Bookbinding and the Care of Books

Bookbinding and the Care of Books

A Handbook for Amateurs Bookbinders & Librarians

Douglas Cockerell

With Drawings by Noel Rooke, and other Illustrations

Table of Contents

Editor’s Preface

Author’s Note

Part I Binding

Introduction

• Entering — Books in Sheets — Folding — Collating — Pulling to Pieces — Refolding — Knocking Out Joints
• Guarding — Throwing Out — Paring Paper — Soaking off India Proofs — Mounting Very Thin Paper — Splitting Paper — Inlaying Leaves or Plates — Flattening Vellum
• Sizing — Washing — Mending
• End Papers — Leather Joints — Pressing
• Trimming Before Sewing — Edge Gilding
• Marking up — Sewing — Materials for Sewing
• Fraying Out Slips and Glueing up — Rounding and Backing
• Cutting and Attaching Boards — Cleaning off the Back and Pressing
• Cutting in Boards — Gilding or Colouring the Edges of a Cut Book
• Headbands
• Preparing for Covering — Paring Leather — Covering — Mitring Corners and Filling in
• Library Binding — Binding Very Thin Books — Scrap-Books — Vellum Bindings — Books Covered with Embroidery and Woven Material
• Decoration of Binding — Tools — Finishing — Tooling on Vellum — Inlaying on Leather
• Lettering on the Back — Blind Tooling — Heraldry on Book Covers
• Designing for Gold-Tooled Decoration — Designing Tools — Combining Tools to Form Patterns — Designing for Backs — Designing for Inside of Boards
• Pasting Down End Papers — Opening Newly Bound Books
• Clasps and Ties — Metal on Bindings
• Leather
• Paper — Pastes — White Paste for Mending — Glue

Part II Care of Books when Bound

• Injurious Influences to which Books are Subjected — Bookworms — Rats and Mice — Cockroaches — Placing the Books in the Shelves
• To Preserve Old Bindings — Re-Backing
• Specifications for Bookbinding

Reproductions of Bindings

Glossary

Douglas Cockerell