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| Simple
repair jobs are easily done. Odd loose pages can be tipped back
into place, that is glued back to another page using a water-based
paste. (If whole sections are loose it would be best to seek advice
from an established bookbinder.) |
simple
repairs
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|
recommended
bookbinders |
We
can recommend bookbinders in the area. If you would like
a favourite book rebound it is best that you have specific instructions
to give to the bookbinder; and some repairs, however simple they
may look, can take a great deal of time and will therefore not be
inexpensive. |
| The
codex (the gathering of leaves together), which replaced the manuscript
roll of antiquity, needed protection with tough covering or binding.
Bookbindings from fourth century Egypt and later used a natural
goatskin cover or plain wooden covers with leather joints. Since
then most bookbinding has been done with vellum, leather or cloth. |
early
bookbindings
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|
vellum |
This
is the skin of a young calf or lamb prepared for use by polishing
with alum. It is long lasting and was used for heavy-duty binding
up until the eighteenth century. Vellum binding, apart from the
occasional renaissance, disappeared from common use because it was
not as workable as leather, which proved to be almost as enduring. |
| Leather
is obtained by soaking the raw animal skin (calf or morocco, which
is goatskin) in an infusion of oak bark, a process called tanning.
Leather bindings are either full,
that is both covers and the spine are in leather; or half
bound, where the spines and corners only are covered
in leather, the space between filled with cheaper cloth or board;
or quarter bound, where just
the spine is in leather. |
leather
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|
decorated
bindings |
Few
decorative bindings can compare with those commissioned by the sixteenth
century French kings. The Restoration period was the heyday of bookbinding
in England, and the Victorian period produced bookbindings of great
conceit and originality. |
The text on this page is culled from Discovering Book Collecting
by John Chidley, Shire Books www.shirebooks.co.uk
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| dustjackets |
|
The
earliest known surviving dustjacket dates from 1833, a plain buff-coloured
paper with the title overprinted in red. In the twentieth century
the potential of the dustjacket as an advertising tool became
apparent. The modern book collector is very fussy about dustwrappers,
and most 'first editions' are worthless unless the dustwrapper
is well preserved.
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|
cloth
binding
|
| Now ubiquitous,
the earliest trade bindings in cloth date from the early nineteenth
century: the first recorded use is in 1820. The use of gilt lettering
on cloth followed a decade later; later luxuriant blocking proved
that cloth could be as decorated as leather. |
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