate for early printed books, 
 and the binder will err in giving its true character if 
 he mixes any shaded ornament with it. 
 
ALDINE. 
 
THE MAIOLI, OB ITALIAN. 
 
 Thomas Maioli, from whom this style takes its 
 name, lived in Italy during the first half of the six- 
 teenth century. He must have been, from the rich- 
 ness of the decoration of his books, a most liberal 
 patron of binders. Ghrolier, with a similar love of 
 books, made his acquaintance while French ambas- 
 sador to Italy, and quickly recognized the great supe- 
 riority of his bindings, for on his return to France 
 he took several Italian workmen with him. I think 
 every art student will admit that the Maioli designs 
 show greater artistic merit than the Grolier. The 
 published examples of the Maioli and Grolier designs 
 from their respective libraries often render it difficult 
 
 69 
 
70 MODEEN BOOKBINDING 
 
 to determine the respective styles. If the student, 
 however, will bear in mind that Grolier during his 
 twenty years' residence in Italy was dependent on 
 Italian workmanship, and, doubtless, on his return to 
 France imitated the Italian style, he will be the bet- 
 ter able to distinguish the French-Grolier from the 
 Maioli-Italian. He must remember that bindings 
 with the Maioli motto are clearly and only Italian, 
 whereas those with the Grolier motto are both 
 Italian and French. I think these facts are neces- 
 sary to remember, because many of the examples 
 published from the Grolier library are of the same 
 type of design as the Maioli. Also, as Maioh pre- 
 ceded Grolier, we must credit the former with the 
 style of design his bindings exemplify. Bearing 
 these facts in mind, we will be able to notice more 
 precisely a distinction in style. The example I have 
 selected is clearly Maioli's, and is a design of flowing 
 scroll-work graceful in every curve, interlacing freely 
 with the framework as though traced with a master 
 hand : in fact, there is not a defective curve in the 
 design. The framework is less the character of the 
 
MAIOLI. 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 71 
 
 design than the scroll-work, whereas in the Grolier 
 examples of positive French type the geometrical 
 interlaced framework is more the design than the 
 scroll-work. The principal features of a Maioli de- 
 sign, I claim, are a perfect curve in scroll-work where 
 it is used, a framework of flowing curved lines more 
 than of figures of geometrical shape, ornaments 
 of Moresque character, mostly in outline, sometimes 
 azured, and an enrichment of part of the field with a 
 studding of gold dots. Wherever this latter feature 
 is seen in book design I think it should be credited 
 to the Italian. 
 
THE GEOLIEK. 
 
 Jean Grolier, after his return from twenty years' 
 residence in Italy, became the founder of fine book- 
 binding in France, and he so generously encouraged 
 it that Paris and Lyons soon became the rivals of 
 Venice in the art. As we have stated that on his 
 return he took Italian workmen with him, so does 
 the style he promoted bear some of the features of 
 his contemporary and friend Maioli. The similarity 
 consists in a framework and the use of the same 
 Moresque-shaped ornaments. The difference is in 
 the geometrical composition of the interlaced frame- 
 work by straight lines and semicircles, instead of 
 flowing curved lines, and in the placing of the orna- 
 
 7-2 
 

 GROLIER. 
 
MODEEN BOOKBINDING. 
 
 73 
 
 merits in spaces and carrying the gouge lines to 
 meet them without due regard to perfect curve. 
 Therefore, a geometrical framework, and a skeleton 
 form of scroll-work with Moresque-shaped orna- 
 ments, are the features of a Grolier design of the 
 
 French type. A Grolier design is simpler and easier 
 
 i 
 
 of execution by the binder than a Maioli. Modern 
 examples of the Grolier style are rendered more 
 beautiful by the introduction of perfect scroll-work 
 and Renaissance instead of Moresque ornaments. 
 
 10 
 
THE EYE STYLE. 
 
