Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Librarians by Douglas Cockerell with Drawings
by Noel Rooke and other Illustrations
New York
1902
Book binding Chapter XXII
Part 1
It is a well-known fact that the leather of bindings
that are much handled lasts very much better than
that on books which remain untouched on the
shelves. There is little doubt that the reason for
this is that the slight amount of grease the leather
receives from the hands nourishes it and keeps it
flexible. A coating of glair or varnish is found to
some extent to protect leather from adverse
outside influences, but, unfortunately, both glair
and varnish tend rather to harden leather than to
keep it flexible, and they fail just where failure is
become hard will crack, and expose the leather of the joint and back. Flexibility is an essential
quality in bookbinding leather, for as soon as the leather at the joint of a binding becomes stiff it
breaks away when the boards are opened.
bindings if librarians would have them treated, say once a
year, with some preservative. The consequent expense
would be saved many times over by the reduction of the
cost of re-binding. Such a preservative must not stain,
must not evaporate, must not become hard, and must not
be sticky. Vaseline has been recommended, and answers
fairly well, but will evaporate, although slowly. I have
found that a solution of paraffin wax in castor oil
answers well. It is cheap and very simple to prepare. To
prepare it, some castor oil is put into an earthenware jar,
and about half its weight of paraffin wax shredded into it.
On warming, the wax will melt, and the preparation is
ready for use.
A little of the preparation is well worked into a piece of
flannel, and the books rubbed with it, special attention
being paid to the back and joints. They may be
preparation need be used on each book. If bindings have projecting metal corners or clasps that
are likely to scratch the neighboring books, pieces of millboard, lings which may be lined with
leather or good paper, should be placed next them, or they may have a cover made of a piece of
millboard bent round as shown at fig. 120, and strengthened at the folds with linen. This may be
slipped into the shelf with the book with the open end outwards, and will then hardly be seen.
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