I started bookbinding as a hobby more than 40 years ago. I took evening classes at Leicester Polytechnic (which had recently taken over the Leicester School of Printing, along with its specialist bookbinding staff) in 1976 and continued for five years. Trevor Hickman was the tutor – sadly he died a couple of years ago – very highly respected by all his students. Over the next 25 years I gradually acquired all the tools, equipment and materials necessary to tackle any repair or new binding job, and I joined the UK-based Designer Bookbinders, and later the Society of Bookbinders. Their weekend courses and conferences were important to developing my skills. Initially I bound or repaired just my own books, but people began to ask me to do repairs at which , with practice, I became quite proficient. When I retired from full-time work I took on more repair work and now, fifteen years later, my work book has over 2000 entries, including some new bindings for clients. Now I would like to share some of the techniques and methods I have developed with other binders, however new they may be to the craft, and that is the chief aim of this Blog.
After posting the piece about the Kelmscott Chaucer I remembered that one of my first bindings, around 1978, had blind tooled decoration, chiefly because I then had no means of doing anything else. I had no decorative tools, no gold leaf or foil and no knowledge of gold work anyway. But I did have a workbench, some files and some large brass screws. So I filed the heads into two simple shapes, polished the faces and used them on an old bible I had bought in an antique shop in Warwick for £18, with no covers and needing repair, but, surprisingly, complete.
The bible is dated 1608 (a ‘Breeches’ bible) so a design based on Jacobean strapwork seemed appropriate. I think I had seen a Grolier binding from 50 years before which had a similar ‘interlace’ design. The two tools used were made from brass screws.The gilt title and date were done in an evening class at Leicester Polytechnic using their letters and numbers in a typeholderDouble headbands and leather ‘clasps’.
Other blind work
Left: on a Folio Society copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, so a theme of shape-shifting Centre: an exercise in traditional Gothic style Right: Virgil’s Works, printed by Jacob Tonson, 1701
Began bookbinding as a hobby 45-plus years ago. Acquired some degree of skill through practice, courses and workshops. Acquired good range of equipment, tools and materials and set up home bindery. For the past 25 years I have undertaken all kinds of repair and binding work for booksellers and collectors. I live near Stroud in Gloucestershire, UK.
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