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.

 

Weights of Litho Stones

litho_
G. Ruse and C. Straker. Printing and its Accessories. London: S. Straker & Son., 1860. Robertson Davies Library, Massey College. University of Toronto.

This is a pretty handy chart if you are considering purchasing a litho stone, or even picking one up to move around.  For example, a 16 x 12 inch stone weights 43 pounds per inch of thickness. This was pasted onto the inner face of the front board of Printing and its Accessories from Massy College.  Another reminder that many printed books contain unique, owner added paratextual information.

Book Slate

Nelson’s School Series Book Slate for Home and Student Use (London & Edinburgh: T. Nelson and Sons, [1900?]) is an odd structure, a diptych in a case binding. The exterior looks like a standard quarter cloth case binding with printed paper sides. The interior, however, is made from a painted slate-like material. It can be written on and erased. The earliest known diptych is from 14th-century BCE, making the codex seem like a newbie.  Is the laptop a 20th century iteration? Long live the diptych!

book slate
Nelson’s Book Slate. Exterior front board. This is a well used, but largely intact book. My Collection.
book slate 2
Nelson’s Book Slate. Open. Chalk marks of addition and subtraction. My Collection.