English Book Binder

Old bookbinder's never die...they only fade away!

This ancient picture of an equally ancient bookbinder shows him at his standing lay press.

But what is he actually doing?

The picture clearly shows he is not sharing any of the trade secrets as the hammer would have been used for beating out the sections and rounding and backing the spine before the book was covered, and the headcaps would not be formed in the press.

I wonder how long he had to hold that pose for?

 

 

          

 

I on the other hand am showing you exactly how much pressure is needed when nipping the endpapers on a newly bound folio Bible. It must be summertime in the Old Boy's workshop as you can see the fire isn't lit and he is suitably attired for the job. The standard dress for a bookbinder in those days was:

A woollen vest, shirt and tie, a thick woollen jumper, cow gown, cloth cap and big bushy moustache. Whereas: It is spring in my workshop and the standard dress has altered somewhat!

I don't know how the Old Boy coped with the heat from tooling in those days, the 2 colour bible pictured above,took over 800 impressions of tools on the spine alone.

English Bookbinder - Collectors

It's been a busy month with books coming in and out, the piles get higher and the waiting list longer. Some very nice books though, these 3 are for a customer who has a very fine library and is very particular about having his books uniformly bound to match each other. I suppose you could call it his 'Signature' as were the 17th and 18th century elaborate"Armorial Bindings", where a man's wealth and stature was often measured by his library.

 

   

 

The style is the same, even the spines are tooled to match, but I have used different tools for the inner borders.

Another client collects first edition Dickens and buys them from me, relying on my knowledge of 1st issue and 1st edition "points of issue". She also has them uniformly bound in a style of the period much suited to her library.

Well, I now have to tackle a large folio hand coloured very sticky Atlas,  whose maps have been sellotaped together, (I say sticky because it hasn't got this sticky since "stickey" the stick insect got himself stuck on a sticky bun!), I'm sure its been done by some well meaning previous owner, not realising they are worth around £80-£100 each now! So I will leave you with a couple of "sticky" tape jobs from 20 years ago 'bdc' (before digital cameras).

This entire book was covered in industrial sticky tape.

Whilst 10% of the pages inside were stuck together with brown gummed tape.....and 8 inch wide industrial Sellotape.
Wot's that all about then???

And over the years they just kept on coming, Bible after Bible, The Great, The Vinegar, The Bishop's, The Genevan and even the "Wicked"

See my article here on.... Bibles

         

            Blind Marble              American                     Royal

Issue 3 - June.....here
If you can take anymore.....