Bookbinding As A School Subject

Here the second of the two "manuals" introducing bookbinding subjects to school children that I recently received. They are both parts of the Technische Jugend Bücherei  (Technical Library for Youths) edited by L.M.K. Capeller, instructor for art education at the teacher training institute in Munich. The first pamphlet Papparbeit (No. 17) was described in my previous post, and covered the subject of paper crafts such as desk accessories, calendars, boxes, ... 

Buchbinden (No. 18) is the second that introduces bookbinding. Both were published in 1926. The structures that are introduced are the single-section pamphlet in a wrapper and the multi-section Pappband, or as it more commonly referred to in North America, Bradel binding. The appendix briefly describes sewing on sawn in cords rather than tapes, and suggests working with a carpenter to construct a sewing frame (diagram in book).

The covers on these pamphlets are rather attractive,
with the central decorative element representing a box.

Title Page

Diagram for making the hooked endpaper out of a
single strip. This will result in a pastedown,
flyleaf, and guard/waste sheet that the cover
will be built up on. 

This construction was also depicted in the post here.

Starting the sewing. Note the position of
the endsheet relative to the first signature.

The diagram depicts the "gebrochene Rücken",
referred to here as the Hülse (hollow). Per the text,
it is made from two pieces, one the width of the spine, the 
other wider to attach it to the guard/waste sheet
of the textblock. It is made of card stock, and rather
than creasing and folding, it is scored, then folded.

Do you know the difference between creasing and scoring?

The Hülse attached to the guard/waste sheet.

Next, the boards get attached.

Several presses are depicted in the booklet...

After trimming the boards to size, Buchbinden ends
by telling students that there is no need to describe 
covering as that was all described in the previous
pamphlet Papparbeit. After covering it continues
with paste out the paste down, close the cover onto the
textblock and put in the press.

Final tips: When starting out, sew on tapes, so you don't need a sewing frame, make sure you have lots of CLEAN wastepaper ready BEFORE starting each step, so you don't have to scurry to find a piece, also avoiding glue stains on the book... Then, make sure to have fun.

Although this pamphlet is written for school children, the basic instructions are consistent with what was described in trade manuals published 100 years earlier.

The back cover.

Book Crafts As A School Subject

Just received two more "manuals" introducing bookbinding subjects to school children. These two are both parts of the Technische Jugend Bücherei  (Technical Library for Youths) edited by L.M.K. Capeller, instructor for art education at the teacher training institute in Munich. The first pamphlet Papparbeit (No. 17) covers the subject of paper crafts such as desk accessories, calendars, boxes, ... The second Buchbinden (No. 18) introduces bookbinding. Both were published in 1926. In this post, I'll share from Papparbeit.

In the post Book and Paper Arts for School Students, a tale of two Pralles H. Pralle wrote in Die staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule zu Hamburg "The pupil's workshops should not train craftsmen, they should educate in the children of all professions in the right understanding, sharp vision, and aptitude. Manual dexterity is valuable if mind and body are to be cultivated." So it was with these two texts.

The English bookbinding literature also features numerous publications of this sort, e.g. The Cockerells' Bookbinding as a School Subject series, Lismer's Bookbinding Constructions for Senior Schools, Matthew's Simple Bookbinding for Junior Schools and similar. While aimed at school children, the type and complexity of many of the techniques and projects introduced are on, and in some cases beyond what we would now consider basic or even intermediate book arts workshops. 

The covers on these pamphlets are rather attractive,
with the central decorative element representing a box.

Title page.

Covering the edges of a portfolio, calendar or similar.
A decorated paper will be used to cover the rest.

Covering the sides of a box.
The boxes are assembled by cutting, scoring,
and folding the cardboard.

And, the box is covered.

Back cover of the pamphlet.

In my next post I will share from Buchbinden.

Account Book Advertising Stamp

This stamp would have been used like tape for wrapping paper, in this case for the products purchased there. The stamp was produced by Hochlehnert & Co., Ulm a. D. Hochlehnert & Co. were also an account/ledger book "factory", printer, and paper wholesaler. 

Account/Ledger Books
Bookbindery and Stationers
Richard Emmerich
Bautzen, Seminarstraße 2
7.5 x 5 cm

Below, the location in Bautzen (Saxony) now. Sadly no street view.

You can see a similar stamp from an earlier post here.

Perhaps it looked like this, the Buchbinderei Franz Dreeger,  (ca. 1910)
9 Singrienergasse, Vienna

German Kaiser Gifts W. Collin Bindings

Ten days ago, I got the kind of email that made may day in a wonderful way. A colleague shared some images of a very large multi-volume set that had come into the conservation lab for some work before being returned to its rightful place in the collections. The set had come to attention because it had decorated a retiring library Dean's office... What made the set special to me was that the set had been bound by W. Collin, Court bookbinders in Berlin, and came with some important provenance.