 Under the patronage of De Thou, Nicholas and 
 Clovis five so much improved on the Grolier type 
 of design that they are justly entitled to the credit 
 of originating a new style. The geometrical layout 
 of their designs is perfect, the surrounding of the 
 compartments with scrolls and branches of laurel 
 original, and the covering of the entire field of the 
 cover with delicate tooling is the perfection of rich- 
 ness in book decoration. They adopted graceful 
 scrolls and small floral figures in place of the Mo- 
 resque characters of Grolier's time which were so 
 entirely superseded that they are seldom used in 
 book ornamentation but to exemplify the Grolier 
 style. The quantity of compartments in the com- 
 
 74 
 
&VE. 
 
MODERN BOOKBINDING. 
 
 75 
 
 position of the design, with their beautiful variety of 
 shape, and the laurel-branch decoration which sur- 
 rounds them, are the distinguishing features of this 
 style. I know of no feature of book decoration that 
 has received more favor than the laurel-branch as 
 introduced by Nicholas Eve. The style was prac- 
 ticed at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of 
 the seventeenth centuries. It is quite appropriate 
 to modern books, and no richer can be chosen. 
 
LE GASCON. 
 
 This is a style which can never be mistaken. 
 Using a similar framework to the Eves, Le Gascon 
 made a novel change in scroll ornaments used for 
 filling in the compartments by making the face of 
 them fine dots instead of solid line. In addition to 
 novelty, it gave great delicacy to the treatment of 
 book decoration. From the time of Aldus the orna- 
 ments had gradually been getting finer, until now 
 they had reached the extreme point of delicateness. 
 
 76 
 
LE GASCON. 
 
MODEBN BOOKBINDING. 77 
 
 In the latter part of Ms career, Le Grascon aban- 
 doned even the solid-line framework and made up 
 his designs by the dotted ornaments alone. When 
 this style of delicate ornament is worked in borders 
 it gives the effect of lace and is called a lace or den- 
 telle border in my opinion constituting the best use 
 to which this Grascon style of ornament can be put. 
 When worked by an accurate finisher no tooling is, 
 in a delicate sense, richer on crushed levant. Some 
 doubt that the workman who introduced this style, 
 and who was attached to Clovis Eve's house, was 
 named Le Grascon; but, nevertheless, the name of 
 the style will ever remain " Le Grascon." 
 
 
DEBOME. 
 
 About a century later than Le Gascon's time the 
 style of decoration had changed into scrolls of a 
 leafy character, with a more solid face, though 
 lightly shaded by the graver, which I think is prop- 
 erly designated the Renaissance style of ornament. 
 It is best exemplified by Derome in borders, Yan- 
 dyke in design. The style is simple but rich in 
 effect, and is within the talent of any good finisher. 
 It is useful and appropriate for large illustrated 
 works, and the solid character of the tools is well 
 suited for grained morocco. The English Harleian 
 style is somewhat similar, though the ornaments of 
 the latter are more formal and are varied with acorns 
 and cones in the terminations. 
 
 78 
 
ROGER PAYNE. 
 
 In the latter half of the eighteenth century Roger 
 Payne lived and devoted a poverty-stricken life to a 
 love and practice of the art of bookbinding. He was 
 in himself both binder and finisher, carefully select- 
 ing his material with regard to its appropriateness, 
 and adopting a style of decoration strikingly his own. 
 The ornamental tools he used, which are said to have 
 been designed and engraved by himself, are original 
 in form and easily identified. They are free and 
 flowing in stem and flower, never stiff and formal 
 like the Harleian. His designs show little variety 
 and are limited in scope, but are rendered rich in 
 effect by studding the field with gold dots. His 
 
 79 
 
80 MODEKN BOOKBINDING. 
 
 efforts, however, were always original, never copied ; 
 and I believe it was this, rather than excellence in 
 the composition of his designs, that has begot him 
 favorable mention wherever bookbinding is named. 
 He deserves great credit for originating a style and 
 displaying much taste and pains in the execution of 
 his work. It is very appropriate on straight-grained 
 morocco, which in his day was the leather in vogue ; 
 but to me his style seems suitable for decorating 
 books in the English language only. No artist could 
 study his subject more faithfully than Eoger Payne 
 did the binding intrusted to him, and no workman 
 ever rendered his bill with greater conscientiousness. 
 So low were his prices, no wonder he died in pov- 
 erty and was buried at a namesake's cost. 
 
