Bookbinding is the art of clothing a book according to its character, its merit or its destination. In order to obtain prominence in it, one must love it and not merely follow it to eke out a living.
h
Character in a book denotes such individual or general traits by which the one book may readily be distinguished from another. We have books of poetry, art, science, history, etc.
g
The merits of a book consist not only in its intrinsic value as a literary product, even when written by the most famous authors, but also in its general and typographical make up, and not infrequently even in the scarcity of its edition. Its destination is the predetermined end or purpose for which it is intended, whether for a school book, a library book, or a volume de luxe.
d
The most important desideratum in books bound for use is strength and solidity of binding; next comes strength of material, and then the facility for opening and using the book easily, without submitting either the book or the reader to undue strain. Purity, elegance, and appropriateness of design, combined with a perfectly masterful technique, are handmaids of the former.
l
A binding may be of extreme simplicity, but by the taste of the binder and his perfect understanding of the subject, may be made so chaste that it will be worthy of association with the very best of company.
r
Talent is a gift which is not possessed by every one. Taste can be acquired by steady and persevering effort. Mechanical skill can be attained by industrious, close, and intelligent application to work. All of the three combined will make the requisites of a first-class bookbinder, one of the kind who will mix his brains with his work and make a success out of everything to which he applies himself.
[
Carelessness, slovenliness, and untidiness are the most objectionable characteristics a bookbinder may possess. Indifferent mending, loose sewing, crookedly cut boards, slovenly forwarding, and inaccurate and hasty finishing are the outcome of those undesirable qualities.
v
Marius Michel, that great French finisher, says in one of his publications: “That which distinguishes contemporary art binding from ancient binding is the endeavor to harmonize the decoration with the subject of the work, an endeavor which has become the desideratum of all lovers of modern books.” With all his great love for originality, the famous finisher fully realizes the importance of an intimate acquaintance with historic bindings, without which knowledge, he claims, nothing truly artistic can be produced.
k
Whoever imagines that an imitation of natural objects will furnish a suitable decoration for the embellishment of a binding; whoever regards nature as a storehouse of ready-made ornament and not as a book of reference for ideas and principles, will not only find that his efforts frustrate the very principle of nature, but also disagree with the materials used and the place where they are introduced, besides indicating great poverty of invention and an utter deficiency in taste for design.
c
Imitations of nature which have not been conventionally treated, whether taken from fauna or flora, as well as imitations of architectural ceilings, church naves, stone masonry, etc., on bindings, belong to that class of ready-made ornaments which, like ready-made clothes, fit badly, are ill suited to the subject, and ill adapted to the material and the method of working it.
b
The most advisable mode of book decoration consists of pure ornament in a simple style of design, where linear or geometrical forms are blended with foliage and floral motives.
z
Repetition of single forms in symmetrical arrangement, as shown, for instance, in the strew patterns of the sixteenth century is correct in its simplicity, but alteration is a very pleasing variation on absolute repetition, besides denoting finer mental caliber in the executing artisan.
y
To the Orientals we are not only indebted for the first fine levant and morocco leathers, but also for the first artistic bindings. Some Koran bindings in Arabian-Moresque and Persian styles are genuine marvels of the binder’s art. It is to be regretted that this field has not been more fully explored, as it would doubtless be of great benefit to the art binder and booklover, could they make as close an acquaintance with the Oriental master binder and Maecenas of the past as they have made with Majoli, Grolier, Le Gascon, Derome, Roger Payne, and other European luminaries, who exerted such a powerful influence upon the art bibliopegistic.
m
Whether or not the new styles in ornamental art now forming everywhere will be the same in France as well as in England, Germany, and America remains to be seen. The manifestations of temperament have always been largely influential in such matters. It will be sufficient to call the reader’s attention to the style known as Rococco, founded in France.
a
Rococco is of purely French origin and purely French in its spirit, in its arbitrariness, and its capriciousness; in its total departure from line, rule, and measure. In short, it is in all its eccentricities a child of the spirit of Philip of Orleans and Louis XV. Its shell ornament, its undulating lines which were substituted for straight lines, even where straight lines were imperative its shepherds and shepherdesses, its delicate and faded colors, its many Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Persian motifs, furnished the peculiarities which stamped it an essentially French product and made it inimitable to the binders of any other nation.
;
Modern art binders may fairly be divided into two classes, viz: The traditional, who superstitiously reverence the remains of past ages and are wedded in practice to existing archaic styles, and those who despise the past and feel themselves at liberty to adopt from the abundant sources of nature a mode and manner for themselves, without regard for the work of their predecessors.
j
The first desire simply to follow where precedent leads them and to be able to claim the sanction of authority for their works. These, even when taste regulates their choice, are men of limited ideas and small progress.
x
Those of the second class, who pay no deference to authority, who think that ornament is governed by no laws, and who recognize no principles by which they are to be guided, are little likely to raise the art to the level of past times, and yet less are they likely to advance its aim and widen its scope.
u
The true art binder would seem to be one who seeks out the principles on which bygone artists worked and the rules by which they reached excellence, and discarding mere imitation and reproduction of details, endeavors by the application of new ideas and new matter upon principles which he believes to be sound, or which time and the assent of other minds has approved to be fundamental, to attain originality through fitness and truth.
g
The antiquarian art binder, however, will always have a certain reputation, and justly, too, if he has the taste to imitate what is best from the great masters of the past. In any case, that critic must be bold who speaks against the authority of the fathers of the art, and praise is safe when great names are on the side of the critic.
T