- About Bookbinding -

Every librarian or book collector should understand something of book-binding
and its terms, so that he may be able to give clear directions as to every item
involved in binding, repairing, or re-lettering, and to detect imperfect or slighted
work.
The qualities that we always expect to find in a well bound book are solidity,
flexibility, and elegance. Special examination should be directed toward each of
these points in revising any lot of books returned from a binder. Look at each
book with regard to:
1. Flexibility in opening.
2. Evenness of the cover, which should lie flat and smooth-each edge being
just parallel with the others throughout.
3. Compactness-see that the volumes are thoroughly pressed-solid, and not
loose or spongy.
   4. Correct and even lettering of titles, and other tooling.
   5. Good wide margins.
     A well-bound book always opens out flat, and stays open. It also shuts up
completely, and when closed stays shut. But how many books do we see always
bulging open at the sides, or stiffly resisting being opened by too great
tightness in the back? If the books you have had bound do not meet all these
requirements, it is time to look for another binder.
The different styles of dressing books may all be summed the following
materials: Boards, cloth, vellum, sheep, bock, pig-skin, calf, Russia, and
morocco-to which may be added of recent years, buckram, duck, linoleum, and
the imitations of leather, such as leatherette and morocco paper and of
parchment. I take no account here of obsolete styles-as ivory, wood, brass,
silver and other metals, nor of velvet, satin, and other occasional luxuries of the
binder's art. These belong to the domain of the amateur, the antiquary, or the
book-fancier-not to that of the librarian or the ordinary book-collector.
Roan leather is nothing but sheep-skin, stained or colored; basil or basan is
sheepskin tanned in bark, while roan is tanned in sumac, and most of the so
called morocco’s are also sheep, ingeniously grained by a mechanical process. As
all the manufactures in the world are full of "shoddy," or sham materials, the
bookbinder's art affords no exception. But if the librarian or collector patronises
shams, he should at least do it with his eyes open, and with due counting of the
cost.
Now as to the relative merits and demerits of materials for binding. No one will
choose boards covered with paper for any book which is to be subjected to
perusal, and cloth is too flimsy and shaky in its attachment to the book,
however cheap, for any library volumes which are to be constantly in use. It is
true that since the bulk of the new books coming into any library are bound in
cloth, they may be safely left in it until well worn; and by this rule, all the books
which nobody ever reads may be expected to last many years, if not for
generations. Cloth is a very durable material, and will outlast some of the
leathers, but any wetting destroys its beauty, and all colors but the darkest
soon become soiled and repulsive, if in constant use. In most libraries, I hold
that every cloth-bound book which is read, must sooner or later come to have a
stout leather jacket. It may go for years, especially if the book is well sewed, but
to rebinding it must come at last; and the larger the volume, the sooner it
becomes shaky, or broken at some weak spot.
The many beautiful new forms of cloth binding should have a word of praise, but
the many more which we see of gaudy, fantastic, and meretricious bindings, and
frightful combinations of colors must be viewed with a shudder.
Vellum, formerly much used for book-bindings, is the modern name for
parchment. Parchment was the only known writing material up to the 12th
century, when paper was first invented. There are two kinds-animal and
vegetable. The vegetable is made from cotton fibre or paper, by dipping it in a
solution of sulphuric acid and [sometimes] gelatine, then removing the acid by a
weak solution of ammonia, and smooth finishing by rolling the sheets over a
heated cylinder. Vegetable parchment is used to bind many booklets which it is
desired to dress in an elegant or dainty style, but is highly unsuitable for library
books. Vellum proper is a much thicker material, made from the skins of calves,
sheep, or lambs, soaked in limewater, and smoothed and hardened by
burnishing with a hard instrument, or pumice-stone. The common vellum is
made from sheep-skin splits, or skivers, but the best from whole calf-skins. The
hard, strong texture of vellum is in its favor, but its white color and tendency to
warp are fatal objections to it as a binding material.

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