The object of pasting the blank pages to the inside of the covers is to make a good finish to the binding, and also to lend additional strength to the attachment of book and case. Fancy end-papers and richly tinted or colored ones are often used as linings, as you can see in many books. These are always tipped in as described, so that they will be the first and last pages in the book.
From the paper cover (which you removed from the book before binding it) cut the title, and, with glue, apply it to the front cover near the top, as shown in the illustration of the finished book (Fig. 11). If the back title has been preserved that can be pasted along the back.
How to Extra-illustrate a Book
Every one knows how much more interesting is an illustrated book than one without pictures. What a satisfaction it would be to us if we could illustrate our favorite books ourselves! What pleasure we would take in it! This is entirely possible. It is a comparatively easy matter to illustrate a book, or, in the case of a book that already contains pictures, to extend and increase the illustration by means of old prints, engravings, and pictures gathered from various sources, and bound in with the leaves of the book. This is called “extra-illustrating,” and has long been a favorite amusement of collectors.
A book that is carefully and judiciously extra-illustrated is not only much more attractive in appearance, but its value is greatly increased, and the amount of pleasure and instruction to be gained by the extra-illustration of one book is a rich reward for the trouble and time it costs.
The first thing to be done in the extra-illustration of a book which has been selected for the purpose is the collection of the pictures. This will often take some time, and should never be done in a hurry. Old magazines and illustrated papers will supply many of the necessary pictures, while old books and the shops devoted to the sale of old prints and engravings will furnish others.
Suppose The Three Musketeers to be the book chosen. A portrait of the author should be selected for a frontispiece. Other portraits, representing the author at different ages, may be used in the book; but that which serves as the frontispiece should be one made about the time he wrote the book.
The other illustrations should consist of pictures referring as nearly as possible to the scenes and incidents described in the story. Pictures of an author’s home or portraits of members of his family are always useful; but no picture, however interesting in itself, should be included if it does not bear directly upon the scenes in the book, or is not in some way connected with the author.
When a sufficient number of illustrations have been selected, they should be mounted ready for binding. This is the difficult part, and must be done with great care.
Take a sheet of strong paper, as nearly as possible the same color and weight as the paper upon which the book is printed, and cut it the exact size of the page of the book. Then trim your print close to the work, being careful to see that the edges are perfectly straight. Cut out from your sheet of paper a hole exactly the shape of the print, but an eighth of an inch smaller on all sides. This opening should not be exactly in the middle of the page, but a little above the middle and a little to the left, so as to give wider margins at the bottom and on the right. Now gum or paste the edges of the print on the under side with great care, and place it over the opening so that it is even on all sides. As there is a difference of only a sixteenth of an inch on the four sides, it is a delicate matter to place the print on the mount accurately, but after a little practice it can be done quite easily and quickly.