 
ROGER 
 PAYNE. 
 
 INSIDE. 
 
JANSENISTE. 
 
 Though exemplifying styles of decoration, it may 
 be proper to describe a style which depends for its 
 popularity on an absence of decoration. It takes its 
 name from the followers of Jansenius, Bishop of 
 Ypres, who were advocates of plainness in worship, 
 and opposed to the decoration of the altar. In book- 
 binding it is characterized by entire absence of line 
 or ornament. It permits decoration on the inside of 
 the cover, but demands absolute plainness on the 
 outside. It is, however, only appropriate for levant 
 morocco, because it is dependent for its beauty on the 
 polished surface which this leather is capable of tak- 
 ing in the process of crushing. It is exceedingly 
 suitable to a large class of literature that, though 
 worthy of good, substantial binding, is not appro- 
 priate to decoration. 
 
 11 81 
 
82 MODEEN BOOKBINDING 
 
 These are the principal styles from which finishers 
 draw their inspiration of design. They are far too 
 briefly and inadequately described, but the limits of 
 a lecture will not permit of greater amplification. 
 I would discourage the copying by binders of the 
 examples of the originals, but rather advise varia- 
 tions of them. The French are multiplying copies 
 of them very rapidly, while they are fully capable 
 of originating a new decorative treatment. 
 
 The principles to be observed in finishing are : 
 
 First, Appropriateness of design. 
 
 Second, Accuracy, solidity, and brightness of work- 
 manship. 
 
 The first principle is a much neglected one, and 
 from the great variety of the subjects of books a 
 very difficult one to strictly carry out. But honest 
 efforts at appropriateness in binding can generally 
 be made by determining the style of binding best 
 suited to the use to which the book is to be put, 
 the proper leather and its suitable color, edges cut 
 or uncut, gilt or plain ; but more especially will the 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEEED. O6 
 
 quantity and style of the decoration mark the appro- 
 priateness of the binding. The style of tooling should 
 be of the period of the book's publication, or some- 
 what in the character of the subject treated; also 
 finished plain or elaborate according to value or 
 rarity of the volume. When these simple efforts 
 at appropriateness are made by the binder, he is 
 not far wrong even in an art sense. 
 
 Appropriate decoration, however, is of the highest 
 importance. Better keep the volume as it comes from 
 the coverer, nude of ornament, than gild upon it tool- 
 ing which is inappropriate. True decoration ren- 
 ders the binding more beautiful; it has no right to 
 be attempted if it does not. Our binders, and often 
 good binders, err dreadfully in this particular ; a cer- 
 tain amount of gilt tooling they think necessary, and 
 this they often put on without any regard to the 
 character of the volume. Surely the aim and pur- 
 pose of all decoration is to render the article more 
 beautiful, and this, I repeat, can only be done by 
 appropriate ornament. 
 
 It is very easy for writers on the subject to lay 
 
$4 MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 down the ABC rule of "birds and insects for 
 books on natural history, flowers for those on botany 
 and the like, so that the book may be recognized 
 at a glance"; but correct as this rule may appear it 
 would be a very foolish one to follow to any great 
 extent. In a large library there would be a great 
 many books decorated with birds; and though the 
 bird indicated the subject it would not the author 
 an equally important point. You might take a Yar- 
 rell for a Morris, and so on. Then flowers are appro- 
 priate for more than books on botany. No; use 
 flowers and birds, subserviently however, at times 
 to help make your design more appropriate, but not 
 so prominently that you will recognize your volumes 
 at a glance. An ardent lover of his books will 
 identify them by other indications as easily as he 
 will the features of a familiar friend. 
 
