BOOK BINDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19142, 7 October 1925, Page 16

BOOK BINDING.

"Women are now becoming as good patrons of fine bindings as men," said the representative of a noted book firm to an English correspondent, "and they do not grudge the pricft they pay for theiri. One woman, for instance, recently paid as much as £IBO for a copy of a hook, printed on vellum and bound in morocco, of which only ten copies were published. Queen Mary is greatly interested in good bindings." Turkish morocco and the finest Cape morocco are used for the best bindings. Turkey levant morocco is the European domestic goat skin, and its fine grain will not take the same great variety of charming colours as does Cape levant, which is the thicker skin of the wild goat of South Africa. A we!J-known woman novelist had all her books bound in contrasting and lovely shades of blue Cape levant, and this is the most popular colour for binding at .present. Another woman expressed her ideal in uniform bindings of Niger leather, so called because its gorgeous red is dyed by the natives of Nigeria," a red which forms a perfect harmony with the browns of oak or mahogany bookcases and furniture. The same famous British firm mentioned above introduced leather inlays for book covers some years ago, the old so-called "inlaid" leather besng really a super lay. Some of the finest specimens of modern bookbinding are those which are inlaid with coloured leather, either with subjects illustrating the text or with geometrical symbolic designs. A wonderful binding includes as many as 4800 separate inlays. A ntimber of women are going in for bookbinding, but not many achieve the highest standard in a craft which demands years of practice to attain perfection. One woman has, however, arrived at such a pitch of excellence that she has valuable old vellum MS. entrusted to her to bind. Another woman is specialising in children's books, "Tnrough the > Looking Glass" being bound in a cover with four squares on it like those of a chees board, with the white king and queen inlaid in white on red leather and the red kin? and queen on white. She was responsible for the binding of the miniature visitors' book in the Queen's doll's house and is now making replicas of this fascinating • wee volume.