Upcoming Lecture at Rare Book School, University of Virginia

Reconstructing Diderot: Eighteenth Century French Bookbinding

Monday, June 4, 5:30

 Auditorium of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Rare Book School

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

This is an image driven (150+), fast-paced, terse overview of the research I have been doing on eighteenth century French bookbinding. The extensive documentation concerning eighteenth century French bookbinding, as found in Diderot, Dudin, and other sources, form a unique starting point in the examination of the larger questions associated with the history of craft and material culture, the transmission of textual information, and, of course, the history of bookbinding. Book structures of the late eighteenth century stand at the cusp of one of the most radical transformations since the invention of the multi-section codex: by the mid nineteenth century, the machine made cloth case binding begins to dominate book structures. In this talk, I will illustrate the historical context of how these books were made and compare this with physical evidence of books from this time. Particular attention will be given to the tools and techniques used to produce these bindings.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

Checklist of Writings by Thomas Harrison

Tom Conroy has sent me this checklist of Thomas Harrison writings. Tom Conroy is a book restorer, fine binder, binding historian, and toolmaker living in Berkeley, California. He occasionally comments on this blog; they are always worth reading, and I would like to publicly thank him for his generosity in sharing his expertise.

CHECKLIST OF WRITINGS BY THOMAS HARRISON

Tom Conroy

The following list includes all of Thomas Harrison’s writings which are known to me. Some years ago I took an opportunity to run through most of a file of PAPER AND PRINT looking for more articles by Harrison, but found only the non-instructional articles listed here.

“On Planning A Geometrical Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.I No.23 (1909) p. 354-356.

“On Planning A Geometrical Design. The Back.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.I No.24 (1909) p. 371-373.

[Note: I have no access to BBTJ  Vol.II Nos.1-5, for 1910, but presume that Harrison's series continued in them.]

“The Principals of Design as applied to book decoration.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.6 (1911) p. 88-90.

“The Principals of Design as applied to book decoration.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.7 (1911) p. 104-105.

“The Geometrical Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.9 (1912) p. 133-135.

“The Organic Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.10 (1912) p. 154-156.

“The Organic Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.11 (1912) p. 163-165.

“Artistic Tendancies of Modern Book Decoration.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.12 (1912) p. 180-182. [A report of a slide lecture by Harrison, and taking the place of his usual contribution to BBTJ, though written in the third person and apparently not by Harrison himself.]

“The Organic Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.13 (1912) p. 196-198.

“The Organic Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No. 14 (1912) p.213-215.

“The Historic Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No. 15 (1912) p.235-237.

THE BOOKBINDING CRAFT AND INDUSTRY. “Pitman’s Common Commodities and Industries Series.” London: Pitman, n.d. [1926.]. 2nd ed. n.d. [1930]. [Some years ago I collated my copy of the second edition against a copy of the first, and found no substantial changes except one changed plate and the addition of a ten-page Appendix on "Fire Hazards of Prnting and Binding Wroks" by Robert Taylor, F.C.I.I.]

“Modern Book Decoration.” CRAFT LECTURES OF THE STATIONERS’ COMPANY, “Second Lecture of the Seventh Session, delivered 1928, p. 41-61. [Important. Known to me only in a photocopy.]

“The Care of Books.” THE BOOK-COLLECTORS’ QUARTERLY No. III (June-August 1931) p. 1-14.

“What to Look for in a Modern Binding.” THE BOOK-COLLECTORS’ QUARTERLY No. XIII (January-March 1934) p. 31-41.

“Book Review: The Art of the French Book from early manuscript to the present time. Edited by Andre Lejard.” PAPER & PRINT (Summer 1947) p. 104,106,108.

“A method of Binding A Book in one section.” PAPER & PRINT (Summer 1947) p. 122, 124, 126. [Reprinted in "Fragments of Bookbinding Technique."]

“A Case for the Single-Section Book.” BOOKBINDING AND BOOK PRODUCTION (October 1947) p. 50-51. [Reprinted from the above item in PAPER & PRINT.]

“Vellum for Letterpress Printing.” PAPER & PRINT (Autumn 1947) p. 182, 184, 186. [Reprinted in "Fragments of Bookbinding Technique."]

“Making a Moulded, Fire Resisting, Pull-Off Case for very valuable books.” PAPER & PRINT (Winter, 1947) p. 266, 268, 270. [Reprinted in "Fragments of Bookbinding Technique."]

“The Solander Book Box Portfolio and its affinities.” PAPER & PRINT (Spring 1948) p. 26, 30. [Reprinted in "Fragments of Bookbinding Technique."]

FRAGMENTS OF BOOKBINDING TECHNIQUE. London?: n.p., n.d. [Pamphlet of [6], 7-31, [32] p. containing the four Paper & Print instructional articles. I have seen what are clearly several different printings. Mine has blue thick paper covers and says “Printed by Walter Pearce & Co., London & Brentford” on p. [32].]

“Early European and Persian Bindings: An Analytical Comparison.” PAPER & PRINT (Summer 1948) p. 130, 132, 134.

“French Mass Production Case Bindings.” Exhibition review. PAPER & PRINT (Autumn 1948) p. 246, 248.