 In this room there is a very beautiful design of 
 Zaehnsdorf 's for a copy of L'Ombrelle ; it has a 
 large representation of a parasol in the center, I 
 suppose to make the design more appropriate and 
 help its identification, as he advances this theory in 
 
PEACTICALLT CONSIDEBED. 85 
 
 his treatise. To me it is an objection to an other- 
 wise beautiful design (perhaps it was so done to sat- 
 isfy an idea of his customer) ; but had there been 
 two or three small parasols picturesquely interwoven 
 in the tooling it would, to me, be more appropriate 
 and better in character with the illustrations of the 
 artist. I have said I think appropriateness in the 
 decoration of books depends much on the character 
 of the tools selected. In too many binderies the 
 styles of tools are indiscriminately mixed the 
 Aldine, the Grolier, the Harleian, and the Renais- 
 sance; and whichever fits the space required, that 
 is selected and used by the general finisher. This 
 is what is justly complained of. Every finisher 
 should have his tools strictly sorted, and select for 
 his decoration the style of tools best suited to the 
 period of his book. The bird, the insect, or the 
 flower will not make the design appropriate with 
 carelessly selected tools. 
 
 The second principle involved in fine finishing is 
 the masterly execution of the tooling. It was in 
 this our earlier craftsmen failed their tooling is 
 
86 MODEKN BOOKBINDING 
 
 very inexact. Some of the tools are burnt in the 
 impressions deep into the leather, while others are 
 faint and on the surface; this result of the toohng 
 is so unequal in impression and so inexact in exe- 
 cution that the value is simply in the design. But 
 this will not meet modern requirements ; the impres- 
 sion of the tools, however numerous, must be as 
 equal as though made by one impression, and every 
 join made 'with strict accuracy and trueness. The 
 workman who fails in this fails in producing a first- 
 class specimen of work. 
 
 I have no doubt the tooling on early binding was 
 done while the leather was damp, for easier work- 
 ing. Some of the foreign binders to-day, in order 
 to meet lower prices, have been lately doing the 
 same thing tooling elaborate designs in a damp 
 state without blinding in, thus gaining a great ad- 
 vantage over the honest, careful workman. The 
 result is dull and inexact work. Customers and 
 binders alike must recollect this fact the best 
 tooling cannot be done without the necessary cost 
 of expensive labor, and no binder can long exist 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEEED. 87 
 
 without being paid for that outlay. Another fact 
 that should be particularly borne in mind is that 
 second-class work is no great prize to possess and 
 has no special value. I speak in the interest of all: 
 the finisher cannot work his designs accurately, 
 solidly, brightly, and clearly without blinding in, and 
 if the customer requires the best work he must 
 expect to pay for the best manner of doing it. Grold 
 and silver is appreciated by a sterling mark. I wish 
 that first-class workmanship had to stand the same 
 test and pass the same ordeal. 
 
 It is not an easy matter to tool accurately. Each 
 tool is put down separately, and should be in line 
 one with the other. Take a dentelle border : if accu- 
 rately worked the point of each tool will be directly in 
 line with the corresponding one opposite. No design 
 depends more upon accuracy than a dentelle or lace 
 border ; tool it inaccurately and you destroy its 
 beauty. Take a Grolier design : the intersected lines 
 must be straight, equal in width of space, and exactly 
 mitred ; the join of the scrolls and the gouges must 
 be unobserved. 
 
MODEBN BOOKBINDING 
 
 Solid tooling shows the skilled and perfect work- 
 man. This is justly claimed as one of Trautz's 
 superior qualifications ; it certainly is one of superior" 
 merit. The faint impression of a tool is not perma- 
 nent ; it is " half out," as the finishers term it, and 
 they justly hold it as a proof of inferior workman- 
 ship burnt-in tooling as an unpardonable fault. 
 Brightness of tooling is the perfection of solid work. 
 It depends on the temperate heat of the tool and the 
 proper dryness of the leather. The work that I saw 
 of Trautz's in Mr. Turner's library, London, where I 
 handled a dozen specimens, was chiefly remarkable 
 for these two qualities, solidity and brightness. 
 There was not an intricate or superior design on any 
 of the specimens. Mr. Turner informed me that 
 Trautz excused himself for that by pleading lack of 
 time. 
 
