Antique furniture an' things

[Aughnanure]

I like nice furniture, be it modern or old, and this took my fancy at the Antiques Fair that I visited yesterday

Some great stocks in the original tree I'll bet.

Don't know what the price was as it'd been sold.

This also caught my eye as a nice thing to have around the workshop; especially as measuring used to be my game.

The label says it all.

[Aughnanure]

I've always wanted a book press but they were always a bit pricey for me so I made do with weights etc., when I made up a book, usually manuals or suchlike. Came across a serviceable press at a reasonable price $A225 which was OK, eventually my wife, Annette, bought it for me for $185, which was even better

Logo or whatever

It's American or at least the nuts are so the rest probably is too.

Anyone recognize it?

[Niner]

"Anyone recognize it?" Hell, I never knew such a thing existed.

After you press the "book" as flat as possible I suspect the object is to bind the pages together. So how does it work?

[DocAV]

First you do the stitching of all the individual "sheets" of printed pages ( the large sheet of Paper, todays A0 or A1 size) and it is folded into 16 pages (octavo) ( If I remember correctly) and the fold over line is stitched with four or six holes; the threads are tied off, the loose ends left of sufficient length;
The Pile of "Sheets" (folded and stitched) is then collated in a Pile, and pressed together; then the loose threads are knotted around "ribs" of fine wood or whalebone; holding the entire book together...usually white casein glue is then applied to the back of the Book ("the spine") to seal everything together.

Then, the Book is "Cut" by Guillotine, to eliminate the fold lines, leaving the free individual pages ---Old books ( pre 1900s) were often sold "Uncut"...one used a paperknife to slit open the Folds...a Book in "Uncut" condition is worth three to four times, sometimes even ten times what a "cut book" of the same print run is worth ( Like a "Mint" Unfired Rifle...)

After the "Cutting," the Edge colour is added ( gold, red, etc) and the covers attached, and the Endpapers glued in. ( the press is used again here.).

Bookbinding has not changed in its basic technology since Gutenberg's time ( 1400s), only that the stitching etc is now done automatically on machines; but there is still call for craftsman /women Book binders, to either bind volumes of Journals etc, or to bind short print runs of "private Publishing" works; as well as restoring ancient and old books ( pre-1900s), which were All bound by hand methods.

Gov't Archives and Public Libraries of a certain Standard all employ professional Book Binders and Restorers, including "marochiniers" ( workers in Morocco leather, the finest type of leather used in Bookbinding important books ( hence the term "Leather-bound"...as distinct from "Hide-Bound" meaning heavy, intractable or difficult to interpret, (as were some heavy Tomes of Medieval Law and Philosophy ( the leather was not soft, but heavy and tough like Hide, to protect the books from rough handling when travelling the far flung corners of the "New World" in Packs or Saddlebags.)

AN arcane and dying art, that of Hand Bookbinding; ( actually quite a simple process, if one examines it; but one has to "do it right and first time".)

Regards,
Doc AV
AV Ballistics.

[DuncaninFrance]

I have always hankered after a Barograph but at around $1000 for a new one and probably a lot more for a good antique one I am likely to have to dream on!

[Niner]

Doc, that was a lot of trouble to make a book. Now days one plastic Kindle provides free access to nearly two millian books and best sellers for a lot cheaper than the bound copies. And you can carry around a library of something like 3500 books. But...I'm still used to the real thing with a cover and pages made of paper.

[Tom-May]

... Now days one plastic Kindle provides free access to nearly two millian books and best sellers for a lot cheaper than the bound copies. And you can carry around a library of something like 3500 books....

But at the same time, I've never run out of battery power for a book, nor had one crash on me.

Tom (in a particularly Luddite mood today)

[DuncaninFrance]

My wife just downloads free books direct from the internet to her laptop and then opens them in Word and reads them from there. Don't need a Kindle for that