“A large, still book is a piece of quietness, succulent and nourishing in a noisy world, which I approach and imbibe with ‘a sort of greedy enjoyment,’ as Marcel Proust said of those rooms of his old home whose air was ‘saturated with the bouquet of silence.’” – Holbrook Jackson
Modern bookbinders create bindings that conform to historical standards and are made using traditional materials. Repairs made to existing books are done with full restoration in mind.
Did you know that buying a pre-bound book is actually a fairly recent activity? Before the 1800s, books were often bought bound with a temporary cover. The idea was that owners would then have the book bound to fit their particular library.
With perfect bindings (or adhesive bindings), single pages are secured together with an adhesive that’s applied to the textbook spine. Several different types of adhesives are used here, including animal glues, polyvinyl acetate glues, and hot melt adhesives.
You probably already know Emily Bronte is the female author of the popular period novel "Wuthering Heights." A recent first edition of her book sold for over $300,000. Can you guess the pseudonym under which Bronte wrote her famous work? If you guessed Ellis Bell, you're right.
Did you know that one of the earliest book forms used wax as a writing surface? Here, a wooden frame was constructed with a thick raised border, inside which melted wax was poured to create a wax tablet. The wax was then scratched with a stylus and colored pigment rubbed over the surface.
In book binding, the term “cover spine” refers to the space between the boards of a case that’s intended to accommodate the thickness of the textblock. In most cases, the inside of this space is stiffened with a spine strip, usually made of Bristol board.
Some books are bound using a plastic grip. Plastic grips are often molded to fit the book that they bind; the plastic opens and allows pages to slide in, and then closes tightly, preventing the pages from flying off.
Did you know that books from the 16th, 17th, and 18th century were so expensive to make that they were often chained to the shelves to prevent theft? Books of that era were often beautifully ornate and included precision bindings of vellum, leather, or pigskin.
Was paper first used as a means of communication or for some other purpose? If you guessed that paper was first produced for a purpose other than communication, you're right. It was actually used as a specialized kind of packing material designed to protect precious or dangerous objects.
Some bindings are also called "smyth-sewn," or sewn through the fold; the pages of the signatures are folded and stitched through that fold. Those signatures are then glued at the spine creating the text block. It's not as secure as others.
Pre-Columbian Mayans wrote hieroglyphic script on cloth made from bark and then created folded books named codices. The main source of the bark cloth was the fig tres and professional scribes were used to create the inscriptions.
The word “tome” comes from a Greek jab at ancient Roman culture. The Greeks used concise scrolls of about thirty pages that could fit in the hand, while Roman scrolls went on for several hundred pages. “Tome” means “to cut” in Greek.
It's understandable to wonder about the difference between a codex, book, scroll, or volume. That's because there's a lot of overlap. Volume came from a word meaning spiral, or roll. In ancient times, a book, or volume, was one scroll. A codex, or librorum, was many books, and the origin of the word "library."
The books were bound very attractively around the 16th century. During this time, it was common to see older books shelved spine-in, just adjacent to newer books shelved spine-out.
In a perfect binding, the sections of folded papers (called signatures) have their spines trimmed off prior to gluing to the wraparound cover. The cover is typically scored on the back and front to enable ease of opening and reduce stress on the spine.
It’s important to keep your books clean so don’t look over them when it comes time to do some dusting. Considering all you need to do is wipe down the covers and edges with a clean soft cloth, there really isn’t any excuse not to dust your books.
The word "codex" refers to an ancient collection of writing bound together like a book. It originated from Roman times, and meant "block of wood," possibly referring to a collection of wood tablets. It can also refer to other ancient texts, such as the ancient Mayan Dresden Codex.
John Benham, from Avoca, Indiana, is the Guinness World Record holder for having the largest collection of books owned privately. His massive collection consists of more than 1.5 million books.
Family cookbooks handed down from generation to generation are one of the vehicles for keeping family traditions alive – especially during holidays and signature moments in our lives. When heirloom cookbooks start to fall apart, let us repair and restore them to keep everyone cooking with gas. Or electric.
