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News from 1886: Hand Bookbinding is Slowly Disappearing

“Bookbinding on a small scale seems to be one of those minor industries which are slowly disappearing. Yet we think that there is always a certain need of a good bookbinder in every country town. We recollect how such a person was once maintained in a small European city by official work, and now and then a few orders from the country gentlemen. Shopkeepers and farmers as a general rule are not bibliophilists. When, however, we come in this country to look upon a book as something of intrinsic value, we will insist on real books, in proper shape and goodly binding, and then the bookbinder’s day will have come.”

–The Bookmaker: A Journal of Technical Art and Information, January 1886, p. 16.

 

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Uses for a Delrin Hera

Image courtesy Joan Weir
Image courtesy Joan Weir. This delrin hera is .25 inches wide and 6.5 inches long.

“My new favorite tool. Every paper conservator should have one in their tool kit. Fabulous for control on soft of thin supports, makes adhesive and hinge removal a breeze. Beats Teflon by far.”   – Joan Weir, Paper Conservator, Art Gallery Ontario, Toronto, Canada.

I also find myself using this tool more and more.  Some other uses:

  • Manipulating fragile pages or tissue
  • Delaminating boards or covering material
  • Keeping lifted areas open during rebacking or board attachment
  • Lightly scoring tissue in complex shapes for paper repairs
  • Applying controlled pressure during paint consolidation or tissue repairs
  • Inserting adhesive into delaminating areas
  • Delicate scraping. Better edge retention than teflon and softer than steel on paper
  • Tape removal. Can be heated to 180 degrees Fahrenheit and resistant to most solvents
  • Holding things during photography. Less reflective than steel and looks cleaner

Only $40   How to purchase and more info 

 

lifting

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The Mother of all Insect Galleries

“M. Pignut mentions an instance where, in a public library but little frequented, twenty-seven folio volumes were perforated in a straight line by the same insect [a bookworm], in such a manner that, on passing a cord through the perfectly round hole made by it, these twenty-seven volumes could be raised at once.”

-John Andrews Arnet [John Hannett] Bibliopegia, or, the Art of Bookbinding, in all its Branches (London: Richard Groombridge, 1835), 201.