Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1901-11-20
ARrIsrlo nooK BINDING.


Strange as 1t may seem TO the ordinary
reader, it IS nevertheless fact that
there Is no such thing as set or ready
made designs for decorating leather bind
ings and coyers-that Is, vixen the artist
who does the tooling ON these fine bind
ings begins TO work he has no drawn de
sign 20 20 by. Eerh workman inyents
his own design as he proceeds with his
task. OF course Il sometimes happens
that a book has TO be fooled exactly ike
another book except for the title. but as
a general thing the artist follows his own
fancy In designing the book in one OF
several general styles OF tooling, all the
details being left to his own judgment.
"Tooling." which is the technical term
for the really artistic art of bookbinding.
is done In the following way: After the
pages have been sewed together, their
edges trimmed and gilded, the pasteboard
cover put on and the leather sides and
back put in place, the book is given TO
the "tooler," who clamps it firmly into
position in a wise very much like that
used by carpenters. After the book is
firmly in position. sizing Is put on the
part to be fooled. and over this sheets of
gold leaf are spread. Then the artist.
or ''tooler." takes small type in the
form OF a flower, letter. scroll or what
ever figure he wants. and, after heating
1t to certain temperature, he presses il
down firmly on the gold leaf, thus actual
ly burning the gold into the leather.
Behind each workman Is set of
shelves containing all the different types
or stamps in use. Under the place where
each tool belongs Is print of the type
or stamps in use. Under the place where
each tool belongs Is print of the type
itself made on white paper. pasted up not
only to mark the place where each tool
should be, but also TO enable the worker
to make a ready selection Of type and TO
prevent mistakes. Necessarily there are
great many of these types and large
range of designs, for they represent not
only the alphabet in every style of letter,
but also every known flower In its con
yentionalized form, as well as various
sorts and sizes of scrolls and conven-
tional designs. This makes ii an easier
matter for the artist 20 design the cover
of book while he is actually engaged at
work on it than at first seems possible.
After the design is burned into the
leather the paper is pasted into the
boards, and then, in the case OF the one
half and three-fourths bindings, the book
Is finished and ready TO be packed and
shipped to its destination.
Nowadays it is no longer good form TO
have the edges OF the pages gildcd on all
three sides. That style Is now very much
behind the times and affects a book
value. Moreover, the price Of book de
teriorates very materially the minute its
pages are cnt. Whether this is the result
OF the germ theory OF coniagiou or not
it is undeniably true that the up TO date
young man would as soon think of giving
book with torn and dirty pages to
young woman as he would Of presenting
to her a book with the pages already cut.
OF course this has naturally led TO
marked change in the style OF gliding. II
Is almost n necessity to have the top OF
the pages gilded. for unless this were
done the book would soon become soiled
from the dust settling on il and, sitting
down on the leaves, make them dirty
and gritty 10 the touch. For this reason
most OF the fine books have only the up.
per edges OF their pages Eilded. This al
lows the dust 10 settle on the top. whence
IL can be brushed off readily and yet
makes il possible for the pages to be cut
by the purchaser.-B Brooklyn Eagle.