Service books for use in churches may well be made subjects for decoration in the form suggested here. These alone ought to offer plenty of scope for the modern illuminator. A service book beautifully printed on fine hand-made paper and illuminated should form an ideal gift for a church.
A well-printed edition of a favourite author, illuminated with fine initials and borders, might occasionally be substituted for the usual illuminated address. This would probably be appreciated very much more than the ordinary type of testimonial which is generally given. In this case an inscription may be written at the commencement of the book giving particulars concerning the presentation.
CHAPTER XXVIII
PRINTED BOOK DECORATION
There ought to be plenty of scope for the modern illuminator in printed book decoration. His training in writing and illumination ought to be of the greatest service to him when he is called upon to produce decoration for the purpose of printing with type.
Without a doubt, the ideal form of printed decoration is that produced by means of wood-blocks that have been engraved by the artist. If he is able to engrave blocks from his own designs it will be possible for him to get much more human interest in his work. As a direct method of artistic expression wood-engraving has merits far above that of the mechanical methods of reproduction. Wood-engraving is, however, so important as to require a separate treatise, it being quite impossible to deal with it here.
By far the greater part of printed book decoration is produced from line process blocks, and it is with this form of reproduction that it is intended to deal in this chapter.
One of the most important parts of the book, from the point of view of decoration, is undoubtedly the title-page. In [Fig. 51] some of the forms that this may take have been suggested. In making a design for reproduction by this process it is not advisable to make the drawing much larger than it is required to be when reproduced. The decoration loses much of its individual charm when it is reduced too much. A successful reproduction should represent the original drawing of the artist as nearly as possible, and if it is reduced a great deal there will probably be a considerable difference between the reproduction and the original.
