3. ...as was the Nixon Presidency that summer. Meanwhile I enjoyed two months of instruction by Chris Clarkson, Don Etherington and the L.C. Book Section from July 22nd to September 21st. Nixon resigned August 8th, 1974.
My interest in "limp" cover bindings began in admiration of the work of Chris Clarkson. I first saw his treasure chest of sample bindings, photographs, films and two volume text on limp vellum binding at the Council on Library Resources offices in Washington, D.C. in 1974. I also watched Chris produce rigid board vellum bindings at the Library of Congress that summer. He said that those rigid board vellum bindings were doomed.3
His limp vellum bindings were the opposite of doomed. Beyond their beautiful workmanship they were tough and timeless and unlike anything else that I had seen. It was just the kind of thing that completely captured me and persuaded me to try to become a book conservator. The Clarkson limp vellum binding study was also filled with inspiration and I copied some of the text by hand for future reference.
Anything which serves to stimulate interest and thought, not only in preserving, but also in developing according to modern conditions such a priceless heritage as this ancient craft, cannot fail to be worthwhile...I submit these efforts to those who take an intelligent interest in the accessories of life and desire to know more about them, also to those who have at heart the welfare of bookbindings. [p.6]
The finest limp vellum binding of the 1470's to c. 1510 achieves a balance between sound sewing construction and a flexible durable limp cover, the whole technique using little or no adhesive and having the character of a tied bundle, flexible and light in weight - endband cores and thongs entwine cover and liner to the text block, creating a bound rather than constructed case. [p. 22]
I feel that the flow through a limp-vellum book starts with the covers and not with the flyleaves. When closing the air expels slowly through and around the covers. [p.101]
The intention behind these questions is meant to be exploration i.e. the questions are chosen and phrased in such a way as to force the reader to look again at an historical period, beyond the unique or rare features of a binding (which will be recorded in any case) and on into the common or taken for granted features. This must be so if we are to broaden our knowledge and attempt to gain an overall, balanced view of the practices of a period. Questions need to be specific. Later trade practices have colored our vision of earlier binders, their influence, and their problems and their intentions: and so it is necessary to begin again, noting precisely minute changes and variations in any given form. Of course such lists will always be inadequate...I believe it is the few detailed questions directed towards those most taken for granted structures which will provide the clues to changes now almost imperceptible. [p.226-7]
This inspiration was with me when I observed paper covered bindings in the Newberry Library stacks in the late 70's. I developed a small recording card and began to study these bindings after hours. Soon I was pretty familiar with the stacks where early paper covers were frequent. The recording cards enabled me to tabulate features and eventually to proportion such things as the setback of the joint crease.4 It was very exciting.
4. The proportion of the distance from the spine to the joint crease, compared to that from the spine crease to fore-edge was between 1:16 and 1:24 while the turn-in was 1:6 the height of the text. A comprehensive text on all the forms of early paper bindings is Early Bindings in Paper, Michele V. Cloonan, G.K. Hall & Co., 1991. Michele and I exchanged enthusiasms as I began bringing the paper bindings down to my workbench, which was across from hers at the Newberry.
I came to understand that the one piece paper cover bindings were cheaper, quicker versions of limp vellum type bindings and it was apparent that these paper bindings supplanted vellum over time. I hoped that they could be an undiscovered conservation binding type, but it was apparent that the paper covered binding was structurally not an equal to the vellum covered type. There were no endbands in the paper cover form, the text sewing was abbreviated, the hooked endpaper dragged off the outer sections, the cords were of poor quality and the cover to text attachment was not reinforced internally. How could such work suggest a prototype for conservation binding?
With twisted logic I considered that although almost all of the structural features were deficient or downright damaging, the model was still important. The paper cover binding exemplified a cheap and quick form of work and those could be conservation attributes. It was also obvious that the paper bindings outlasted the leather covered types. The deficient structural features of the paper bindings were models as well, models of what was wrong. They only required modification.
5. The idea of the pasted and stippled kozo lining was reinforced when I saw the film "The Art of the Hyogushi". It illustrated that kozo sheets could be intimately laminated with pounding brushes. This method works best of all over the irregularities of the folds and sewing of a book back. The kozo sheet is actually macerated into a film of fiber and paste.
It took me a long time to evolve the final design. The first modification was to change the laced case construction to a pure case construction. Then, since I was not lacing the supports, I got rid of them as well. Unsupported, thread only, sewing suited my specification for the resewing of texts with saw kerfs. Next I included a pasted and brush stippled kozo back lining with a handmade paper lining over it.5
I replaced the hooked ends with simple sewn endsheets with a free guard, but this free guard does not wrap the adjoining section which would prevent the complete adhesive consolidation of the folds and, of course, neither are there any masked areas under tapes. The ultimate idea was to provide a complete and uninterrupted paste/kozo consolidation of the back. Finally, I put cards in the cover so that the turn-ins could be sealed to them, resulting in a pleasant doming or hovering of the cover derived from the yawn of the turn-in folds.
Although other features were tried, the essential change was from a laced case construction based on supported sewing to a pure case construction with unsupported sewing. This combination is not a historical form of paper binding, but it suits the rebinding needs very well and produces a practical and better acting structure. It was still generically a one piece "limp" cover with some features, like the four-ply historical corner miter and forty-five degree spring yapp, that were excellent as is.
6. Enthusiasm for non-adhesive binding reached an excessive level in book conservation practice in the early 80's in the U.S. I hope this interest is now redirected into the work of book artists where it belongs. Keith Smith has tried to do this with his fine work, Non-Adhesive Binding. The best application of non-adhesive technique to book conservation is to provide protection from adhesive for the folds of vellum texts. Deteriorated and weakened papers, on the other hand, need the support and consolidation from both mechanical as well as adhesive means.
The one piece paper cover conservation binding type proved somewhat useful to book conservators, and it interested papermakers Tim Barrett, Simon Green and Sue Gosin who produced truly exemplary cover papers. It also helped to establish the practical techniques of rebinding with chains of unsupported stitches and an initial lining of pasted and brush stippled kozo paper, techniques that work well in combination and well with weakened text papers. Such an adhesive type rebinding has the good influence to discourage impractical enthusiasms for non-adhesive binding.6
In my view the paper case binding offers a model for efficient book conservation repair and rebinding. The historical paper case bindings were made in minutes and lasted centuries. The credibility of conservation binding is not enhanced if it takes hours to produce work that is not equal in performance. A quick, cheap and good binding structure is needed.
7. These prototypes include (1) the Powell prototype for the Kells and other early manuscripts, (2) the northern European wooden board binding, (3) the Italian limp vellum binding, (4) the German paper cover case binding, (5) the archival long stitch binding and (6) the early sewn boards binding.
The insight of Chris Clarkson to work with a guiding model created the logic of conservation binding. At least six historical prototypes have proven directly useful in book conservation practice. 7 This logic is continued with the example of the historical paper binding and its derived conservation binding.