William Morris is perhaps the "father of modern book binding" for he alone inspired the lawyer T.S. Cobden-Sanderson to take up book binding. This had the dual effect of both setting up the famous Doves Bindery and invoking the interest of Douglas Cockerell, who established the contemporary "school of binding."
Japanese binding is an easy way to bind multiple pages together at home. Just poke the holes along the spine side of the pages and sew them together by looping thread around.
Gilding is a popular technique used for decorating book bindings. The gilding process uses a variety of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as book spine, stone, wood or metal surfaces.
A popular style of decorative bookbinding in the early 1900s was called Art Nouveau. The style consisted of pictorial bindings with colored onlays or paintings, with the lettering included as an element of design. Floral designs were especially popular.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most paper was made from discarded linen rags. In books from this period, one can see the imprint of wire mesh used to mold the sheets of paper. Mass production of wood pulp paper did not begin until the 1840s.
If the pages of a favorite book are starting to fall out, it may be due to problems with the glue that was used. We will assess the extent of damage and, if possible, rebind it by using sturdy thread and sewing the pages in place.
Modern bookbinders create new books and make repairs to books that have become worn or lost their pages. They can also create special volumes covered with custom leather and gold leafing.
With a perfect bound (paperback book), the spine edge of the unbound book is milled to a rough surface, which will allow the glue to bond more successfully. The glue is then applied, and the cover is clamped to the book, where the glue is allowed to set.
There are certain requirements that must be met for saddle stitching to be feasible: the document must be at least eight pages long and increase in length in four-page increments. This is a good choice for documents of up to 64 to 80 pages.
Did you know that until the Industrial Revolution, book binding was very much considered a craft, with each book essentially being constructed by hand? It wasn’t until the latter part of the 19th Century that bindery automation took several leaps forward.
Since early books were all handmade and handwritten, book binding was, of course, done by hand to fit each individual technique. While books are now printed and made by machine, you can still get the benefits of having your books bound by hand from a binding expert.
If you’re an expert in Latin but not in history, you might wonder why one word for book, “volume”, is closely related to the verb, “volumen”, meaning “to roll”. Before books bound like the ones we can bind for you, the written word was recorded on scrolls, which rolled up when not in use. The word was so iconic, it stuck around when volumes began being bound.
Early bound books were made with flat spines. Toward the 15th century, books began to be bound with the rounded hard cover spines popular today. Your book binding professional understands the different bindings used through history and can ensure your book is professionally restored to correctly reflect its time.
The styles and sizes of early bound books vary widely as these items were always handwritten, hand illustrated with gold or silver(illuminated), and created with handmade materials. Your bookbinding services professional is skilled at restoring, conserving, and repairing bound books of all styles.
You might have heard about books bound with animal skin, but have you heard about books wrapped in human skin? You would be surprised to know that the Harvard University library has 4 law books bound in human skin.
The “case” of a book consists of the bookboards, the binding, and the spine. Bookboards cover the front and back of a book, while the binding connects the front and back bookboards. The spine is between the binding and the pages and is usually unseen.
While many publishers do sell library binding editions, not all of the books that come through your library are like this. Fortunately, bind experts can library bind any book you have so it will stand up to the rigors of library use.
Perfect binding is a good option for several types of manuscripts, since it’s so flexible and works for a wide range of document thicknesses and trim sizes. This includes traditional books, thick magazines, annual reports, technical manuscripts, and catalogs.
Sewing through the fold, or Smyth sewing, involves folding a sheet of paper into signatures. The signatures are then stitched together through the fold and glued to a textblock. These books have the advantage of lying completely flat when opened.
Library binding is not the same as hardcover binding. Library bindings are somewhat bigger and have a characteristic plastic cover around them. It is often considered a type of hardcover binding, but has different materials and purposes.
Books wouldn’t be able to be made if it weren’t for the invention of paper. Created around 200 BC by the Chinese, the material would be easier to bind together than rolled up parchments. However, the use of paper wouldn’t spread until at least 750 AD when the secrets of Chinese paper making were discovered by the Arabs and spread across the globe.
