- About Bookbinding -
Bookbinding For Amateurs
The Various Tools and Appliances Required and Instructions for Their Effective Use by W.J.E. Crane 1888
Marbling Edges or Paper Part 3
Italian Marble -This (Fig. 93) is a pretty, though simple, pattern, but requires great cleanliness of working to turn it out well. Your colors being ground as before directed, you proceed to mix them with gall and water only, as though they were for veins. Your last color is white; this requires a greater proportion of gall than the other colors, and a larger brush, as in French. After skimming your size, you proceed by beating or knocking on your colors, as in small French, taking especial care to have the rings of your brushes free from any accumulation of color, or you will have large
spots or blotches, which will spoil the appearance of the work. One difference between this and the small French is that you use no oil in any of these colors. Another method is to use a mixture of weak "gall and water, instead of the white color, which must be firmly knocked or beaten on; this must be proportioned by your own judgment. This method is preferable to the former for book edges, and we like it quite as well for paper.
West End Marble -This very neat pattern (Fig. 94) is in every respect similar to the Spanish in the working, only it is not shaded. It consists of two prominent colors besides the veins. One of these is dark and dotted all over with small white spots; the other, which is the top or last color, is light, and is made by taking- a portion of the darker color and mixing a quantity of white with it, sufficient to bring it to the desired tint; so that, whether it be green, blue, or brown, the same rule may be observed. You proceed to mix
the veins in the ordinary way, viz., with the usual proportions of gall and water. You then mix your brown with a larger proportion of gall, and sprinkle it on so as to drive the other colors into veins; you then take the white, or gall and water, as in Italian, and beat it finely and equally all over, but not so much as for the Italian pattern. Lastly,
take your light or top color, which must be stronger in gall than any of the others, and sprinkle it lightly and evenly over the whole. Lay on the paper or book as quickly as possible.