Bookbindery Illustrations

1430, Bookbinding – from an old woodcut

  1. Sewing Fame

  2. Small wooden book press

  3. The binder is “Beating” the pages. Handmade paper has a great deal of body and was “beaten” to reduce this swell.

Notably, this image is missing the cutting “plow,” which would appear in the 1500s. The binder is beating the pages open rather than after they are folded; the latter would become the standard practice, and he is seated rather than standing which is very unusual.

A Dutch image of bookbinders working in a bookstore. This was a common practice for centuries in both Europe and America.

  1. Sewing frame

  2. A glue pot for hot (animal) glue

  3. A plow with a round cutting blade

  4. A typically massive “beating stone”

  5. Beating Hammer

A French Bookbindery.

  1. Recently washed or printed pages drying on strings

  2. Perhaps a collection of finishing tools

  3. A very early image of an iron press. This is possibly being used to imprint a coat of arms on a book cover

  4. Bellows being used to keep the fire hot for the heating of glue and finishing tools

  5. Books being beaten

Nineteenth Century Stereoscope image of a bookbindery.

  1. Children working in a bookbindery was fairly common practice.

  2. Book plowing vertically without a tub.

  3. Tool rack and large and small squares.

  4. Colored paper stock

  5. Gluepot and paste pot

  6. Perhaps leather dye or marbling ink