 I believe the only fault of Bedford's work was the 
 lack of a first-class finisher. The backs of his books 
 are all tooled and lettered well, but his tooled sides 
 are not accurate and are far from being as bright 
 and clean as they should be. Had he got his finish- 
 
PBACTICALLT CONSIDEBED. 89 
 
 ing done as well as his forwarding he would have 
 been the best binder of his day. His misfortune 
 was that he was not a finisher himself. The for- 
 warding of the Paris binders is far from perfect 
 excessively round in the back and very rigid, also 
 carelessly untrue in the squares. It is a common 
 practice to speak of the decadence of the art; 
 very little, however, is advanced to prove it. If 
 the costly display in the goldsmith's art in early 
 times is to be cited, or the origin of the beautiful 
 designs in droller, Maioli, and Be Thou's time is to 
 be the proof, then it is reasonable; but if ability 
 of workmanship in the art both in forwarding and 
 finishing is to be the gauge, then the art has reason 
 to be proud of the advance it has made in the last 
 half-century and of its present high standard of ex- 
 cellence. The workmanship of Hayday and Bedford 
 in all the principles of good binding is superior to 
 that of Roger Payne, Lewis, or Mackenzie, and the 
 excellent tooling of Cape and Trautz excels in perfec- 
 tion of finish any of the work of their predecessors. 
 And in modern times we are not quite so deficient 
 
 12 
 
90 MODEBN BOOKBINDING. 
 
 in originality of design as some writers on the sub- 
 ject would have us believe. We may not have 
 surpassed in beauty of conception the old designs, 
 but a few creditable styles have been originated and 
 practiced in my time. Even the designs of Grolier 
 and Maioli were not, strictly speaking, original in 
 conception ; you can trace their origin from examples 
 of the goldsmith's art of the tenth and twelfth cen- 
 turies: the square, the oval, and the circular figures 
 which served for the framework of the jewels and 
 enamels they inlaid. From these I believe the in- 
 tersected designs were -conceived. But in whatever 
 way these fifteenth and sixteenth century designs 
 were originated we must not slight the fact that they 
 are the foundation of the best examples of book dec- 
 oration and nowhere are they so well and delicately 
 worked as in Paris. 
 
ALHAMBKA. 
 
 In regard to the advance made in extra binding 
 within the last forty years America has no need to 
 "be ashamed. If a collection of the best specimens of 
 her binders' work could be collected a higher esti- 
 mate would be formed of their ability. I am very 
 loath to speak of the part I have taken to advance its 
 progress, but as it has been the labor of forty years 
 of my life, I hope I may be pardoned for doing so. I 
 desire to do so for two reasons : first, to make known 
 that all my incitement to do first-class work has been 
 a jealous love for the good name of my adopted 
 country; second, that I may make honorable men- 
 tion of an able workman, now no more, who for 
 twenty-five years was my chief finisher. I allude to 
 Frederick Grilson. 
 
 In 1851 1 felt very keenly that in the Exhibition of 
 that year in England there was no exhibit shown of 
 American bookbinding, and in 1852, when it was 
 
 91 
 
92 MODEEN BOOKBINDING 
 
 announced that an Exhibition would be held in New 
 York in 1853, I resolved to make as good an exhibit 
 as my abilities and limited means would permit for 
 the credit of American Bookbinding. 
 
 In that exhibit were specimens of library binding 
 in calf, morocco, and russia; dictionaries with flexible 
 backs; iUuminated printed books in white vellum 
 mosaic ; and as a chief attraction of effort this copy 
 of the Alhambra by Jules Groury and Owen Jones, 
 which by the kindness of Theodore Irwin, Esq., its 
 present owner, I am permitted to show you. It is 
 bound in yellowish-brown russia, inlaid with blue 
 and red morocco, constituting the three primitive 
 colors, yellow, blue, and red, the colors so generally 
 used by the Moors in the decoration of that wonder- 
 ful palace. The design for its decoration is in beau- 
 tiful keeping with the illustrations in the book, but 
 without being a copy of any one of them. It was 
 designed and worked by Grilson. It took him six 
 months to complete and cost me $500. There was 
 not an engraved ornament used in the decoration 
 simply curved and straight lines, circles, and dots, the 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEBED. 93 
 