BOOKBINDING FOR PRINTERS. “A*T*P*A*S Handbooks for Teachers No. 2.” London: Association of Teachers of Printing and Allied Subjects, 1949. [Pamphlet of ii, 16, iii-[iv] p.]

CONSTRUCTION IN BOOKBINDING. London: London School of Printing, n.d. [Disappointing pamphlet of [2], 7, [3] p., mostly about sewing. The London School of Printing had that name from 1922 to 1949.]

“Contemporary Bindings: a commentary.” PENROSE ANNUAL 44 (1950) p. 71-74 & 4 plates.

Maurice Sendak on ebooks

“I hate them. It’s like making believe there’s another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of book! A book is a book is a book.” Maurice Sendak  (June 10, 1928-May 8, 2012)

Wood of London

Fig. 1: Thomas E. Harrison. The Bookbinding Craft and Industry, 2nd. ed. (London: Sir I. Pitman & Sons, Ltd, nd [1930's]) PML 195761. Bound by Wood of London, possibly by Harrison, since he worked there around this time. Photo Credit: The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Although I tend to be primarily interested in the structural aspects of utilitarian or vernacular bookbindings, I have to confess an almost secret admiration for the craft skills and occasionally the design of highly decorated bindings. The firm Henry T. Wood of London, est. 1875, though not as well known as Sangorski & Sutcliffe or Zaehnsdorf, executed a number of specular bindings. In the twentieth century, Thomas Harrison and W. Topping were partners in the firm.  Harrison’s text is an important record of early 20th century machine bookbinding; useful in the way it pairs the hand actions with machine counterparts. It is also an important document of early 20th century English machine binding practice, though not as comprehensive as Pleger’s 1914 Bookbinding and its Auxiliary Branches, which concentrates on American machine binding. Parts of Pleger are on (in?) the internet archive.

In 1950 Harrison also wrote a series of four articles in Paper and Print which were reprinted as Fragments of Bookbinding Technique: the articles concern a stiff-board vellum binding, his “reverse-guard” for binding single sections, a fire resistant pull-off box, and a Solander box. As a demonstration of the fire resistant nature of the pull-off box (when properly constructed), Zaehnsdorf  once threw one into a fire, where it burned for four hours.  The book, valued at 400 pounds, was unharmed.  The Solander boxes were not only dust proof, but waterproof: when the Thames flooded the Tate Gallery in 1928, a number of boxes floated for “a considerable amount of time.” [1] Harrison was an original thinker, a rarity in bookbinding literature.

The binding above is quite possibly my all time favorite pictorial binding. An advertisement for Wood in the beginning of the first edition of this book gives their business slogan is “Sound Technique/ Superb Finish/ Distinctive Design.” [2] All true for this binding. Even the turn-ins are tooled with sewing keys in the corners, hiding the head, tail and fore-edge mitered joins.  The center of the binding features a pallet symmetrically flanked by two fillets, above the three backing hammers, on an upside down knocking down iron.  Some of the tools depicted are non-traditional, however: the wooden rulers, the carpenter’s try-squares and the protractor and not commonly considered bookbinding tools. Was this designed by a non-bookbinder?  Is it evidence of Harrison’s free thinking appropriation of tools from outside of the craft?

 Fig. 2:  James Edward Frank Willis, The Next Volume… (London, 1933) Observe the subtle asymmetry of the design. Bound by Wood of London. British Library Database of Bookbindings.

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Fig. 3: Detail. Note the laurel leaf flanked fist and bee like alien creatures flying up into a highly stylized sun. Technically, this is known as awesome.  British Library Database of Bookbindings.

Wood of London apparently executed more progressive designs than other major firms from this time. This binding is an especially great combination of traditional techniques and innovative, slightly odd, perhaps even subversive designs.  It is also interesting because it came out of a trade background, rather than the art or craft school background, like most later twentieth century designer bookbinders. How would the above design be described? Baroque sci-fi? Proto-steampunk? Twentieth century Rococo?

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[1] T. Harrison. “The Solander Book-Box Portfolio and Its Affinities” in Fragments of Bookbinding Technique (np, nd), 27.

[2] Thomas E. Harrison. The Bookbinding Craft and Industry, (London: Sir I. Pitman & Sons, Ltd, 1926, Preliminary Advertisements) Facsimile in the series The History of Bookbinding Technique and Design, ed. Sidney F. Huttner (New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1989).

Kitchen paring knife

I made this knife in the mid 1990′s, and have used it almost daily since then.  This knife is for paring fruit and vegetables, not the salmon colored goatskin leather in the background.  I pretty happy with the basic elements of my design: a short, narrow blade with the cutting edge aligned in the middle of a fairly chunky handle, aiding maneuverability.  I can’t remember what kind of wood I used for the handle, and it has darkened considerably, developing aesthetically pleasing wear, oxidation and staining. I’m glad this knife has held up to normal use, and sometimes abuse, like when I left it soaking in the sink overnight.

Pragmatically, handmade tools can be custom designed/made for specific or idiosyncratic uses. Spiritually, handmade tools are imbued with (for lack of a better term) an aura, reflecting the multitude of sometimes unconscious choices that the maker incorporates into the final product. So what is the does using a handmade tool—more specifically one that you have made yourself—add to this scenerio?