Trends in Publications Affecting Binding and Conservation

THEEARLIEST PRINTED books are not easily dis-tinguished from their manuscript predecessors. The printers attempted to imitate in their first type faces the prevalent book hands of their Iocality and used the same papers as those available to the scribes. Binders continued to practice their craft as they had for centuries. The original purpose of bindings was to protect the visible cords and sewings of the books. Since leather was the only suitable material avail-able and a scarce commodity in the 15th century, many manuscripts and incunabula were frequently only half covered with skins, leaving the wooden boards bare. As economic conditions permitted, leather was used to cover the outside completely. Occasionally, other materials found temporary acceptance, but until the first quarter of the 19th century a “bound book ” generally meant one covered in animal skin. “Fine bindings ” or “hand-book bindings ” are still produced today, even in the United States, ’ but they were displaced from the general market by three inventions made between 1820 and 1832: the use of cloth as covering material, the casing-in method and the gold-stamp-ing on cIoth, which made the mass production of books possible. Other inventions helped in the establishment of mass-production methods. Earl Stanhope invented the iron hand press in 1798 which was later improved by the cylinder press of Konig in 1814. The stereo-type plates of William Ged were used in the United States around 1812, the Fourdrinier paper-making machine made its American ap-pearance in 1827, and William Church‘s composing machine was in use here by 1830.2From these early beginnings the industry developed over the next one-hundred years by adding refinements to its processes. Mechanization was introduced during the second half of the 19th century, but basically the changes were minor. The book-cloth used during the 19th century was usually drab in color and variations cam