Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Librarians by Douglas Cockerell with Drawings
by Noel Rooke and other Illustrations
New York
1902
Book binding Chapter XX
Part 1
Paper may be made by hand or machinery and
either "laid" or "wove." "Laid" papers are
distinguished by wire marks, which are absent in
"wove" paper. A sheet of hand-made paper has all
round it a rough uneven edge called the "deckle,"
that is a necessary result of its method of
manufacture. The early printers looked upon this
ragged edge as a defect, and almost invariably
trimmed most of it off before putting books into
permanent bindings. Book-lovers quite rightly like
the binder. But it has now become the fashion to admire the "deckle" for its own sake, and to
leave books on hand-made paper absolutely untrimmed., with ragged edges that collect the dirt,
are unsightly, and troublesome to turn over. So far has this craze gone, that machine-made paper
is often put through an extra process to give it a sham deckle edge.
Roughly speaking, paper varies in quality according to the proportion of fibrous material, such
as rag, used in the manufacture. To make paper satisfactorily by hand, a large proportion of such
fibrous material is necessary, so that the fact that the paper is hand-made is to some extent a
guarantee of its quality. There are various qualities of hand-made paper, made from different
materials, chiefly linen and cotton rags. The best paper is made from pure linen rag, and poorer
hand-made paper from cotton rag, while other qualities contain a mixture of the two or other
substances.
It is possible to make a thoroughly good paper by machinery if good materials are used. Some
excellent papers are made by machinery; but the enormous demand for paper, together with the
fact that now almost any fibrous material can be made into paper, has resulted in the
production, in recent years, of, perhaps, the worst papers that have ever been seen.
This would not matter if the use of the poor papers were restricted to newspapers and other
ephemeral literature, but when, as is often the case, paper of very poor quality is used for books
of permanent literary interest, the matter is serious enough.
The paper known as “Japanese Vellum" is a very tough material, and will be found useful for
repairing vellum paper books; the thinnest variety of it is very suitable for mending the backs of
broken sections, or for strengthening weak places in paper.
Among the worst papers made are the heavily loaded" Art" papers that are prepared for the
printing of half-toned process blocks. It is to be hoped that before long the paper makers will
produce a paper that, while suitable for printing half-toned blocks, will be more serviceable, and
will have a less unpleasant surface. Several makers produce colored handmade papers suitable
for end papers. Machine-made papers can be had in endless variety from any number of makers.
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