An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
23
purposes, from lambskins, in the Campaign, is not so good for binding, as the thicker, English
vellum, which is made from calfskins. Of the inferior leathers, there is little occasion, here, to
speak: imitations of morocco are now made from sheep and split calf; and roan is sheepskin
tanned in sumach, and colored and dressed in imitation of morocco, except that it is finished with
a smooth surface. Sheep itself has been entirely superseded by cloth, for cheap bindings. The
fashion of binding books in cloth was, according to a writer in Notes and Queries, the invention
of 'Mr. R. E. Lawson, of Stanhope Street, Blackfriars, formerly in the employ of Mr. Charles Sully,
and the first book bound in cloth was a manuscript volume of music, which was subsequently
purchased by Mr. Alfred Herbert, the marine artist. On this volume being shown to the late Mr.
Pickering, who was at that time, 1823, printing a diamond edition of the Classics, he thought the
material would be admirably adapted for the covers of the work. The cloth was purchased at the
corner of Wilderness Row, St. John Street, and five hundred copies of the diamond Classics were
covered by Mr. Lawson with glue.' Cloth is a perishable material, admirably adapted for covering
books, which are intended for ordinary use, and not afterwards to be put into fine bindings: but
it is not a material upon which a design of any value should be impressed.
Morocco, then, is the only colored leather in general use, against which no serious objection can
be urged, by either the binder, or gilder: and I shall, therefore, confine my remarks chiefly to the
covering and finishing of books, in that material. Each kind of leather, however, as well as silk,
velvet, and other woven, or embroidered, fabric, requires to be variously worked, according to
its peculiar nature. A piece of leather is firstly to be cut, with a sharp knife, from a skin of
morocco, as much larger than the book, every way, as may be necessary to cover the edges and
squares of the boards. This, having been placed upon some perfectly smooth surface, such as
that of a lithographic stone, is next to be pared with the paring knife. The knife, which is used by
the French binders for this purpose, is not unlike a broad chisel, having a rounded, instead of a
straight, cutting edge.
It is held in the right hand; and the leather is pared, or thinned, on the flesh side; care being
taken to equally reduce every part of its surface, but not to a degree, which would destroy the
strength of the morocco.
Those parts of the leather, which are to be turned over the edges and squares of the boards,
are, however, to be pared more thinly than the rest; especially at the head and tail of the back,
where the leather will be folded upon itself.