Bookbinding, And The Care Of Books [ By: Douglas Cockerell ‪]‬

About the Book

Bookbinding, and the Care of Books : A Handbook for Amateurs Bookbinders & Librarians / Cockerell, Douglas ; with drawings by Noel Rooke, and other illustrations [1901]


In issuing this volume of a series of Handbooks on the Artistic

Crafts, it will be well to state what are our general aims.


In the first place, we wish to provide trustworthy text-books of

workshop practice, from the points of view of experts who have

critically examined the methods current in the shops, and putting

aside vain survivals, are prepared to say what is good workmanship,

and to set up a standard of quality in the crafts which are more

especially associated with design. Secondly, in doing this, we hope to

treat design itself as an essential part of good workmanship. During

the last century most of the arts, save painting and sculpture of an

academic kind, were little considered, and there was a tendency to

look on "design" as a mere matter of _appearance_. Such

"ornamentation" as there was was usually obtained by following in a

mechanical way a drawing provided by an artist who often knew little

of the technical processes involved in production. With the critical

attention given to the crafts by Ruskin and Morris, it came to be seen

that it was impossible to detach design from craft in this way, and

that, in the widest sense, true design is an inseparable element of

good quality, involving as it does the selection of good and suitable

material, contrivance for special purpose, expert workmanship, proper

finish and so on, far more than mere ornament, and indeed, that

ornamentation itself was rather an exuberance of fine workmanship than

a matter of merely abstract lines. Workmanship when separated by too

wide a gulf from fresh thought--that is, from design--inevitably

decays, and, on the other hand, ornamentation, divorced from

workmanship, is necessarily unreal, and quickly falls into

affectation. Proper ornamentation may be defined as a language

addressed to the eye; it is pleasant thought expressed in the speech

of the tool.


About the Author

Douglas Cockerell, 1870-1945


"His artist's eye was always on the outlook for inspiration from the world around him. A simple arch, an elaborate leaf pattern, the curve of a swimming fish, and many other images and forms from nature were skillfully rendered by Cockerell into his unique and often slightly organic binding designs. As well as creating beautiful designs, Cockerell insisted on harmony between his design, the book's content, the structure of the book, and the proposed use of the volume. The high standards of craftmanship and design achieved by Cockerell in his own work and which he passed on to his students and apprentices revived and revolutionized the art of modern bookbinding."