Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Douglas Cockerell with Drawings by Noel Rooke and other
Illustrations New York 1902
their proper order, and to protect them. That bindings can be made, that
will adequately protect books, can be seen from the large number of fifteenth
and sixteenth century bindings now existing on books still in excellent
condition. That bindings are made, that fail to protect books, may be seen by
visiting any large library, when it will be found that many bindings have their
boards loose and the leather crumbling to dust. Nearly all librarians
complain, that they have to be continually rebinding books, and this not after
four hundred, but after only five or ten years.
It is no exaggeration to say that ninety per cent. Of the books bound in
leather during the last thirty years will need rebinding during the next thirty.
The immense expense involved must be a very serious drag on the usefulness
of libraries; and as rebinding is always to some extend damaging to the leaves
of a book, it is not only on account of the expense that the necessity for it is
to be regretted.
The reasons that have led to the production in modern times of bindings
that fail to last for a reasonable time, are two-fold. The materials are badly
selected or prepared, and the method of binding is faulty. Another factor is
the decay of bindings, both old and new, is the bad conditions under which
they are often kept.
The object of this text-book is to describe the best methods of bookbinding,
and of keeping books when bound, taking into account the present-day
conditions. No attempt has been made to describe all possible methods, but
only such as appear to have answered best on old books. The methods
described are for binding that can be done by hand with the aid of simple
appliances. Large editions of books are now bound, or rather cased, at an
almost incredible speed by the aid of machinery, but all work that needs
personal care and thought on each book, is still done, and probably always
will be done, by hand. Elaborate machinery can only be economically
employed when very large numbers of books have to be turned out exactly
alike.
The ordinary cloth “binding” of the trade, is better described as casing. The
methods being different, it is convenient to distinguish between casing and
binding. In binding, the slips are firmly attached to the boards before
covering; in casing, the boards are covered separately, and afterwards glued
on to the book. Very great efforts have been made in the decoration of cloth
covers, and it is a pity that the methods of construction have not been
equally considered. If cloth cases are to be looked upon as a temporary
binding, then it seems a pity to waste so much trouble on their decoration;
and if they are to be looked upon as permanent binding, it is a pity the
construction is not better.
For books of only temporary interest, the usual cloth cases answer well
enough; but for books expected to have permanent value, some change is
desirable.
Valuable books should either be issued in bindings that are obviously
temporary, or else in bindings that are strong enough to be considered
permanent. The usual cloth case fails as a temporary binding, because the
methods employed result in serious damage to the sections of the book often
unfitting them for rebinding, and it fails as a permanent binding on account
of the absence of sound construction.
In a temporary publisher’s binding, nothing should be done to the section of
a book that would injure them. Plates should be guarded, the sewing should
be on tapes, without splitting the head and tail, or “sawing in” the backs, of
the sections; the backs should be glued up square without backing. The case
may be attached, as is now usual. For a permanent publisher’s binding,
something like that recommended for libraries is suggested, with either
leather or cloth on the back.
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