Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Douglas Cockerell with Drawings by Noel Rooke and other
Illustrations New York 1902
Bookbinding Chapter 1 Part 4
at most not exceeding a few shillings a volume, there is a large demand for
good plain bindings, and a limited, but growing, demand for more or less
decorated bindings for special books.
Any decoration but the simplest should be restricted to books bound as well
as the binder can do them. The presence of decoration should be evidence
that the binder, after doing his best for the “forwarding,’ has had time in
which to try to make his work a beautiful, as well as a serviceable, production.
Many books, although well bound, are better left plain, or with only a little
decoration. But occasionally there are books that the binder can decorate as
lavishly as he is able. As an instance of bindings that cannot be over-
decorated, those books which are used in important ceremonies, such as
Altar Books, may be mentioned. Such books may be decorated with gold
and colour until they seem to be covered in a golden material. They will be
but spots of gorgeousness in a great church or cathedral, and they can not be
said to be over-decorated as long as the decoration is good.
So, occasionally some one may have a book to which he is for some reason
greatly attached, and wishing to enshrine it, give the binder a free hand to do
his best with it. The binder may wish to make a delicate pattern with nicely-
balanced spots of ornament, leaving the leather for the most part bare, or he
may wish to cover the outside with some close gold-tooled pattern, giving a
richness of texture hardly to be got by other means. If he decides on the
latter, many people will say that the cover is over-decorated. But as a book
cover can never be seen absolutely alone, it should not be judged as an
isolated thing covered with ornament without relief, but as a spot brightness
and interest among its surroundings. If a room and everything in it is
covered with elaborate pattern, then anything with a plain surface would be
welcome as a relief; but in a room which is reasonable free from ornament, a
spot of rich decoration should be welcome.
It is not contended that the only, or necessarily the best, method of
decorating book covers is by elaborate all-over gold-tooled pattern; but it is
contended that this is a legitimate method of decoration for exceptional
books, and that by its use it is possible to get a beautiful effect well worth the
trouble and expense involved.
Good leather has a beautiful surface, and may sometimes be got of a fine
colour. The binder may often wish to show this surface and colour, and to
restrict his decoration to small portions of the cover, and this quite rightly,
he aiming at, and getting, a totally different effect than that got by all-over
patterns. Both methods are right if well done, and both methods can equally
be vulgarised if badly done.
There should be a certain similarity of treatment between the general get-up
of a book and its binding. It is a great pity that printers and binders have
drifted so far apart; they are, or should be, working for one end, the
production of a book, and some unity of aim should be evident in the work
of the two.
A much debated question is, how far the decoration of a binding should be
influenced by the contents of the book? A certain appropriateness there
should be, but as a general thing, if the binder aims at making the cover
beautiful, that is the best he can do. The hints given for designing are not
intended to stop the development of the student’s own ideas, but only to
encourage their development on right lights.
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