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INTRODUCTION.

PAGE

SKETCH of the Progress of Bookbinding 9

Sheet-Work 34

Forwarding 59

The Edges 74

Marbling 82

Gilding the Edges 130

Covering 141

Half-Binding 149

Blank Binding 151

Boarding 169

Cloth-Work 170

Ornamental Art 178

Finishing:

Taste and Design 186

Styles 198

Gilding 215

Illuminated Binding 227

Blind Tooling 230

Antique 231

Colouring 236

Marbling 246

Uniform Colours 256

Gold Marbles, Landscapes, &c. 260

Inlaid Ornaments 270

Harmony of Colours 272

Pasting Down, &c. 273

Stamp or Press-Work 279

Restoring the Bindings of Old Books 289

Supplying Imperfections in Old Books 290

Hints to Book-Collectors 292

Technical Terms 297

INTRODUCTION.

SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF BOOKBINDING.

A learned Athenian, named Phillatius, to whom his countrymen erected a statue, at length found out a means of binding books with glue. The sheets of vellum or papyrus were gathered two or four together, sewn much in the same way as at the present day; and then, in order to preserve these sheets, there came, as a matter of course, a covering for the book.

The probability is that the first book-covers were of wood--plain oaken boards, perhaps; then, as books in those days were all in manuscript, and very valuable, carved oak bindings were given to those which were the most decorated within.

To cover the plain wooden board with vellum or leather would, in the course of years, be too apparent an improvement to be neglected; and specimens of books so bound, of the great antiquity of which there are undoubted proofs, exist at the present day.

There is reason to believe that the Romans carried the Art of Binding to considerable perfection. Some of the public offices had books called Dyptichs, in which their acts were written. The binding of one of these in carved wood is thus described:--"Seated in the centre of each board is a consul, holding in one hand a baton, and in the other, upraised, a purse, as if in the act of throwing it to some victor in the games. Above these are miniature portraits, various other ornaments, and an inscription; below, on one board, are two men leading out horses for the race, and beneath them a group, with a ludicrous representation of two other men, exhibiting their endurance of pain by allowing crabs to fasten on their noses." A small print of an ivory dyptich of the fifth century, in Mr. Arnett's "Books of the Ancients," may be consulted as a specimen of the kind of ornament then adopted. An old writer says, that about the time of the Christian era the books of the Romans were covered with red, yellow, green, and purple leather, and decorated with gold and silver.

At a later period we find on the binding of books gold and silver ornaments of very beautiful design, enclosing precious stones of great variety; carved ivory tablets let into framework of carved oak; rich-coloured velvets, edged with morocco, with bosses, clasps, and corners of solid gold; white vellum stamped in gold and blind tooling; and morocco and calf covers inlaid with various colours and adorned in every conceivable way. This was at the end of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the love of Art was universal, in the land where Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle, and Da Vinci produced their great works, and where, under the auspices of the Medici, the Art of Bookbinding as well as all other arts was encouraged.

Mr. Dibdin, in his "Bibliographical Decameron," to which we are much indebted, has given an account of the library of Corvinus, King of Hungary, who died at Buda about the year 1490. This library consisted of about thirty thousand volumes, mostly manuscripts of the Greek and Latin poets and historians, and was contained in large vaulted galleries, in which, among other works of art, were two fountains, one of marble and the other of silver. The binding of the books were mostly of brocade, protected with bosses and clasps of gold and silver; and these, alas! were the subsequent cause of the almost entire destruction of the library; for, when the city of Buda was taken by assault, in 1526, the Turkish soldiers tore the precious volumes from their covers for the sake of the ornaments that were upon them.

The general use of calf and morocco binding seems to have followed the invention of printing. There are many printed books, still in good preservation, that were bound in calf with oaken boards at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. These are mostly stamped with gold or blind tools. The earliest of these tools generally represent figures, such as Christ, St. Paul, the Virgin, coats of arms, legends, and monograms, according to the contents of the book. Afterward attempts were made to produce pictures, but these were necessarily bad.

In the reign of Elizabeth some exquisite bindings were done in embroidery. The queen herself used to work covers with gold and silver thread, spangles, and coloured silk, for Bibles and other devotional books which she presented to her maids of honour and her friends. From these brilliant external decorations, many of them entirely inappropriate for a book, we turn to a purer taste, the exercise of which will be found to reside within the peculiar limits of the Bookbinder's Art.

