Fig. 25.—Four threaded quaternions ready to be tied together.
Fig. 26.—Four threaded quaternions tied on to transverse bands.
This, in fact, was done, and very shortly the best way of fastening the sections on to such cords or threads was hit upon—a method indeed that we have never bettered, and which can still be found in the work of many of our best modern binders.
At first this fastening together of the sections of a book was no doubt done uncomfortably and roughly by hand, but it soon became evident that some simple device in the form of a skeleton frame might be contrived which would render the operations of sewing and binding much easier. Not only easier to execute but also giving a more regular and workmanlike result.
The earliest known sewing frames were the same as are used now. There are two strong columns of wood fixed on a broad platform, with a slot between their bases. From capital to capital extends a bar, and the strips of leather, vellum, or hempen cords which are to form the bands of the book are looped upon it, and are kept taut by means of metal keys attached to the other end, which lock into the slot at the bottom. The bands can be quite easily adjusted to any space the worker desires.
Fig. 27.—Modern hand-sewing press.
The book, ready for sewing and in proper order of sections, is laid near the worker’s hand, and he, or she, takes it up by sections, one at a time. The section to be worked upon is laid downwards on the little platform, with its back close against the bands, and the worker’s left hand keeps the section open in the middle, while with the right hand a thread is drawn through the back fold, from the inside to the outside, round the band, and then back from the outside to the inside, and so on until all the bands have been caught round. Then to end up, the thread is passed through near the extreme end of the fold and knotted, forming what is called a “kettle stitch,” and from this point the whole operation is repeated, backwards, with the next section. It sounds complicated, but is not so really, and several sections could have been sewn together in the time that it has taken me to describe the sewing of one of them.