A Manual of the Art of Bookbinding / Containing full instructions in the different branches of forwarding, gilding, and finishing. Also, the art of marbling book-edges and paper.

by James B. Nicholson

Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head,

And learning wiser grow without its books.'

It is but the drawing of a curtain, and not only all the glitter of the adjoining splendour, but all the pomps and vanities of the world seem to the meditative mind to be shut out forever. Perhaps its pensive cast is more deeply experienced from the immediate contrast: dazzled with objects of show, fatigued with the examination of rare and costly commodities, and bewildered with the multitude of precious devices which everywhere surround him, the soul of the visitant retires with tenfold delight to the narrow walls of the oratory."

Our brief description of the Fonthill style cannot fail to strike the reader as being remarkably appropriate to the sombre character of that part of the abbey which contained the library,—the one being in strict keeping with the other.

Half-bound olive-brown morocco; sewed on raised bands; gilt tops; marble-paper sides and insides; with no finishing whatever, except the lettering and date at bottom.

À LA JANSENISTE.

This chaste and beautiful style is said to be derived from a religious order, and is highly esteemed by amateurs. Books bound à la janseniste are full-bound Turkey or Levant morocco, with a broad turn in on the inside of the board, gilt edges with a fine one-line fillet each side of the bands and head and tail, and neatly mitred on the side, all in blind, there being no gilding on the outside but the lettering; on the inside a broad-tooled border of very fine tooling in gold, a fine two-line in gold on the edges of the boards, and the cap of the headbands tipped with the same.

THE CAMBRIDGE STYLE

Is practised, we may say exclusively, on theological works. At what period it gained its name is uncertain; doubtless, it was the style in which some of the university libraries were chiefly bound; and, in all probability, the idea of the Harley paned side was first copied from it. Books bound in this style are sewed on raised bands, brown calf, pane-sprinkled sides, Dutch marble end-papers, and red edges. Back pieced with red russia, and a two-line fillet head and tail, and on each side of the bands, blind. Sides, two-line fillet close to the edge and on each side of the pane, with a narrow flower-roll worked on each side of the pane, close to the lines. The fillets in the pane to be connected together at the corners with the two-line fillet, and a tool worked from the corner of the pane towards the edge of the book, all blind. Bar-roll on the edges, in gold.

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