They may well say that you should not judge a book by its cover, but when Paul Tronson binds a book by hand in vegetable-tanned leather, it can be transformed from worthless tat into a collector's item. Jo Ind met the master bookbinder.
Paul Tronson is a book doctor. He's also a detective, a historian, an alchemist, an artist, a craftsman and a valuer. These are all the roles he needs to practise his craft of master bookbinder. Paul's job is to restore books - ripped apart through love or negligence - to their former glory.
Not only does he make them look as they would have done in whatever century they were created, but as far as possible he uses the tools, methods and materials of the era from which they came. So if he is restoring a seventeenth century book with a leather cover, he does not dye it using today's synthetic colours.
He gets walnuts and oak bark and cochineale and creates the colours according to a seventeenth century formula, just as they would have done 400 years ago.
His old workshop at Yew Tree Farm Craft Centre, Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire, contained pretty decanters with intriguing coloured liquids in them. "No two jobs are the same," says Paul. "I have to do whatever is required for each book." When a book comes in for restoration, Paul's first task is to analyse it.
It may have pages missing, tears or stains. Or it may have been repaired by a previous binder in a way not sympathetic with the original. Paul has to take it apart and care for each individual page before he binds it up again. If a page has a stain on it, he has to assess what that stain is. And it is not enough to know just that it is ink, for example. He also has to work out what the ink is made from.
He is able to remove a wide variety of stains, like crayon, ink and foxing.
Then he has to know about the "size" of the paper. Size is the gelatinous mixture, like a glue, which is what holds the fibres of paper together. Paul has to find the remedy or chemical which will remove the stain and then use an exact formula for re-sizing. If he gets it wrong, he could make it worse.
"You have to get it right first time, there is no second chance " he says. So how does he know what formula to use?
"Centuries of understanding," he says, adding to the sense of an alchemist at work.
When pages are torn or missing he works his magic in other ways. First of all he has to find a copy of the work he is repairing. Copies are obtained from institutions around the world, he says.
When he has found the page he needs, he makes a copy of it and prints it onto the same kind of paper as the book he is restoring and can sometimes even match the watermark in the paper. He has to line up both the print and the fibres of the paper, with the original and knit them together so the seam can not be seen, or invisibly mended.
If he did not show examples of pages on which he has done exactly that, you would think it was impossible. Once each page is perfect - well not too perfect "that wouldn't look right, it needs to be aged to the period" - Paul binds it in keeping with its era. He even makes the cord that is used to sew the pages together himself. It starts out as natural hemp which he twists until it is rope-like. Then there is the task of making the marble patterning that appears on many period books inside the covers. This is done by creating a kind of gum made out of seaweed and floating water-based pigments in various colours on top.
But the pigments are not dropped on randomly. The design is carefully created to match that of the same period, then a large piece of paper is laid on the bath and the marble pattern is transferred to the paper
Then it has to be done all over again to create a match for multiple volumes.
When he has hand-sewn the book in a style in keeping with the period, he is ready to create the cover.
His workshop is full of books with luscious leather covers he has created, hand-tanned leathers, with hand-made dyes and embossed with 23 carat gold leaf. First he has to find the right design for the book, reproducing the one it would have had originally, or picking one in keeping with the period.
His workshop is full of literally hundreds of little tools, like stamps in the form of letters or patterns in various sizes. Paul has to heat the tool to the right temperature and then press on the leather creating an indentation.or "blind impression".
It has to be in exactly the right place, so that a row of twenty little leaves, for example, are equally spaced.
"You don't get a second shot," reminds Paul. Then a glue-type mixture is created from egg white and applied over the pattern - enough to hold the gold leaf in place but not so much that it fills up the indentation. Finally the gold leaf, which is so fine you can not hold it or breathe on it, is laid on and the hot tool worked into the exact place of the indentation. "I do like the intricate work," says Paul. "I like creating something beautiful."
Paul, who is from Birmingham, was interested in printing while he was at school. He originally wanted to be a lithographic artist but as there were no openings for that kind of work, he went to Matthew Bolton Printing College and was apprenticed with a small print company for six years.
From there he worked for various printers and bookbinders, all the time working on developing the traditional skills in his own time.
As an apprentice he had been taught to analyse books and work out how they had been made originally. The task of a traditional bookbinder is then to treat them in the same way using the same materials and the same techniques.
So Paul, aged 45, would develop his own formulas, crafts and techniques until he was sufficiently established to set up his own business 21 years ago specialising in the restoration of antiquarian books.
Not surprisingly he has customers from all over the world, and that is without advertising. One man came over from Geneva just so that Paul could restore his book and another recently for the day from Ireland.
"It's a noble art," says Paul. "It absorbs many crafts. Even in this age of technology there are many like-minded artisans preserving the values of traditional craftsmanship. Paul also buys, sells and values books and can be found at Period Fine Bindings, Beacon Avenue, Sidney-by-the-Sea, Vancouver Island, BC Canada His telephone number is +1 778 -433-5007 e: paul@periodfinebindings.com and his website is: http://www.periodfinebindings.com
Terms of Business
Between us [company name] Date
and you [customer name]
Summary:
We will always do our best to fulfill your needs and meet your goals, but sometimes it is best to have a few simple things written down so that we both know what is what, who should do what and what happens if stuff goes wrong. In this contract you won't find complicated legal terms or large passages of unreadable text. We have no desire to trick you into signing off on something that you might later regret. We do want what's best for the safety of both parties, now and in the future.
