10. Bound by Fazakerly.
11. Bound by Fazakerly.
Mr. Fazakerly was one of the first binders, certainly outside of London, who refused to support the excessive competition in cheapness, and who struck out a department in which fine work could be executed at prices that were remunerative and not prohibitive. Happily the result of his efforts shows the success of a refusal to pander to that desire for cutting prices which has done so much to ruin the crafts on their artistic side. For some time after he had educated his workmen to the responsibility of his new venture, he found that the taste of his customers lay towards a reproduction of old models, but he has of late been quite successful in directing it on to new lines. One feature may be noted in connexion with the morocco work of Mr. Fazakerly, namely, that the under cover is rarely decorated with the same design as the upper. If the lower cover is left quite plain, the effect is poor, and suggests that trouble has been spared on the book as a whole; but there is no reason for the convention, almost universally adopted, whereby the two sides are entirely alike. The same tools and elements of design should appear in each cover, only disposed in different schemes of ornament, and such variation naturally implies more thought, the thought that avoids repetition. One of Mr. Fazakerly’s innovations was the employment of embossed leather, which has since spread to many other houses; and another which he considers a specialty of his business is the decoration of the edges of books, both by means of tooling on them or gauffering, as it is more generally called, and also by painting underneath the gold. We may recall that in the sixteenth century this extension of ornament to the leaves of a book was very prevalent, and was only one of many indications that the workman spent ungrudging time and thought on the details of what was intended to be a work of art throughout.[[3]] Some very fine specimens of gauffered edges may be seen on the works of Luther in seven folio volumes, dated Jena 1572–1581, now in South Kensington Museum. The volumes being very thick offer fine scope for ornament, which consists of the shield of Saxony painted in the centre of each foredge, the rest of the space being filled with arabesques and Renaissance ornaments. And there is, we believe, still in this country part of the library that once belonged to Odonico Pillone of Belluno, comprising some hundred and forty folios with foredges painted by the hand of Cesare Vecellio, a nephew of Titian.[[4]]
The painting of edges was revived in England, and reappears in thoroughly native style on books of the latter half of the eighteenth century. Charming little English landscapes are to be found on some of them, which, as the painting is done when the leaves are fanned out and held in that expanded position, are not in evidence when the book is shut, but when open appear at once. The name of William Edwards of Halifax and his son James is especially associated with this work, and their books are not very rare. Mr. Fazakerly has done a great deal of this decoration, which requires certain conditions to ensure success. The painter must be an artist, and the paper on which he works should be rather thin than thick; the modern fashion of printing on a sort of cardboard handicaps the binder not only in this, but other and far more important ways. Mr. Fazakerly has also made some innovations in ‘doublures,’ a term applied to the inside face of the boards when lined with leather or decorative material. In the matter of doublures the last word has not been said, and there is still room for experiment. The French custom of violent-coloured watered silks or equally salient inlays has never found much favour in this country; but there has been a great dearth both of invention and taste in dealing with this feature of a binding. Some of Zaehnsdorf’s doublures have silk either of the same colour as the cover, or in harmony with it, and he has tried Russia leather with considerable success. Unsuitable as it is for the outside cover from its tendency to rapid deterioration, it makes a very good board lining, and can be employed as well for the flyleaf opposite; indeed, it is better where possible that doublure and flyleaf should be the same. It is with calf that Mr. Fazakerly has made his innovation, and when delicately tinted and incised, but not embossed, the results seem pleasant and appropriate. On books relating to Japan, the number of which is largely on the increase, some of the coloured Japanese embossed papers make excellent doublures. Before dismissing this subject, we may mention the attempt of Mr. Bagguley, a binder at Newcastle-under-Lyme, to tool on vellum in colour. Some of this work, designed by Léon Solon and Miss Talbot, is very delicate and attractive; so delicate, in fact, that it is only suitable for the inside of a book. His patterns are composed chiefly of gouge and line work, as no effect of solid mass can be apparently got in the colour, and the effect is enhanced by dots and other small tools worked in gold. The excessively detailed nature of this work, which is made up of ‘tools’ small and light in character, heavier dies not being suitable for the stamping of colour, render it costly of execution, but there is no doubt that its occasional use offers a desirable variation on the ordinary inside lining. It is difficult to close this subject without a few words in condemnation of the coloured papers used by most binders for ordinary work which does not admit of anything more elaborate. It is time they gave up the German marbled patterns, the French ‘combs,’ and even the spirit marbles which produce the effect of violent colour thrown on wet blotting-paper and appear to be the latest fashion of monstrosity in such things. Good white handmade papers or vellum papers are the most suitable, while if coloured ones are deemed essential, the French and Van Gelder crayon papers toning harmoniously with the morocco are not likely to be an offence.
12. Bound by Chivers.
13. Bound by Chivers.
The business of Messrs. Birdsall at Northampton takes us to another centre of provincial activity in binding, and it has an especial interest in being one of the oldest bookbinding businesses in the country. It has been in the hands of the present proprietors’ family well over a hundred years, and has a connected history since 1757, when John Lacy, a banker of Northampton, acquired it and associated with it a bookselling business which he had also in the town. On giving up work in 1792 he sold both to William Birdsall, a Yorkshireman by birth, who had settled there, and in this family it has remained ever since. We spoke before of the varied nature of the work carried out by country binders, and on Messrs. Birdsall’s premises we find a department of manufacturing stationery, another for the wholesale paper trade, a third for commercial bindings in which are included certain special registered bindings patented for serial work, such as the ‘Stronghold’ and ‘Biblia fortis,’ suitable for free libraries where the usage is rough and constant, and lastly, one set apart for highly finished leather and vellum books. The works are always kept in the highest state of efficiency, and the workmen are encouraged to excel in skilled and conscientious work. Many of these have passed a lifetime there, and though the business is not of a co-operative character, a bonus is distributed to the older and more efficient workers at the end of the year.