Article : Antiquarian Bookcrafts

Bookbinding conjures up images of bespectacled men lovingly caressing a book with jewel encrusted sides, opening it carefully with a slight creak, blowing dust off the pages which scatter adding to the air of suspense and contribute to the combined whole, the impression we have of bookbinding as special and antiquated.

A treasure, if you will. Or a lost art. So off we went to the Antiquarian Bookcrafts Ltd. workshop, tripping over heavy metal enthusiasts on the way. 

Our field trip to Des Breen bookbinder’s workshop in Marley Park comprised of ill fitting heavy metal music blaring in the background (Metallica were warming up for a gig in Marley Park that evening) and this threw the whole experience beyond comprehension and into a bizarre mishmash of unreal and surreal. Luckily we had a robin to guide us as the teenage fans were of no use at all, moshing away, playing their air guitars like it hadn’t gone out of fashion. We wandered on through the park, bade the robin good day and made our way into the picturesque courtyard where the bookbinders’ traditional workshop is situated. Again, the sense of timelessness crept up on us as archaic looking machinery littered the floors whilst the walls were adorned with posters of none other than Hollyoaks lovelies. Des was wearing very trendy designer glasses to helpfully remind us which era we were in.

• For the last twenty-seven years Des has been working from his bookbinding studio in Marley Park. He produces (along with his highly-trained staff) top-quality bindings for antique books, limited editions/one-off book bindings, hand-written or typed manuscripts etc. for personal requests and archival specifications. They also specialise in restoration. The goal of restoration is to revisit an earlier condition of the book, as envisioned by the restorer, often an imagined original state. Every book requires a different approach and consequently, new learning techniques. A restoration job takes approximately six weeks.

  
  On our way to shake hands with Des, we spotted one edition out of fifty lavishly bound books on the Irish artist John Kingerlee. Each edition was presented in a solander* box which also contained an original painting by the artist. It was a sight to behold. Clare actually gasped.

  
  Des also showed us pictures of a beautifully bound bible printed around 1484. He used cast silver pieces to embellish the black leather binding. The publication was then presented in a vellum* pouch. Limp vellum is traditionally used in bible binding.

  
  As a point of trivia, Des told us that his favourite book is ‘The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’ which was a book of Persian poetry. Lavishly decorated, the cover was a peacock design made from gold and bedecked with over 1000 rubies and emeralds. (Street value £1000 STG) Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician cum poet and Rubaiyat derives from the Arabic word for 4 because each poem is four lines long. It allegedly went down with the Titanic. The fact that this tale has slipped into folklore just adds to the appeal, the mystery of the bookbinding world.

  
  In 1894 the Tregaskis Exhibition was established. In 1994, the Tregaskis centenary exhibition, a collection of specially bound books from all over the world asked Antiquarian Bookcraft Ltd to submit an entry. Theirs was entitled ‘Eire’ and was bound in terracotta goatskin. The full title was “A Catalogue of the Tragaskis Centenary Exhibition 1994, Together with a Facsimile of the Tregaskis Exhibition Catalogue of 1894 and Colour Plates of the Bindings in Both.” Should it appear in a table quiz, you’ll know now and score top points.

  
  Modern bookbinding by hand can be seen as two closely allied fields: the creation of new bindings, and the repair of existing bindings. Bookbinders are often active in both fields. Bookbinders can learn the craft through apprenticeship; by attending specialized trade schools.

  
  Des completed his apprenticeship and training at Rutland Ltd. on Warwick street prior to working for JF Newman and son, off Belvedere Court in Dublin 1. At that time there were one hundred and sixty binders working there. In 1981, he was approached by the IDA to establish a bookbinding premises in Marley craft courtyard where he has been ever since. Now Des employs five full time and three part-time staff. Times have changed.
  

  Bookbinding originated in India and twine was wrapped around the finished product to give it an aura of completion. Arabs revolutionised the bookbinding business (by using silk to make them lighter) and books evolved over time and are now mass market publications calling themselves paperbacks but bookbinding as a trade does still exist. Nowadays, the exclusivity of bookbinding is its appeal.

