Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Librarians by Douglas Cockerell with Drawings
by Noel Rooke and other Illustrations
New York
1902
Book binding Chapter XV
Part 4
the second tool, shown at A, the extremity of the
impressions could be joined with gouges, the stalk
and veining could either be run in with a fillet or
worked with gouges. The grapes would best be
worked with a tool cut for the purpose. One edge
of all gouge or fillet impressions can be smoothed
down with some such tool as shown in section at
B. This has to be worked round the gouge lines
with a steady hand, and may be fairly hot if it is
kept moving. At C is shown a section of a gouge
impression before and after the use of this tool.
pattern. Blind tooling can sometimes be used in combination with gold tooling. In the fifteenth
century the Venetian binders used little roundels of some gesso like substance that were brightly
colored or gilt, in combination with blind tooling this is a method that might be revived.
What is known as "leather work" is a further development of blind tooling. This method of
decoration has been revived lately, but not generally with success. "Leather work" may be
divided into two branches; in one the surface of the leather is cut to outline the pattern, and in
the other the leather is embossed from the back, while wet, and the pattern outlined by an
indented line. Sometimes the two methods are combined. As embossing from the back
necessitates the work being done before the leather is on the book, it is not very suitable for
decorating books. Leather first decorated and then stuck on the book, never looks as if it was an
integral part of the binding. The cut leather work, which may be done after the book is bound,
and leaves the surface comparatively flat, is a better method to employ for books, provided the
cuts are not too deep, and are restricted to the boards, so as not to weaken the leather at the
back and joints. Much of the leather used for "leather work" is of very poor quality, and will not
last; for modeling it must be thick on the side of the book, and for the book to open it must be
pared thin at the joint, thus making it necessary to use a thick skin very much pared down, and
consequently weakened (see p. 155). Another very common fault in modeled" leather work" is,
that the two sides and the back are often worked separately and stuck together on the book,
necessitating a join, and consequently a weak place in the hinge, where strength is most wanted.
Again, in most modern "leather work," those who do the decoration do not, as a rule, do the
binding, and often do not understand enough of the craft to do suitable work.
All those engaged in leather work are advised to learn to bind their own books, and to only use
such methods of decoration as can be carried out on the bound book.
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