Page:The Art of Bookbinding, Zaehnsdorf, 1890.djvu/125

Rh Roan should be covered with glue and turned in with paste. Head and tail only need be pared round the headband.

Cloth is covered by gluing the cover all over and turning in at once: gluing one cover at a time, and finishing the covering of each book before touching the next.

Smooth cloth, cloth with no grain, may be covered with paste: great care must be taken that no paste be on the fingers, or the cloth will be marked very badly when dry. Velvet should be covered with clean glue not too thick; first glue the back of the book and let that set before the sides are put down. The sides of the book should next be glued, and the velvet laid down, and turned in with glue. The corners should be very carefully cut or they will not meet, or cover properly when dry. When the whole is dry the pile may be raised, should it be finger marked, by holding the book over steam, and if necessary by carefully using a brush. Silk and Satin should be lined first with a piece of thin paper cut to the size of the book. The paper must be glued with thin clean glue, rubbed down well on to the silk, and allowed to get dry, before covering the book. When dry, cover it as with velvet.

Dr. Dibdin, whose knowledge of libraries and great book collectors must stamp him as an authority, says that:—

"The general appearance of one's library is by no means a matter of mere foppery or indifference: it is a sort of cardinal point, to which the tasteful collector does well to attend. You have a right to consider books, as to their outsides, with the eye of a painter; because this does not militate against the proper use of the contents. . . . . Be sparing of red morocco or vellum, they have each so