Page:The Art of Bookbinding, Zaehnsdorf, 1890.djvu/99

Rh answer all purposes may be purchased ready for instant use. I may with safety recommend Judson's dyes diluted with water.

Plain Colouring.—The colour having been well ground is to be mixed with paste and a little oil, or what is perhaps better, glaire and oil. Then with a sponge or with a brush colour the whole of the edge. In colouring the foredge the book should be drawn back so as to form a slope of the edge, so that when the book is opened a certain amount of colour will still be seen. It is often necessary to give the edges two coats of colour, but the first must be quite dry before the second is applied.

A very good effect may be produced by first colouring the edge yellow, and when dry, after throwing on rice, seeds, pieces of thread, fern leaves, or anything else according to fancy, then sprinkling with some other dark colour. For this class of work body sprinkling colour should always be used. It may be varied in many different ways. Marbled Edges.—The edges of marbled books should in almost every instance correspond with their marbled ends. In London very few binders marble their own work, but send it out of the house to the Marblers, who do nothing else but make marbled edges and paper. One cannot do better than send one's books to be marbled; it will cost only a few pence, which will be well spent in avoiding the trouble and dirt that marbling occasions; nevertheless I will endeavour to explain; it is, however, a process that may seem very easy, but is very difficult to execute properly. The requisites are a long square wooden or zinc trough about 2 inches deep to hold the size for the colours to float on; the dimensions to be regulated by the work to be done. About 16 to 20 inches long and 6 to 8 inches wide will probably be large enough. Various colours are used, such as lake, rose, vermilion, king's yellow, yellow ochre,