An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
gathered up, and beaten together, for a second time. In recent years, rolling machines have
been invented to do the work of the beating hammer; and all books, with few exceptions, are
now rolled, whereby a great saving of labour is effected. For ephemeral and commercial work,
the value and efficiency of such machines are certainly very great: but neither fine, nor old,
books should on any account be rolled. In a new book, the texture of a handmade paper will
certainly be damaged, if not destroyed, by the process of rollinit and in many an old one, the
deep impression of the type into the paper, is likely to make it split under such treatment. The
use of the beating hammer, on the other hand, requires great skill and judgment; or the
sections will be burised and cut. The risk of treating a valuable book in this manner is too great
to warrant its employment, even by an experienced workman; especially as another method,
both safe and effective, remains in the use of the press. But this, like every other operation of
the binder's art, requires a nice judgment: and the sections of a book should be pressed
sufficiently to render them solid, and to keep out the dust; but not to the degree, at which the
paper is killed.
MARKING UP AND SEWING.- The head, and back, edges of the sections are now knocked
even, that is, they are brought to an even surface' and the book is ready for the process,
technically known as marking up. This consists in spacing out, and marking upon the back, the
position of the cords, upon which the b k'
. 00 IS to be sewn. For this purpose, the book IS placed, with the back uppermost, between
boards, in a lying-press; and the position of the cords is then marked on the back with a black
lead pencil, by the aid of a right-angled set-square; their proper number and distribution being a
matter of the greatest importance, in good binding.
There are two methods of sewing a book; one of which is known, as sewing round the cords,
and the other, as ordinary sewing. In sewing round the cords, the construction of the binding
usually determines the decoration of the back: in ordinary sewing the construction is either
hidden, or falsified. Sewing round the cords is not only the more artistic; but it is the stronger,
and better, method; and the one, which I shall describe. In ordinary sewing, the cords are
embedded in a series of grooves, cut by a saw; and the books of the present day are, with rare
exceptions, sewn in this manner.
Derome was, perhaps, the first binder of repute, who employed this dangerous use of the saw;
and the method of his time may be found described at length, in the treatise of Dudin. In
modern books, ordinary sewing is generally accompanied by the use of hollow backs, partly on
account of the great saving of labour, which is effected by their use, and partly on account of the
excessive thickness of the paper used in modern books, which necessitates the use of this
method.