bookbinding – Page 67 – Peachey Conservation

February 9, 2010January 28, 2013

Blank Book Sewing Frame

Hickock Bookbinders’ Machinery: Bookbinders’ Tools. Catalogue No. 88. The W. O. Hickock Manufacturing Company, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. c. 1920. Courtesy of Gary Roberts, who runs the website, toolemera, which has many other fascinating trade catalogs, mainly woodworking, he has scanned.

A while ago, I wrote a post about blank book hammers, rounding hammers and backing hammers. Both Tom Conroy and Gary Robberts felt certain that nomenclature was basically for marketing purposes, and they are most likely correct. However, when looking at sewing frames, in this case from Hickock, it is clear from the function that blank book sewing frames and edition sewing frames are two different animals. The blank book sewing frames only come in one size, 25 inches, and it appears they have something similar to ‘t-slots’ to hold the sewing tapes secure. Edition sewing frames, with keys, can be used for cords, tapes, thongs, etc. But blank books, at least in this time period, were almost always sewn on tapes. The design looks like it would be easy to get the proper tension on the tapes. These frames must be quite rare, and I wonder if the high initial cost–almost 4 times a similar size edition sewing frame– made them an anomaly, if they didn’t work well, if the depression killed the market, if many of them were trashed when the blank book market disappeared or if it is some combination of all of these.

Below is a closeup of the ‘button-screw clamp’. It looks to be an easy way to quickly adjust tension and change tapes. Although I had never seen one of these until reading the above catalog, there was one for sale on the internet, which sold earlier in the same week before I found it. The one that got away.

January 13, 2010January 28, 2013

A Few Random Thoughts on 19th Century Books and Machines

Starting in the mid 20th century, many book conservators and proto-conservators rallied around the now common premise that it is the material make-up and structure of books, and not just the surface decoration that needs to be studied and conserved. So it seems somewhat ironic that most of the recent research/ interest in 19th century cloth case bindings focuses on– you guessed it– surface decoration and famous designers.

For those who think the structure of 19th century cloth case structures are all the same, I urge you to look again. They document the most radical change in book structure during the past 12 centuries. They dramatically evolve to become the ideal structure for fabrication by machinery. In fact, the machinery itself is of interest, beginning almost contemporaneously with the Luddite Rebellion of 1811-12. Interpreting how the machines evolved, were used, were maintained and affected labor is virtually unresearched. I fear many of these machines gone- sold for scrap. Similarly, a friend of mine recalled seeing mountains of smashed linotype machines left for trash in the 1970’s along the West Side Highway in NYC.

The structure of cloth cased books, and boarded books, preceded mechanization and was originally done by hand. Around 1820, the only machine used in cloth binding was a rolling machine to replace hand beaters, but by the 1880’s about the only operation done by hand was the final casing in. I almost always find it interesting to look at machines, speculating about how they functioned and appreciating their aesthetics.

In some respects, the Espresso Book Machine could be considered the quintessence of bookbinding machines. It can print, bind, cover and trim a “library quality paperback” in about 4 minutes, with humans only needed to clear the occasional paper jam in the high speed printer.

Now we just need a reading machine to replace the outdated human interface….

January 5, 2010January 28, 2013

A Portfolio Box

Dwight Primano, a NYC based photographer and I designed this presentation box for a sequence of photographs titled “ken”. Since the images had a specific sequence, and alternated horizontal and vertical format, we decided on a box with a lift off lid and small squares in each of the corners to prevent the images from shifting. There are cut out areas for finger access on the top and sides. The image size is slightly smaller than the width of the paper, so all the images remain hidden until the top one is lifted off. The box is roughly 14 inches in height, square and covered with canapetta book cloth. A new tool, the 25 degree flexible mini knife proved very useful for paring down a ridge between the complex cut outs on the corners and bottom lining cloth.

It’s always fun to collaborate on a project that is somewhat unusual like this one. Dwight also teaches conservation documentation for The Institute for Fine Arts, as well as a great weekend workshop version covering some of the basics, which I took a couple of years ago. The top image looks like a woodcut, but it is a photograph of a kite lying on the grass. There are a few copies of this series for sale, contact him for details.