One way of binding a hardcover book that allows to book to lay flat when opened is "sewing through the fold". The signatures have very wide margins, allowing the sewing of the signatures to be done far enough out for the pages to be read while flat.
Some modern adhesives used in book binding have a chemical reaction with the paper, resulting in a tighter and more flexible bond that doesn’t go away over time.
The weight of the pages of a book can do heavy damage to the book’s spine if you don’t hold the book properly. Rather than laying the book flat on a table and letting the pages cause stress to the spine, cradle your book at an angle, alleviating the pressure that the pages would cause.
Does it ever feel as though pages of your company’s financial records can too easily slip out of the binders you keep them in? When you need to ensure the permanence of every page of your records, we may be able to help with the binding.
Did you know that very large, or very heavy books, may be bound, not with binding threads, but with wire to ensure long-term durability? When a wire-bound book is opened at its signature—that section of pages that is sewn down the middle to create a section of the book—the binding wires will be visible.
Not sure what type of binding to choose for your book or project? The type of binding is going to be selected based on a number of factors, including the function of the document, the number of pages it contains, and the printing budget.
Updating a book's binding doesn't negatively impact its value in most circumstances unless inferior materials are used. For the best results, ask us for suggestions about repairing valuable books from your collection.
A rare first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for a record price of roughly $227,421 in May 2013. The book included author JK Rowling’s personal annotations and included references to the Harry Potter series as a whole.
Cloth bindings were first introduced in London around 1822 by Archibald Leighton, Jr., the son of a renowned Scottish book binder. The first cloth-bound book was a volume of select works by Dante derived from the series known as the Aldine Classics.
In the Middle Ages, books were hard to make, with the larger, thicker books taking years to make. Many of the books used for important ceremonies were covered in valuable metal, precious stones, and ornate ivory decorations. These kinds of bindings are called "treasure bindings."
Have you ever heard of a "mordant" in paper manufacturing? It's a fixative that helps bind the ink to the paper fibers. Alum and some trace metals make effective paper mordants (fixatives).
In the Middle Ages, books were hard to make, with the larger, thicker books taking years to make. Many of the books used for important ceremonies were covered in valuable metal, precious stones, and ornate ivory decorations. These kinds of bindings are called "treasure bindings."
Unfortunately, libraries will always be fighting a losing war on how much shelf space they have available for books and periodicals. Let’s talk about how binding your periodicals in hardcover can help create space you didn’t realize you had.
The Chinese invented paper around 200 BC. The actual manufacturing process was kept a guarded secret. In 750 AD, the secret got out when the Arabs captured some prisoners amongst whom were skilled Chinese paper makers.
Have you ever heard of a "mordant" in paper manufacturing? It's a fixative that helps bind the ink to the paper fibers. Alum and some trace metals make effective paper mordants (fixatives).
In the Middle Ages, books were hard to make, with the larger, thicker books taking years to make. Many of the books used for important ceremonies were covered in valuable metal, precious stones, and ornate ivory decorations. These kinds of bindings are called "treasure bindings."
There are standards for library binding. The Library Binding Institute provides standards for companies and libraries that do binding, including technical and material specifications for how books or periodicals are bound for library use.
When ancient Egyptians made books they used papyrus, a paper made from the pulp of the papyrus plant. Using either a feather or sharpened reed, they'd write in a form called "hieratic." It was simpler than hieroglyphics, which were for stone and carvings.
Unfortunately, libraries will always be fighting a losing war on how much shelf space they have available for books and periodicals. Let’s talk about how binding your periodicals in hardcover can help create space you didn’t realize you had.
The Chinese invented paper around 200 BC. The actual manufacturing process was kept a guarded secret. In 750 AD, the secret got out when the Arabs captured some prisoners amongst whom were skilled Chinese paper makers.
Have you ever heard of a "mordant" in paper manufacturing? It's a fixative that helps bind the ink to the paper fibers. Alum and some trace metals make effective paper mordants (fixatives).