Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/328

* BOOKBINDING. 290 BOOK CLUB. patterns. Rollers are used, by means of which indefinitely long lines, zigzags, or simple scroll- patterns are applied. For a still more elaborate adornment, different- colored leathers are combined by 'inlaying.' Very rarely this is done by a mosaic process of the full thickness of the leather: most commonly the background is lowered or cut away very slightly, and the piece to be inlaid is a mere film. The lines of jimction are generally concealed by broader lines of gold, impressed by means of a tool. As to casing, the two stiff sides and the more flexible back are put together exactly as a paper box is made. The sheets of the book having been stitched together, as if to make a pamphlet, are then glued or pasted into the case by means of a piece of canvas glued fast to the back of the folded book and having loose strips projecting to be pasted to the covers; or in some very simi- lar way. Casing is made decorative chiefly in two ways — tirst, by the use of a textile material which is in itself decorative, and secondly, by printing upon the surface of the boards, whether covered with silk or cotton cloth or with paper, a pattern which may be 'blind.' that is to say. merely im- pressed without color, or in one or several colors. The first method, that by the use of stuff which of itself is ornamental.' may be very rich if a brocade is used; and it is noticeable that the large and carefully made books of the Japanese, made to contain water-colors, pieces of old draw- ings, or rare old stuffs and the like, have some- times for their sole decoration a beautiful piece of brocade for covering material, and sometimes this with the addition of richly worked metal corners. So, a private person, wishing to bind a lot of novels cheaply, may select printed calico or other inexpensive "material and have all the volumes of one author bound uniformly; such work costing in Paris not more than one franc twenty centimes per volume, and in the American citiesnot over sixty cents a volume, even when the title is in gold letters on an attached leather label. Such work, if properly done, is, in a way, satisfactory. Thirty years of rather constant use, as of a popular book in a reading family, does not seem to injure it except by slightly loosening or 'spreading' the back. This, however, is for small books only: those weighing two pounds, or a kilogramme', can hardly remain firm more than two or three years. The 'decorative bindings' of modern English and especially American popular books are sometimes adorned in a very effective way either by stamped gold patterns' rather deeply" impressed upon the cloth sides, or bv surface 'printing without deep in- cision, which printing may be in one or many colors. It is not hard to combine the two pro- cesses. Thus, in one rather pretty book, each cover, about .i'L' X SV^ inches, has a convention- alized landscape in two dull colors: and above this picture, which occupies two-thirds of the surface, the title, consisting of seven words, is impressed in gold. Some admirable designs are prepared for English publishim.' houses in which the almost lost art of designing patterns of con- ventional leafage and the like has been revived. American work runs more often, as in the case mentioned above, toward descriptive and sug- gestive art. landscapes, emblematic compositions, even figure subjects of some pretension. Books that are cased in this way need not; necessarily be injured for future permanent bind- ing: but it often happens that they are injured, as by the pasting of the edges of inserted plates to the folded sheets of the letterpress, or by sewing the sheets together in such a way that while the same sewing will not be found sufficient for the permanent binding, it has still injured the backs for better work. Of course, where any such device as the 'stabbing' of the sheets with tinned wire is used, tlie book is ruined as a per- manent possession. It is much to be regretted that our valuable illustrated magazines are sold in that condition. BOOK CLUB. A convenient title for private associations which print books for distribution among a limited circle of subscribers. Such clubs, being usually composed of scholarly men, and endowed with sufficient means, have rendered no slight services to literature and learning by rendering accessible a numln-r of valuable works which had existed only in manuscript or in very rare printed copies. While associations like the Dilettante Society (q.v.) accomplished some work in publishing, yet books as such were not their primary care. The Roxburghe Club (q.v.), founded in 1S12, was the earliest English book club, properly so called; its system imposed on each member the reprinting of one book, and its work was not specially important. The Banna- tyne Club, originated by Scott in 1823, was more practical. The Camden Society (1838) began the modern method of publishing by the society instead of leaving it to individual members; it has produced a long series of most useful his- torical publications. Among n;any English so- cieties of the kind, the following are specially worthy of note: The Parker Societv (184055), the Percy Society (1840-52), the 'Hakluyt So- cietv (1846 — ), 'and the Early English Text Society (1864—). During the Colonial Period in America, and that which imnRHliately followed the Revolution, there were a number of literary associations whose members jointly published their writings, after the fashion of the time, in periodical form. The earliest and most famous of these was the Junto, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 17i26. To its efforts the Philadelphia Library (1731), the University of Pennsylvania (1749), and the American Philosophical Society (178) owe their small beginnings; and it published at different times ten periodicals of a literary and historical nature, most of which lasted for only a few num- bers. The Drone Club, founded in 1702 by Charles Brockden Brown and others, and the Literarv Confederacy, formed in 1817 by William Cullen 'Brvant. Robert C. Sands. Jpmes M. East- burn, and Gulian C. Vcrplanck, were of the same nature. The first book club in the full sense, however, was the Seventy-six Society, originated in Philadelphia in 1854 by Edward D. Ingiaham, stating its object as "the pul>li(ation and rciniblication of books and jiapers relating to the American Revolution." It lasted only three years, and was immediately succeeded in New York by 'The Club,' as it was called — it never received anv specific name — and two years later by the Bradford Club, an offshoot from the former! In 1858 began the longer career of the Prince Society in Boston, which is still in exist- ence, and has a list of twenty-six publications,