BOOKBINDING: ITS PROCESSES AND IDEAL. 673 



several crafts to the one common end of the book beautiful, and 

 the binder is in the unfortunate position of coming last, to inherit 

 all, and be helpless under, the mistakes of his predecessors the 

 paper-maker, printer, and publisher. 



Modern binding may be divided into two main divisions : 1. 

 Bindings for use. 2. Bindings for beauty's sake. I do not say 

 that the divisions can be precisely defined or that the useful may 

 not be beautiful, or that the beautiful may not be useful. I mean 

 only that of a certain class the utility of the binding is the main 

 characteristic, and that of a certain other class not the utility of 

 the binding but the beauty of the decoration is the prominent and 

 delightful feature. All bindings may be, and most bindings are, 

 decorated in some form or other, but I would deprecate the deco- 

 ration in gold of cloth or paper bindings ; the material is too poor 

 and the kind of binding is unsuitable for elaborate invention. 

 Decoration should be reserved for cases in which a permanent 

 pleasure is aimed at, and decoration in all its affluence exclusively 

 for bindings of the best kind, and for books that are in them- 

 selves, apart from their apparel, beautiful and worthy of conspic- 

 uous honor. 



The binding of a book, to come closer to our subject, is a series 

 of processes too numerous to be entered upon in detail, in so short 

 an account of bookbinding as the present, but the main opera- 

 tions are as follows : 



1. The sheets are folded so that the headlines of each page 

 shall, if possible, be at a uniform height throughout the book. 



2. The sections are then sewn to cords, set and held at equal 

 distances from one another in a frame, and at right angles to the 

 sections. 



3. The ends of the cords are frayed out and laced into and fast- 

 ened to rectangular pieces of millboard (called boards), cut to the 

 size of the sides of the book, which they protect. 



4. The boards and back are then covered with leather or other 

 suitable material, and the last and first sheets of the book (added 

 to the book proper for the purpose) are pasted down upon the 

 inside of the boards. 



The book so treated is completely " forwarded," as it is called, 

 and ready to pass into the hands of the " finisher " to be tooled or 

 decorated, or " finished." The decoration in gold on the surface 

 of a bound book is wrought out bit by bit by means of small 

 engraved brass stamps called " tools." The steps of the process 

 are shortly as follows : 



1. The pattern is first worked out with the tools blackened in 

 the smoke of a candle or lamp, upon a piece of paper cut to the 

 exact size of the portion of the book to be decorated. 



2. The piece of paper with the pattern upon it is then applied 



VOL. XLVI. 51 



