Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/327

* BOOKBINDING. 289 BOOKBINDING. (■rnamcntation from being rubbed. Still, how- ever, these nioiintings. like the far more elaborate covers of wrought silver-gilt set with enameled ])laques and caborhon jewels, ai'e chielly orna- inental in their purpose. Europe has never made so great a use as might have been expected of binding in rich stufl's beautiful in themselves, The term bookbinding should properly be con- fined to the process of covering a folded and sewed book by stiff side-pieces of paper, board, or wood, which are secured to the package of folded loaves by flexible strips running across it at the back ; which side-pieces are afterwards covered by material such as leather of some kind, cloth, or paper, pasted or glued to the stiff sides and to the back. The mounting of a book which is issued in a roll like the Roman volumeii, or the .Japanese scroll of similar character, is hardly bookbinding, although the very delicate use of decorative paper and rich stuffs, and the moimt- ing of the scroll upon a cylindrical roller with ivory or other knobs at the ends, may provide the medium for much decorative treatment; and the modern so-called binding in pasteboard covered by muslin or silk and issued in large quantities by publishers should not be called bookbinding at all. For this the entirely appropriate name 'casing' may be used. Considering now the art of binding as it is commonly understood, and as it has been prac- ticed in Europe since the Fifteenth Centurj". the first process is collating, that is to say, examin- ing the book to see if it is complete. In close connection with this is, of course, the folding of the sheets, if they have not been folded, or the pulling of the book to pieces if it has been bound or cased or stitched before. In the course of this preparation all plates or maps that have been put in with glue or paste are soaked off and their folding or placing considered with a view to the new binding. The sheets to be folded are indicated by special marks called "signatures." These are the letters such as A, A,, and so on through the alphabet, which one sees at the bot- tom of some pages in almost any book. The folding of the sheets is the important matter, but it can never be neatly done imless the sheets have been so printed that the letterpress on one side comes exactly over that on the opposite side. Other sheets, similarly folded, but of plain paper, unprinted, are added at beginning and end for 'end-papers' or 'fly-leaves.' The sheets once folded have to be sewn, but before the sewing is done the plates which are 'guarded,' or mounted upon guards ( French, nnqlets), must be set into their places. Also before the sewing, the edges may be marbled or gilded or painted or sprinkled. It is to be noted that if the gilding is to be very effective it must be done on the rounded front edge, the leaves being delitierately hammered back until they reach the curie intended to be given to the book. This has to be done after the sewing; but if it ia desired to avoid the look of a solid, smooth surface, and to let the leaves show individually at the edge, the gilding or coloring had l)etter be done first. After the sewing is done the leaves may be considered as a solid block, and some- times landscapes and the like are p.ainted on the edges, which are afterwards gilded; the picture showing only when the mass of leaves is bent or rolled. Sometimes, too, the smooth surfaces made by the edges are stamped before gilding, produc- ing impressed patterns. The leaves of the book are secured together by sewing either to cords or tapes or slips of vellum ; and these are, in modern practice, often let into the book by means of saw-cuts carefully made across the whole pile of sheets. This is not con- ducive to first-rate binding. It is far better to let the bands of cord or tape j)rojeet from the back, and then to let the covering leather adapt itself to these. This, indeed, is the origin of those raised bands which are common on the backs of leather-bound books: but the modern custom leads to the making of wholly false bands, which have nothing to do with the actual sewing of the book. The projecting ends of the cords or strips are the means of securing the whole back to its covers, and therefore their length and the treatment of them is of extreme importance. If cord is used, it is raveled or frayed at the two ends in such a way that it will afford a good opportunity for glueing to the covers. When the sewing is done and the cords are pre- jiared for the covers, what are called the head- bands are put in, the only purpose of which is to save the top edge of the binding a little when the book is tilted by one finger from the shelf where it stands. The ideal way of putting this in is to sew the sheets to them as well as to the other bands, and at the same time; but in modei'n work they are generally additions intended rather for show than for utility. The covering of the book is done by simply glueing or pasting the material to be used upon the boards of the sides and upon the back. There is, ho«ever, this difference between different kinds of back. Thus, the hollow back, so called, which allows the mass of folded sheets forming the book proper to leave the back and to hinge itself at any point, while the back remains inde- pendent and rounded out with an open space between it and the book, is made by a piece of ])asteboard put in between so that the leather or silk of the cover is glued to it. The 'fast back' or 'tight back' is made by glueing the covering directly to the back-folded edges of the sheets. As this covering material is added to the com- pletely made book, to the stiff covers and the back after they are put together, it is evident that a great deal of care must be used in stretch- ing it to cover the bands, the corners, and the edge where it is turned under and has its edges covered by the lining paper or doublure. This doublure is commonly a piece of marbled or col- ored and glazed paper, half of which is jjasted to the inside of the cover, while the other half forms an additional end-paper; but sometimes the cover is lined with a piece of leather. Finally, the book is ornamented by stamping or tooling. These terms are used generally to imply, in the ime case, large plates from which a stamp is taken covering the whole or a large part of the cover at one impression, while tool- ing is the putting on of the impressed or gilded lines, dots, leaves, and the like, separately, one by one, with a number of tools, the impressions of which are combined together so as to produce the patterns <lesired. The French term fcr (iron) is used for one of these tools; hence the phrase ri pctils fern, meaning that the orna- mentation is applied by hand, with little tools, one by one, nuiking separate points, short bars, single leaves or flowers, which are combined in