BOOKS TO CONSULT.
Society of Arts.—Report of the Committee on Leather for Bookbinding. London, 1905.
Library Association.—Leather for Libraries. London, 1905.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ORNAMENTATION OF LEATHER BOOKBINDINGS WITHOUT GOLD.
Blind tooling and stamping—Panel stamps—Cut leather—Stained calf—Cut vellum—Transparent vellum.
The true binding of a book consists of the sewing of the sections on bands, and the covering of leather is really wanted to protect the threads on the outer surfaces of the raised bands.
But this is generally taken for granted, and now when we speak of the binding of a book we normally mean only the outside ornamentation. In short, the term has changed its meaning; so in the remainder of this chapter, when I speak of the “binding” of a book, it is to be understood as the generally accepted meaning: namely, those parts of the leather covering that are visible.
From an artistic and æsthetic point of view we are justified in considering only the final ornamentation of a book binding. We rightly presume that in all great bindings, and even in the case of most good bindings, the technical procedures have all been truly and properly carried out. It is safe to presume this in the case of all bindings made before the latter half of the nineteenth century, but I regret to say that it is not safe to say it of bindings made then and later. There has been much improper use made of false bands, false headbands, “sawn in” backs, bad leather, and scamped sewing of sections even in books costing upwards of a hundred pounds for their bindings.