Maria Lühr and a Stool

CREATIVE FEMALE HANDS

Miss Master Bookbinder

As in so many professions dominated by men alone, women have also turned to bookbinding. In the workshop of Maria Lühr, Berlin, where only female hands exercise the craft, artistic and tasteful book bindings are created under the direction and the own hands of this woman.

The products of this unique female bookbinding workshop will soon be shown in America as part of an exhibition of German women craftsmen in St. Louis and Chicago.

Apprentices inserting the books into the hand press for "backing" and placing the finished books into the standing press.

Copyright by Presse-Photo G.M.B.H.
Berlin SW. 38 -- Wilhelmstr. 130

Apprentices inserting the books into the hand press for "pressing"
and placing the finished books into the standing press.

Also seen at far left is the "forgotten Bauhaus stool" manufactured
by Rowac in Chemnitz", Germany.

Schaffende Frauenhände

Fräulein Buchbindermeister

Wie in so vielen vom Manne allein beherrschten Berufen, hat sich die Frau auch dem Buchbinderhandwerk zugewardt. In der Werkstatt von Maria Lühr, Berlin, in der nur weibliche Hände das Handwerk ausüben, entsehen unter der Leitung und den eigenen Händen dieser Frau künstlerische und geschmackvolle Bucheinbande.

Die Erzeugnisse dieser wohl einzig dastehenden weiblichen Buchbinderwerkstatt werden demnächst in Amerika im Rahmen einer Ausstellung Deutscher Kunstgewerblerinnen in St. Louis und Chicago gezeigt werden.

Lehrlinge beim Einsetzen der Bücher in die Handpress zum "Abpressen" und Setzen der fertigen Bücher in die Stockpresse.

Copyright by Presse-Photo G.M.B.H.

Berlin SW. 38 Wilhelmstr. 130

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The image was shared with generous permission by Alide & Dieter Amick / Rowac who are reissuing this classic stool.

Position of the Tongue in Bookbinding

 This fun poster was created by James Welker sometime shortly after 2004. Mark Andersson, then teaching bookbinding at North Bennet Street School is demonstrating a trade binding popular in mid 20th century Sweden at Guild of Book Workers Standards in 2004, and I am teaching the German-style springback at Minnesota Center for Book Arts in 2003. 

Are there other national preferences for tongue position in binding? Asking for a friend.

Fritz Otto Examines "The Salmon of Wisdom"

 A new fish skin binding acquisition for the piscatorial collection.

The Salmon of Wisdom from the Folklore Fish series. It is bound in salmon prepared by @sosnastudios with hazelnut-dyed salmon lacing. The book was one of 3 exhibited in the Beyond Bookbinding 2023 exhibit at @nbssboston in Boston where Sara, '23, is a student. Take a look at her Instagram and more fish skin bindings.

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A post shared by Fritz Otto Buchbinder (@fritzottobuchbinder)

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.