Œuvres de Frédéric le Grand, Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786 
Berlin, Imprimerie royale, 1846-57.
31 volume(s). in 33. 3 front. (incl. 2 portrait) 2 facsimile 36 cm. and atlas. 53 cm.

Following the link to HathiTrust in the record above, I was able to see that the set is represented by holdings in several libraries, but none bound like this!

That's A LOT of big books...

Overall view with the monogram of Prussian King Frederick the Great.

Sadly, the call number and other labels are a common problem in libraries.
In many cases, the books were long part of the circulating collections
before being move to special collections. An example of that is Syracuse
University's von Ranke collection that also features many W. Collin bindings.

Gilt edges on three sides, leather inner joints, and marbled endpapers.
All pretty standard for the day.

Well, that's some provenance, Gift of Kaiser Wilhelm II!

W. Collin Court Bookbinders, Berlin
A new-to-me location for the stamp. If not stamped on the binding,
they were usually at the bottom left of the flyleaf verso.

Detail view of stamp.
I've added it to my page with all stamps and tickets I've found.

A special thanks to J. Michael Keeling, Preservation & Conservation Specialist in Conservation & Preservation at the Sheridan Libraries and Museums at Johns Hopkins University. Michael handled the books and found more information about W. Collin... on this blog. He also took and shared these wonderful images. Thank you.

Conservation & Preservation at JHU is also where I was first exposed to this wonderful profession as a work-study student in the same department.

Meisterhafte Unikate - 100th Anniversary of Meister der Einbandkunst

Received a fantastic gift today from a friend in the Pirckheimer Gesellschaft, the catalog to Meister der Einbandkunst's 100th anniversary exhibition Meisterhafte Unikate (Unique Masterly Bindings).

Meister der Einbandkunst
Meisterhafte Unikate: 100 Jahre Einbandkunst
2022

VERY pleased to see numerous Ernst Collin citations, and very pleasantly surprised to see my binding of the first (1927) Jahrbuch der Einbandkunst illustrated. It was bound at E.A. Enders in Leipzig. I acquired the binding 1988ish when a dealer brought it to Bill Minter's studio where I was working for deacidification. Yes, I paid Bill for the deacidification.

Based on one citation of an article by Otto Pfaff, I also got the sense that my article "Ernst Collin und sein Pressbengel: Eine Spurensuche zum Buchbinder, Schriftsteller, Antiquar und Bibliophilen" that was published in the Pirckheimer Gesellschaft's Marginalien, Zeitschrift für Buchkunst und Bibliophilie was "helpful".

Heute ein wunderbares Geschenk bekommen, den Katalog Meisterhafte Unikate: 100 Jahre Einbandkunst. Ich habe mich sehr über die vielen Ernst Collin Zitate gefreut, aber auch besonders für die Abbildung von meinem Exemplar des Jahrbuch der Einbandkunst, 1927ish gebunden bei E.A. Enders. Ich bekam auch den Eindruck, daß mein Artikel "Ernst Collin und sein Pressbengel: Eine Spurensuche zum Buchbinder, Schriftsteller, Antiquar und Bibliophilen," der in den Marginalien, Zeitschrift für Buchkunst und Bibliophilie der Pirckheimer Gesellschaft erschien, zu dem Zitat von Otto Pfaffs Artikel "verholfen" hat.

Jahrbuch der Einbandkunst, 1927
Bound at E.A. Enders
Image from Meisterhafte Unikate

Jahrbuch der Einbandkunst, 1927
Bound at E.A. Enders
Collection of Peter D. Verheyen

More decorated papers from Deutsche Einbandkunst, 1921

I recently acquired 2 more copies of the catalog to Deutsche Einbandkunst edited by, and also with an article by, Ernst Collin. Why more copies, well the catalog was produced in two versions, a deluxe of twenty unbound copies on handmade wove rag (I-XX), with the remaining copies (21-2,000) on a machine-made wove rag paper. My copy of the deluxe edition (Nr. XX) was bound in an unsigned ¼ leather binding with cloth sides and gilt top edge. It is the regular edition copies in their decorated  paper wrappers made or provided by ten different decorated papermakers.

I shared the first batch of three here. Below, the next two:

Copy # 852, paper made by Theo Paul Hermann, Leipzig.
This is a printed paste paper (Kleisterdruck)

Copy # 921, paper made by Anne-Marie Irmler, Berlin.
An expressionistic stenciled paper, "schabloniertes Papier."
She is mentioned in an article that appeared in the Papier-Fabrikant,
a paper trades publication. (749-750)

Not going to make a habit of aquiring more copies unless the papers really grab me... 😂

Colliniana 2021-22 - Ernst Collin Updates

Today, on Ernst Collin's birthday, I once again share an overview of findings from the past year. For a variety of reasons, things have slowed down around this blog and my ongoing research around Ernst and his family of W. Collin. Reasons include the copyright "wall" that is moving forward a year at a time, but also less time and energy on my part. We'll call it burn out that affects much more than this work. That said, there were some exciting moments. That said, almost none of what I have found and learned would have been possible without digitized collections such as HathiTrust and the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek.

