82 



Chicago: Dudley & Hodge, in Boston: and the 

 Rver g ofi Shop. East Aurora. X. Y. A large num- 

 \*r of women have taken up the art, ot whom the 

 late Miss Evelyn Hunter XordholF was the pio- 

 neer/ Others are Miss Ellen G. Starr, of Chicago; 

 Miss Mary E. Bulkley, of Hillside Mo.; Mis, 

 Elizabeth G. t'lmpin. of Brooklyn. N. Y.; Mrs. 

 Idah Meat-ham Strowbridge (the Artemisia Bind- 

 ery), formerly of Nevada, now of California; Miss 

 Marv P. Dow, of Philadelphia: and Miss Minnie 

 Sophia Prat, Miss Emily Preston Miss Helen G. 

 Haskell, and Miss Florence Foote, all of New York 



The new sehool of American bookbinding at- 

 tracted attention first to itself and then to the old 

 nutter* of bookbinding. Collectors who could 

 irratifv their fancies recalled the fact that Roger 

 Pavne once executed bindings, and that Jean 



BOOKBINDING, SPECIAL AMERICAN. 



generally carries the gold-lettered title of the vol- 

 ume The sides are the book's exterior minus. 

 the back, while the double is the inside of the 

 book's cover. A book that is to have a special 

 binding ought to be worthy of it. It would be 

 foolish to bind a book made up of wood-pulp 

 paper, that has been poorly printed, in full mo- 

 rocco, inlaid, polished, and elaborately tooled. If 

 the book is a rare first edition, so much the better. 

 The solace derived from the book will be all the 

 greater if it be also one of a limited edition, signed 

 and numbered. Upon such a book a choice bind- 

 ino- may well be lavished, and if to the finished 

 book be also added a slip case, the joy of the 

 bibliophile can go no further. The book-lover 

 who has had no personal contact with book- 

 binders may well take an early opportunity of 

 visiting and studying a well-equipped bindery and 



A RO T CROFT DE LTJXE BINDING. 

 Steel-blue crushed levant, inlaid in heliotrope, pale yellow, purple, and olive-green. 



Grolier lived and died, having in the meantime 

 made himself notable through the binding of his 

 books, in which he took great delight. The way 

 was prepared for the binders who came into exist- 

 ence after them, and a market was assured for 

 bindings that possessed artistic merit. 



The special binding of a book is an interest- 

 ing process. The material used, now very gen- 

 erally morocco, is carefully selected. In some 

 casps the morocco is specially imported to the 

 order of the binder who is to use it. The sewing 

 is done with much care and generally -with Eng- 

 lish sewing-cord. Some of the other features of 

 forwarding, among which are beating, gilding, 

 marbling, or sprinkling, putting the book in 

 leather, etc., are entrusted to apprentices or other 

 workmen, but they remain under constant super- 

 vision, while the lettering, tooling, inlaying or 

 mosaic work, and other finishing processes, are re- 

 served for the hand of the master. 



To bookbinders a book has a head and a tail, 

 a front and a back, two sides, and the double;, 

 which is of course in duplicate. The head of a 

 book is also known as the top, which is generally 

 gilded. The tail is the bottom of the book when 

 it stands erect with the title conventionally hori- 

 zontal. The front is opposite to the back, which 



observing something of the technique of the work. 

 It is only by such means that anything like an 

 adequate understanding of the true significance of 

 the art of bookbinding can be obtained. 



The exhibitions of fine bindings that are held 

 annually in New York city, Boston, Chicago, Bal- 

 timore, and to some extent elsewhere, the first 

 of which was held less than ten years ago, have- 

 done much to spread the knowledge of special 

 bindings. An appreciative coterie has come into 

 existence, to whose ranks additions are being 

 made constantly. It is also because of these ex- 

 hibitions that we have become more critical and 

 no longer accept even the old masters 'as flawless 

 unless they are so. So quietly has the love of 

 fine bindings fostered by the American craftsman 

 grow r n among us, and withal so unobtrusively, 

 that it is not generally known that there are many 

 persons in our country who spend large sums on 

 bindings; because the books while in process of 

 binding are not on view to those not concerned, 

 and when they are finished they go at once into 

 the library of the owner, where their examination 

 is reserved for him and his immediate friends. 



A book in binding passes through forty distinct 

 processes. The number of tools required, exclu- 

 sive of those used for exterior ornamentation, is 



