The art of bookbinding

John Lewis, Member, on 10 January 2002

Lunchtime Lecture

Since John Lewis retired he has made bookbinding his hobby. He trained at Brunel University and is active in the National Society of Bookbinders.

John Lewis introduced his talk by saying that he thought he would have preferred to use the word Craft instead of Art. His definition of a binding was that it should enclose, protect the contents and provide information as to those contents but he said that he would like to hear the listeners' views on the book as an Art form and would show some examples later of some more unusual looking bindings and see whether they met his criteria of a book.

At the beginning of the 19th Century books were still being made as they had been in Gutenberg's day and 3 men could print no more than 250 sheets an hour on one side only. Although a firm like Butler and Tanner with fully computerised production could produce 800,000 books a week and turn out 3,000 cloth bound books an hour, they were still following the same steps in production - folding - sewing - adhesive - covering - as was used for hand binding a single volume!

The material used is of first importance. Historically, vellum, parchment and papryus have been used, but now paper is the usual material. Although single sheets can be bound by `perfect binding' using adhesives - animal glue or PVA - and these days are mostly very satisfactory, the binder would normally receive his sheets from the printer folded to Folio - Quarto - Octavo, etc. sizes. A sample sheet of printed paper handed round was folded with the grain running vertically to give 16 book pages in one section. Printer's `signatures' (marks on the folded edge) are given to aid the binder who can now sew the sections together in the correct order. (Examples of non-adhesive and adhesive bound books were passed around, e.g. Limp/vellum & Japanese bindings).

The sections then have to be sewn together and examples of the different methods used were shown. Up until the end of the 18th century traditional methods of bookbinding were more or less unchanged and sections were sewn on leather thongs, or later, cords, which remained as raised bands on the spine of the finished book. Cords were sometimes recessed into the spine but now most
books are sewn onto tapes and leather bands attached to a hollow back (a tube of kraft paper usually) which, when the book is opened, takes the strain off the spine. This was the difficulty with the tight back before hollow backs were devised.

End papers are used to provide a paste down to the cover of the book and a frontispiece. These are very often made from decorated paper, the production of which has become an art form itself.

The shape of the book is the next stage and it can be bound with a flat or rounded back. The rounding and backing of the pages to give the book a shoulder gives it it's final shape and the use of a hinge on flat-backed books gives the same effect — an idea originally thought out by Bath bookbinder Cedric Chivers. The sections are now enclosed with boards that will protect the contents and these are covered with leather, cloth, paper and all kinds of other material.

The spine and sides of the book can then be used to describe the contents and, at the same time, provide an opportunity for design and art work.

Three examples of early design work were shown - one a drawing of a 14th C. book containing

a code of legislation written on vellum & bound with 2 oak boards about 5 cms thick with the cords laced into them and the spine secured by leather bands and nails, the hole enabling it to be held in court while citing the contents. The other, showing a nobleman at his devotions with his open prayer book taking the form of a heart; and the third showing a girdle book - the leather covering extended beyond the tail of the book and tied into a knot enabling the book to be read while still tucked into the readers belt.

Another example of unusual materials beingused was for a book from a WWl prisoner who had used crocodile leather off a suitcase and boards from a food parcel to bind up the Camp's news bulletin.

Some examples of modern bindings by Philip Smith were then shown and the audience's opinions invited. Did they meet the criteria of protecting the pages and indicating the contents? Broadly speaking the answer was `Yes', but they were also highly decorated works of art.

Ensuing discussion included a reference to the repair and conservation of books in the BRSLl
Library and the possibility of doing some of the work `in house' with volunteers.

Dr Evelyn Lewis gave a brief resumé of what is being achieved by the Adopt-a-Book Scheme and appealed for support.

John Lewis