Re: concave spine

[Bill Minter <wminter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

An interesting question, and one that I was mentioning just the other  
day.

During my apprenticeship in the early 1970's, my mentor, Bill  
Anthony, was telling me about the BOOK OF KELLS. Roger Powell had  
restored that great Irish treasure in the 1950's. When the beautiful  
pages are exhibited, the sewing structure and spine are supported by  
a wooden dowel that is inserted.
Bill described the stress that a book encounters as the book is  
opened and the spine moves from a convex shape to the concave. Why do  
we force a book to do that? He explained the swelling that is created  
by the sewing thread, and how we, obviously, manage that swelling by  
rounding a book with the convex shape.
He wondered what would happen if the book were bound with the concave- 
shape built-in ---- a shape that is seen on some well-used flat-spine  
books, such as, thick telephone books.
In order to learn more, we prepared an old discarded text-block by  
sewing on it on linen tapes. After gluing up the spine, we reversed  
the round to accommodate the swelling, thus producing a concave  
spine. Since we were thinking that the book should look "normal", we  
prepared a piece of wood --- #1 pine (without knots) from the local  
carpenter, as I recall -- to fit the concave shape; the linen tapes  
were then wrapped around the wood. Then another piece of wood was  
shaped for a "normal" spine, but this wood was wider to allow a  
"normal" shoulder to accommodate the boards. The binding was quarter  
leather with vellum sides.
The true beauty of the binding was obvious upon opening. The book  
functioned magnificently with no stress or strain -- the pages lay  
flat --- the gutter margin easily viewed --- absolutely perfect and a  
dream binding to behold.

Sadly, Bill died on February 8, 1989. This one and only "reverse- 
round" book seems to be lost as it was not part of Bill's collection.  
I would love to see that first book again. Many of Bill's other  
binding structures can be seen at the University of Iowa, Center for  
the Book.

As we all know, James Brockman has furthered the development of this  
interesting and unique structure, something that deserves further  
investigation for that special book ---- or perhaps for all books, if  
that were possible.


Bill Minter




On Mar 26, 2009, at 7:20 PM, George Baker wrote:

>   I am tempted to try a concave spine, ala James Brockman. As an  
> engineer the benefit to page attachment and drape appeal to me. I  
> would appreciate any comments from those who have knowledge of, or  
> personal experience with,, such bindings.  George Baker

******************************

William Minter Bookbinding & Conservation, Inc.
4364 Woodbury Pike
Woodbury, PA  16695
814-793-4020
Fax:   814-793-4045
Email:    wminter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx




                                   
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