Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Librarians by Douglas Cockerell with Drawings
by Noel Rooke and other Illustrations
New York
1902
Book binding Chapter XVI
Part 3
fig. 105, in which some gouges are introduced.
Any number of other combinations will occur to
anyone using the tools. Frequently questions will
arise as to whether a tool is to be put this way or
that way, and whether a line is to curve up or
down. Whenever there is such an
Alternative open, there is the germ of another
pattern. All-over diaper patterns may be varied in
any number of ways. One way is to vary the design
in alternate spaces. If this is done one of the
designs should be such that it will divide down the
comfortably at the edges. The pattern may be based on
the upright and the cross-lines of the marking up, or the
marking up may be on a different principle altogether.
The designer, after a little practice, will be bewildered by
the infinite number of combinations that occur to him.
The diaper is selected for a beginning, because it is the
easiest form of pattern to make, as there is no question
of getting round corners, and very little of studying
proportion. I t is selected also because it teaches the
student the decorative value of simple forms repeated
on some orderly system. When he has grasped this, he
has grasped the underlying principle of nearly all
successful tooled ornament. Diapers are good practice,
because in a close, all-over pattern the tools must be put
down in definite places, or an appalling muddle will
result. In tooling; a repeat of the same few tools, is the
best possible practice, giving as it does the same work
over and over again under precisely the same conditions,
and concentrating, on one book cover, the practice that
sparingly decorated, when variety of conditions would
confuse the student.
When the principles of the diaper have been mastered,
and the student has become familiar with the limitations
of his tools, other schemes of decoration may be
attempted such as borders, centers, or panels. A form of
border connected with cross lines is shown at fig. 106.
This is made up of a repeat of the spray built up of three
tools and four gouges shown at fig. 107, with slight
schemes for borders are those in which
flowers grow inwards from the edge of
the boards, or outwards from a panel at
the centre, or on both sides of a line
about half an inch from the edge. A
pattern may also be made to grow all
round the centre panel. Borders will be
found more difficult to manage than
simple element.
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