In short
You ([customer name]) are hiring us Period Fine Bindings located at 2527 Beacon Avenue, Sidney-by-the-Sea, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, V8L 1Y1 to create and develop a book or books for the estimated total price (see original quote) as outlined in our previous correspondence. Of course it's a little more complicated, but we'll get to that.
What do both parties agree to do?
As our customer, you have the power and ability to enter into this contract on behalf of your company or organization. You agree to provide us with everything that we need to complete the project including where appropriate the volume, text, images and other information as and when we need it, and in the format that we ask for. You agree to review our work, provide feedback and sign-off approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways and you will also be bound by any dates that we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract.
We have the experience and ability to perform the services you need from us and we will carry them out in a professional and timely manner. Along the way we will endeavor to meet all the deadlines set but we can't be responsible for a missed launch date or a deadline if you have been late in payment or have not approved or signed off our work on-time at any stage. On top of this we will also maintain the confidentiality of any information that you give us.
Getting down to the nitty gritty
Design
We will create designs for the look-and-feel, restoration (where appropriate) layout and functionality of your book (s). This contract allows us to produce the full design based on verbal or written instructions (email) from you. If you're happy with the designs at this stage, you will pay us in full for all of the work that we have produced until that point and you may either cancel this contract or continue to commission us to make further design revisions at the daily rate set out in our original quotation.
Restoration
We have restored ancient volumes that have been drowned in flooded crypts, handwritten hunting manuals from the thirteenth century burnt to a crisp and manuscripts that have been found in the thatched eaves of sixteenth century cottages. We have restored dog-savaged texts, sacred worm eaten chain library tomes and the Doomesday scroll, so be assured that we can save your precious book, but it will cost $60 an hour.
Construction
The work is demanding and time-consuming: restoring broken volumes, mending pages invisibly, finding missing text and collating the pages, hand-marbling end-papers, curing the leather, staining with handmade dyes made from natural earth bols and pigments, stitching bindings (using over 78 different ways), covering the work and creating original designs in 24 carat leaf tooling or working with the designs of the master bookbinders to recreate works of art in the spirit of their masterpieces.
Text content
For original limited edition commissions, we may write a best-seller and therefore retain copyright for that piece, design and text, but we're not responsible for writing or inputting any text copy unless you ask us to in writing. We'll be happy to help though, and in addition to the quotation we will charge you at $60 an hour for copy writing or content input.
Plates or Photographs
You will supply us plates or photographs for your volume either in digital or printed format. If you choose to buy stock photographs we can suggest vendors of stock photography. Any time we spend searching libraries for appropriate plates or photographs will be charged at $60 per hour.
Changes and revisions
We know from plenty of experience that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial to you, as they often limit you to your first idea about how something should look, or how it might work. We don't want to limit either your options or your opportunities to change your mind.
The quotation prices at the beginning of this document are based on the number of hours that we estimate we'll need to accomplish everything that you have told us you want to achieve. If you do want to change your mind, add extra pages or design features or even add new functionality, that won't be a problem. You will be charged the hourly rate of $60 an hour or set out in the quotation we gave you. Along the way we might ask you to put requests in writing (email is good) so we can keep track of changes.
Cancellation
What happens when you cancel a project? Well, when you are a small business your livelihood depends on billable hours and therefore we ask you to pay for the work completed to date based on our hourly rate, materials and specific tools acquired and a cancellation fee of 25% of the total quotation.
Legal stuff
We can't guarantee that the work of binding books and producing works of the binding art will always be error-free (although we have learnt to produce error-less work the hard-way) and so we can't be liable to you or any third party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages arising out of the use of text, volume or objets d’art, even if you have advised us of the possibilities of such damages.
If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
Phew.
Copyrights
You guarantee to us that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide us for inclusion in your book are either owned by your good selfs, or that you have permission to use them.
In return we guarantee that our work is original and to the best of our knowledge does not infringe the copyright of others.
When we receive your final payment, copyright is automatically assigned as follows:
You own the book(s) that we create for you for this project.
You also own text content, photographs and other data you provided, unless someone else owns them.
We love to show off our work and share what we have learned with other people, so we also reserve the right to display and link to your completed project as part of our portfolio and to write about the project on web sites, in magazine articles and in books about book binding.
Payments
We are sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. As we're also sure you'll want to stay friends, you agree to stick tight to the following payment schedule.
We expect a third of the total bill ‘upfront’ and immediately at commencement to show your commitment and to help us buy materials and tools.
Should major design changes occur or additional work be added to the original project then we will expect payment on demand for work agreed and achieved to date.
Our payment terms are 21 days and there is an encouraging fee of 1.5% per month per invoice for any late payment. Should any project over $1,000 be significantly altered or delayed by yourselves in anyway we reserve the right to add an additional 10% to our invoice.
And , by the way, all commissions must be paid for in full before they leave the workshop.
But where is all the horrible small print?
Just like a parking ticket, you cannot transfer this contract to anyone else without our permission. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place.
Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of [English] courts. Oh and don't forget those men with big dogs.
The dotted line
Signed by and on behalf of [company name]
Signed by and on behalf of [customer name]
Date [date]
Everyone should sign above and keep a copy for their own records. If however you are unable to sign then acceptance of our terms is deemed to have occurred when you know that work has commenced on your behalf.
Kind Regards
Paul Tronson
paul@periodfinebindings.com
'Shout out' to Andy Clarke and of course Margaret Stead