 effort being to exhibit what the binder alone could 
 do without the aid of engraver, goldsmith, or the 
 like. Though a large folio, measuring 23^4x16^ and 
 nearly three inches thick, no thread was used to 
 connect its letterpress and illustrations. They were 
 cemented and bound together with india rubber, 
 enabling the book to he open with perfect freedom 
 and flatness. Contrary to the usual result of rub- 
 ber binding, though this heavy volume has been 
 used for thirty-four years, every leaf is as firmly 
 bound as when exhibited in 1853. The designs of 
 the outside and inside border should silence the 
 remark that " no binder has done original work for 
 two centuries," and when we, together with the 
 designs, examine the exactness of the workmanship, 
 we should be proud that such was done in America. 
 This exhibit, in competition with Niedree of Paris 
 and English and Scotch binders, was awarded the 
 silver medal, the highest award given. Another and 
 later specimen of my binding I exhibit for the ex- 
 cellence of the design and the perfect accuracy of 
 its execution. It is another example of Frederick 
 
94 MODERN BOOKBINDING 
 
 Gilson's work. The volume is a copy of that richly 
 illustrated edition of the New Testament published 
 by Longmans & Co. of London, and presented by 
 them to Win. H. Appleton, Esq. The finisher gives 
 another example in this design of how he can dec- 
 orate without the aid of the engraver ; there is not 
 an engraved tool in the design, and yet it is very 
 ornate. The frame of the design is inlaid with blue 
 and the scroll-work is freely and gracefully twined 
 through it. The four compartments each contain a 
 symbolic figure more suggestive than obtrusive. The 
 center of this figure is inlaid with crimson, while the 
 four crown-shaped figures surrounding it are inlaid 
 with blue ; on the crimson center is delicately traced 
 a cross with glory rays radiating from it. The design 
 affords another proof of how unobtrusively an appro- 
 priate symbol can be introduced. 
 
 During this nineteenth century bookbinding has 
 made rapid strides, not only as a manufacture, which 
 is evident in a marvelous degree, but in the beau- 
 tifying of thousands of private libraries with choice 
 specimens of beautiful bindings, giving to their 
 possessors every time they handle them finer feelings 
 
NEW TESTAMENT. LONGMANS' EDITION. 
 
 OUTSIDE DESIGN. 
 
PEACTICALLY CONSIDEEED. 95 
 
 and sweeter ecstasy of pleasure than many more 
 costly objects of art they possess. I pity those who 
 call themselves cultured and with fine art taste who 
 cannot take from their shelves some few specimens 
 of first-class modern extra binding. 
 
 Paris leads in the cultivation of this art, and par- 
 ticularly so, it is said, because of the number of small 
 collectors, each one priding himself on the posses- 
 sion of a Cape, a Niedree, a Trautz, or of the living 
 artists Lortic and Petit. 
 
 In England, also, they are awakening to a sense of 
 the secondary position they hold in the practice of 
 the art and by lectures and publications are endeav- 
 oring to encourage their binders to exercise their 
 well-known abilities to a higher standard of excel- 
 lence. And now what are we ^Wnericans doing? 
 Fifty years ago there was not a finely bound book, 
 except what by chance had been procured abroad, to 
 be found in any collection in America. Fine binding 
 was an unknown art. But travel and wealth have 
 quickened a desire for rare books and costly bind- 
 ings, and given birth to a body of collectors through- 
 out the States that I venture to predict will make 
 
96 MODERN BOOKBINDING. 
 
 America possess in another twenty-five years as rare 
 books and fine bindings as can be found in Europe. 
 As to what American binders have done I humbly 
 assert that there are many examples of American 
 workmanship in our collections that would do honor 
 to the best French and English binders of the last 
 half -century. There are better examples of first-class 
 finishing here than Mr. Smalley has any idea of, or 
 he would not write so disparagingly of us. Certainly 
 we need to do as often as possible what we have in a 
 poor way attempted to-night, exemplifying among 
 ourselves the true principles of bookbinding and 
 book decoration. And now, on behalf of my craft, 
 I ask the collectors to have more faith in our ability, 
 to encourage us with fair liberality while we try to 
 reach yes, even excel our European brethren. 
 
 Trautz did his best work under the patronage of a 
 Rothschild, and Bedford under that of liberal Ameri- 
 can collectors. I therefore plead with you to bestow 
 your patronage at home instead of abroad, fostering 
 and educating native workmen to an excellence they 
 can never otherwise attain. 
 

v\\