In gold-tooled designs the necessity of their having to be composed or built up of certain restricted elements, or separate tools, the ingenious combination of which produces the delicate arabesques of line and leaf and floral forms we admire as the crown and glory of the binder’s craft, has also contributed to the preservation of scale, since the tools must necessarily be limited in size.
Binding in Black Morocco, with Arms of Edward VI, by Thomas Berthelet (Sixteenth Century)
Before the recent revival in this craft, in which so much is due to the taste and skill of Mr. Cobden-Sanderson, there was a tendency towards over-small, frittered and meaningless detail in gold tooling, and binders were given to mechanical repeats of stock tools and stamps.
Yet repetition of forms or lines may be used tastefully as well as in a commonplace way.
Few methods in tooling a book-cover are more appropriate and satisfactory than the diaper, which is sometimes used all over the cover, and sometimes covers the inner panel only.
The decoration of the back of the book-cover requires particular care. In gold-tooled bindings the ornament may effectively be concentrated upon the back, which of course must include the title, leaving the sides plain.
When the sides are decorated the back must be the link to connect the obverse of the book with the reverse—unless we like to say front side and back side.
Binding in Stamped Calf, with Panels representing the Emblems of the Passion, with Unicorns as Supporters, and the Arms of France and England, with Tudor Rose, etc. (Sixteenth Century)