Among the earliest French binders must be mentioned Padeloup, Derome, and De Seuil. Pope celebrates De Seuil in one of his poems. Derome's plain morocco bindings are excellent; they are sewn on raised bands, are firm and compact, and the solid gilding upon the edges is worthy of commendation; his dentelle borders are fine, but unfortunately he was not careful of the trenchant steel. Padeloup's tooling or ornaments consist chiefly of small dots, and the forms he invented are elegant. When met with in good state, they look like gold lace upon the sides and backs of the books.

The bindings of books which belonged to De Thou are highly prized. He possessed a magnificent library, mostly bound in smooth deep-toned red, yellow, and green morocco. De Thou died in 1617. The Chevalier D'Eon used to bind books in a sort of Etruscan calf, the ornaments on which were copied from the Etruscan vases. The use of the black and red dyes have very frequently corroded the leather.

We must now resume our account of binding in England.

During the early part of the last century the general bindings were, with the exception of what was called Cambridge binding, of a depreciated character, many of them very clumsy, and devoid of taste in their ornament. Toward the middle some degree of attention had begun to be paid to the improvement of bindings, the general kinds being, up to the end of the eighteenth century, nearly all executed to one pattern,--viz.: the sides marbled, the backs coloured brown, with morocco lettering-pieces, and gilt.

The artists of the earlier part of the period of which we have been treating must have been numerous; but few are known. Two German binders, of the name of Baumgarten and Benedict, were of considerable note and in extensive employment in London during the early part of this century. The bindings of Oxford were also very good at this period. Who the distinguished parties at Oxford were has not been recorded; but a person of the name of Dawson, then living at Cambridge, has the reputation of being a clever artist, and may be pronounced as the binder of many of the substantial volumes still possessing the distinctive binding we have before referred to. Baumgarten and Benedict would, doubtless, be employed in every style of binding of their day, but the chief characteristics of their efforts are good substantial volumes in russia, with marbled edges.

To these succeeded Mr. John Mackinlay and two other Binders, named Kalthber and Staggemier; but to Mackinlay may, perhaps, be attributed the first impulse given to the improvements which have been introduced into bindings. He was one of the largest and most creditable binders in London of the period of which we are treating. Several specimens of his, in public and private libraries, remain to justify the character given of him; and of the numerous artists that his office produced, many have since given evidence, by their work, that the lessons they received were of a high character. The specimens alluded to exhibit a degree of care, ingenuity, and skill, highly creditable to them as binders. Though well executed, they did not pay the time and attention devoted, in later times, to the finishing or gilding of their work, and it was not till Roger Payne exhibited the handiwork of the craft, that any decided impulse was given to the progress of the art, which has gone on, under able successors, from one improvement to another till there exists much doubt whether or no we have not now, so far as mechanical execution depends, arrived at perfection. About the year 1770 Roger Payne went to London, and, as his history is an epoch in the history of the art, we will devote some space to it.

The personal history of Roger Payne is one among the many of the ability of a man being rendered nearly useless by the dissoluteness of his habits. He stands an example to the young, of mere talent, unattended with perseverance and industry, never leading to distinction,--of great ability, clouded by intemperance and consequent indiscretion, causing the world only to regret how much may have been lost that might have been developed had the individual's course been different and his excellences directed so as to have produced the best results.

Roger Payne was a native of Windsor Forest, and first became initiated in the rudiments of the art he afterward became so distinguished a professor of, under the auspices of Mr. Pote, bookseller to Eton College. From this place he went to London, where he was first employed by Mr. Thomas Osborne, the bookseller, of Holborn, London. Disagreeing on some matters, he subsequently obtained employment from Mr. Thomas Payne, of the King's Mews, St. Martin's, who ever after proved a friend to him. Mr. Payne established him in business near Leicester Square, about the year 1769-70, and the encouragement he received from his patron, and many wealthy possessors of libraries, was such that the happiest results and a long career of prosperity might have been anticipated. His talents as an artist, particularly in the finishing department, were of the first order, and such as, up to his time, had not been developed by any other of his countrymen.

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