  
  Glossary and other exciting book facts

  
    Below are a list of exciting words to do with bookbinding, most of which I didn’t know before researching this piece. They are deliberately not alphabetical to discourage a scholarly approach.
   

    Solandar:
  Box in the form of a book, invented by Swedish botanist Solandar.

  
    Palimpsest:
  A palimpsest is a manuscript page, whether from scroll or book that has been written on, scraped off, and used again. The word “palimpsest” comes through Latin from Greek παλιν + ψαω = (“again” + “I scrape”), and meant “scraped (clean and used) again.”

  
    A leaf or folio:
  A single complete page, front and back, in a finished book. The recto side of a leaf faces left when the leaf is held straight up from the spine (that is, an odd-numbered page). The verso side of a leaf faces right when the leaf is held straight up from the spine (or an even-numbered page).

  
    A codex:
  Latin for block of wood, (book; plural codices) is a book in the format used for modern books, with separate pages normally bound together and given a cover. A codex is a series of one or more sections sewn through their folds, and linked together by the sewing thread.

    A signature:
  A section that contains text. Though the term signature technically refers to the signature mark, traditionally a letter or number printed on the first leaf of a section in order to facilitate collation, the distinction is rarely made today.
      A quire is a set of leaves which are stitched together. This is most often a single signature, but may be several nested signatures. The quires for a single book are arranged in order and then stitched together as a set.
    Trimming allows the leaves of the bound book to be turned. A sheet folded in quarto will have folds at the spine and also across the top, so the top folds must be trimmed away before the leaves can be turned. A signature folded in octavo or greater may also require that the other two sides be trimmed. Deckle Edge, or Uncut books are untrimmed or incompletely trimmed, and may be of special interest to book collectors.

  
    Tight Backed Vs Hollow Tube:
  TB: A binding technique in which the leather of the spine is glued directly to the back. HT: A binding technique which allows the spine to be free of the back.

  
    Spine orientation and titling conventions:
  The spine of the book is an important aspect in book design, especially in the cover design. When the books are stacked up or stored in a shelf, the spine is the only visible surface that contains the information about the book. Obviously in a book store the details on the spine are what initially attract the attention. In left-to-right read languages (like English), books are bound on the left side of the cover; looking from on top, the pages increase counter-clockwise. In right-to-left languages, books are bound on the right. In both cases, this is so the end of a page coincides with where you flip. Early books did not have titles on their spines; rather, they were shelved flat with their spines inward, and titles written with ink along their fore edges.

  
    Tooling/Stamping:
  When finishing work is done by hand held tools, it’s tooling. When by machine, it’s stamping. 

  
    Biopredation:
  An attack to books by living matter, which may include insects or mildew.

  
    Colophon:
  Details of the printer’s typography or the publisher’s symbol often found on the last page of a book and sometimes referred to as such when a printer’s or publisher’s ‘device’ is found on the copyright page. Sometimes states the number of copies printed, and in the case of a limited edition, will cite the copy number and may contain the signature of the author, illustrator, or publisher.

   
    Ding:
  A small bump or dent leaving an impression, sometimes caused by careless handling or storage.
   
    Foxing:
  The brown age spots thought to be caused by impurities in paper (e.g.: acid, exposure to humidity, etc.)

  
    Frontpiece (Frontis):
  The illustration facing title page.

  
    Gauffered edges:
  A pattern tooled on gilt edges of a book

     
    Mull:
  The cloth that reinforces the hinges and is pasted directly to the body of a book and is hidden by the spine.

   
    Whipstitching:
  To sew a book’s leaves by passing the thread over and over the spine. Often seen in early pamphlets.

  
    Vellum: (from the Old French Vélin, for ‘calfskin’) is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally thin, smooth and durable. To create tension, scraping is alternated by wetting and drying. A final finish may be done abrading the surface with pumice, then chalking to accept ink.

  
  
  Article by Denise Power

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