Temple's Works

The Works of Temple. 18th c. 2 folio volumes. Rebacked in calfskin. Full gilt decorated spines.

Stuart's Athens

Stuart's Athens. 18th c. 4 Folio volumes. Rebacked in calfskin. Full gilt decorated spines.

The Art of the Victorian Cloth Binding

 
In the rare book world, leather is king. Much, in my opinion, to the determent of other beautiful bindings, specifically, those created during the Victorian era in cloth.

While I do agree that there is a lushness to a well crafted leather bound book, Victorian decorated cloth bindings hold a special appeal to me. Not only do they look lovely on the bookshelf, cloth bindings, if kept in the correct environment, can hold up better than leather. None of that red rot business.

Victorian decorated bindings were created using a sadly deceased practice of gilding/stamping the entire covers at once, with a brass stamp that was large enough to cover the entire boards. Though some of these elaborate stamps have made their way into current binderies, they are hard to come by, and in addition, it takes a special stamping machine to re-use one, a machine that costs a great deal of money and is only in reach of the established, well-endowed bindery. Meaning, that leaves out most if not all of the hand restorers like myself.

However, since so many of these bindings have retained their beauty, there are plenty still in existence, and in many cases, they are far less expensive to purchase than their leather counterparts. A worthy addition to any rare book collection.

The Beauty of the Fore-Edge Painted Book

One of my favorite types of books that collectors covet are fore-edge painted books. A fore-edge painted book is one where an artist, sometimes professional, most often a talented lady or gentleman at leisure, paints a picture on the fore-edge of the text block.

This type of painting is not for the faint of heart, for once started it must be finished, and if you mess it up you have essentially ruined the book. You cannot, as in oil on canvas, paint over and start again, as these were done in either ink or watercolors.

One of the delights of these books is that unless you are looking for it, you may not even realize the painting is even there, especially if the book has gilded edges. Closed and at rest, you cannot see the painting until you fan out the pages, and suddenly, what was an ordinary book becomes a work of art.

Most fore-edge paintings are done on average, though frequently nicely bound, books, mainly poetry and the like. The paintings rarely, in these cases, have anything to do with the contents of the book, merely a choice of the artist, usually depicting a landscape or architectural scene.

The most highly sought after fore-edge painted books are ones where the painting has a direct link to the book's content. Once, I was privileged to see an entire set of Dickens, where each book had a fore-edge painting of a scene from the story. My favorite, as I recall, was the one from Oliver Twist, showing Fagin and his motley crew of thieving boys.

Fore-edge on "A Game of Chess", 1790

Even more collectible is the double fore-edge, or reverse fore-edge, where one picture is painted one way, then another picture is painted on the opposite edge, so when you fan the book out from the start to the back you have one picture, and then another from back to front. If these paintings pertain to the book's contents, so much the better.

Though it is hard to verify due to lack of documentation, most fore-edges were painted long after the book was bound, though I am sure there are some that were done at the time of binding at the behest of the owner, or specially commissioned around the time of binding as the Dickens set mentioned above.

From a bookbinder's perspective, fore-edge books poise a delicate problem, especially if they must be resewn due to a failure of the binding structure, as you must be extremely careful to line each signature exactly in its former place so the painting does not become jagged and askew. This requires a lot of stopping, checking, jogging, re-checking and a multitude of patience.


To learn more about fore-edge painted books, please visit:

On The Edge: Boston Public Library

Also, a fore-edge artist currently producing work for this nearly lost art:

Fore-edge Painting

A Curse on Book Thieves

Methinks this collector watched one too many books vanish from his highly coveted shelves.

“For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner,
Let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him.
Let him be struck with palsy and all his members blasted.
Let him languish in pain crying out for mercy,
Let there be no surcease to his agony till he sink in dissolution.
Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the worm that dieth not.
When at last he goeth to his final punishment,
Let the flames of Hell consume him forever.
[attributed to the Monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona, Spain]”
― Nicholas A. Basbanes, A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books

My Favorite Bookbinding Tools

Over my years of bookbinding, these are some of the tools I have found to be indispensable for my work.

1. Scharf-Fix Paring Machine
   
   I worked years before I saved the money to buy this paring machine. While I still have to pare by hand occasionally, never again do I have to sit there for decades paring leather down for labels, onlays, etc.
   
   
2. Bone Folders
   
   A bone folder is essential. One of the first tools I bought, and really, you can't restore books without one. Or ten. You have to own more than one. Used from everything to setting joints to making corners.
   
   
3. Wax Paper
   
   All right, this could be considered a supply, but I use wax paper so extensively that I will call it a tool. I go through probably two rolls a week. I paste paper on it, dye leather on it (small piece, like labels, larger skins I dye on sheets of glass or plastic), I wrap text blocks in it, I insert between boards when pressing, etc etc. If I run out of wax paper, I stop work and go to the store. It's that important.
   
   
4. A Kutrimmer Board Cutter
   
   Another tool I bought years after I first started, and like the paring machine, one that you now couldn't rip out of my cold dead hands. Not having to cut book board by hand? Priceless. I do wish, though, that I had just gone ahead and bought the biggest, most expensive one, as I do have to hand cut boards for large folios. Yet since that happens only once in a while, my 15" Kutrimmer performs nicely.
   
   
5. Kwik-Print Stamping Machine
   
   For stamping titles for labels or large designs on covers. I first owned a Kingsley, a much less expensive machine, but found it clunky and too limiting, so I bit the bullet and bought a Kwik-Print. I don't use it as much as I used to, as I found doing labels the old fashioned way (with a type holder or single letter tools) gives the best results for restoration work. I still love my Kwik-Print, though, especially when I must make numerous same labels, as for a set of books. I know some bookbinders who also use the Kwik-Print to stamp entire spines at one time (for case bound books), but I never liked the results. I do my spine work by hand.
   
   
6. Dremel
   
   I make a lot of book boxes with rounded spines, and quickly realized creating those rounded spines is a great deal of work by hand (they are created by gluing graduated pieces of book board atop one another, then sanded down until smooth, but that's a post in itself). This tool makes it much faster and easier, and is also good for filing down the edge of boards to fit flush with the joints, smoothing out rough edges on boards and the like. I am sure there are other ways to use this tool that I haven't discovered yet, as it comes with a gazillion different attachments. I, btw, own the 4000.