My article 'Ernst Collin und sein Pressbengel: Eine Spurensuche zum Buchbinder, Schriftsteller, Antiquar und Bibliophilen' appeared in the Marginalien of the Pirckheimer Gesellschaft, a German bibliophilic organization originally based in Berlin. With this article, I formally reintroduced Ernst Collin and his family to those they bound for, and he wrote for. The article also shared some findings "discovered" since Die Collins / The Collins appeared in 2016.

Hier gehts zum Download | Download here

Opening spread of the article. On the right Ernst Collin's exlibris
by  Walter Kampmann. The exlibris was included in the first
volume of Die Heftlade.

We know that Ernst Collin wrote for a very wide range of publications, so I was not surprised by the advertising leaflet for Dornemann I found bound in with several Paul Kersten texts on finishing and tooling that someone had compiled. Also bound in were several more leaflets for Dornemann by Kersten. These kinds of things are rather ephemeral, and I was not able to find the ones I have in the catalog of the German National Library, that has a large collection. Dornemann was one of the largest manufacturers of brass finishing tools and type in Germany, and the pallets and gouges I have were made by them.

Brass type for the hand-finisher. [n.d.] 

However, most of all, I was absolutely surprised to have discovered a copy of the deluxe edition of Ernst's Pressbengel bound in parchment when I really wasn't looking. Ordered and now in my collection of the editions of this work. There were a total of 30 copies of the deluxe that could be ordered in parchment or leather, bindings by Hübel & Denck, Leipzig.

Printed in Didot-Antiqua onto VERY heavy/stiff Zanders ragpaper.
This is number 7. Sadly, they weren't signed.

We'll see if a copy of the deluxe in leather ever appears on my screen...

I also continue to find reference to the Pressbengel, Die Heftlade, and Paul Kersten by Ernst Collin in book trade publications. Below a listing from September 23, 1922 for the Pressbengel in the Wöchentliches Verzeichnis der erschienenen und der vorbereiteten Neuigkeiten des deutschen Buchhandels published by the Deutsche Bücherei. The Wöchentliches Verzeichnis indicated new publications. There was also a review in the Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel, 30 October, 1922.

Note the prices. This was still relatively early in the period
of hyperinflation. These prices would have reflected the values in
the paper money of the time...

The Zeitschrift für Bücherfreunde published a continuation of the "discussion" around the Pressbengel, as well as a brief "review" of Collin's three publications mentioned above. More about the "discussion" here.

Then, under "this makes me happy", mention on Facebook of my downloadable sheets for binding my translation of the Pressbengel (The Bone Folder). This was shared by a bindery in Whitley Bay, UK:

Just recently I came across a website with a free download of "The Bone Folder" by Ernst Collin. A very readable little book, it was first published in 1922 and takes the form of a conversation between a book lover and a bookbinder. The imposition has already been done, and it folds into five sections. It would make a nice little project for members who have completed our basic course. I have run off some extra labels if anyone would like to bind up their own copy. The website where it can be found is https://pressbengel.blogspot.com/.

That's what the sheets are there for, and I'm very glad to see them being shared. Download link in the left panel or here.

In the Berliner Börsen-Zeitung of April 10, 1924 (a kind of Wall Street Journal) I found a reference to the "hiatus" during 1923 of the Heftlade, the journal Ernst Collin published for the Jakob-Krause-Bund. 1923 was the worst of the period of hyperinflation... The brief article mentions that the Heftlade was back with 2 issues and was looking forward to the future... Sadly, that was it, except for a seemingly random issue in 1925.

Downloading another article from HathiTrust, I was very pleased to discover that a W. Collin binding I have was depicted in Deutsche Einbandkunst im ersten Jahrzehnt des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts by the great German bibliophile and author of the time G.A.E. Bogeng.

W. Collin binding on Adolf von Menzel.

My work around Ernst Collin and W. Collin was also an integral part of my talk, Down the Rabbit Hole: Embracing experience and serendipity in a life of research, binding practice, and publishing, given to the William Anthony Conservation Lecture series at the University of Iowa on September 30th, 2021. The Collins were one of the three rabbit holes I discussed, one I am still glad to be lost in.

Finally, while not technically citing Die Collins / The Collins or this blog, I was glad to see both included with paraphrasing, images, and in the references of the Tagebuch der Buchbinderei und Druckweiterverarbeitung (Band 4, 19. Jahrhundert) that was compiled by Hans Joachim Laue. The self-published volume presents events in the history of bookbinding and the book trades with an entry per day. I look forward to Band 5, the 20th century. 

My to-do list includes entering many of these references into my database of Ernst Collin's writings...