Conservation: Speaking of Books, 3rd Edition: Thread vs. Glue

Thursday, November 14, 2013

“As an entity, the book quietly owes its integrity to its binding” – Frank E. Comparto

Since coming up with my topic is the biggest obstacle when it comes to blogging, I decided to experiment with crowd sourcing. I asked my Facebook friends what they wanted to know and they did not let me down. I received eight questions, some very relevant to conservation and some, um, not so much….I don’t know why baboons’ butts are red nor do I know anything about NASCAR. The question I chose to write about is this: “Why do some book bindings have thread (vs. glue) on them?”

Bindings with thread have been sewn, either by hand or machine. Sewing a text block through its folds physically links the sections of pages together. Glued, or “Perfect Bindings”, are text blocks comprised of either single leaves or folded sections of paper held together solely by adhesive.

Book binding

The industrialization of bookbinding began in the mid to late nineteenth-century with the increase in demand for books. Increasingly, binders mechanized their processes to produce as many books as quickly and cheaply as possible. The transition from sewn books to adhesive bindings began in 1911 with the introduction of the “Sheridan Perfect Binder,” an adhesive binding machine developed for binding periodicals comprised of single leaves. In 1948, Alfred H. Cahen developed a new adhesive binding process that enabled conventionally folded signatures to be kept intact. This process produced a finished book having the look, feel, and flexibility of a sewn book.

Sewn bindings stand up to use much better than adhesive-bound books because the text block sections are physically linked together. A properly sewn book will open gracefully, the spine arching up and pages gently falling to rest on either side. Even well-produced Cahen bindings will open this way. Perfect bindings of the individual sheets of paper slathered with glue variety, do not stand up to repeated use as well. Their leaves will often pop out of the adhesive on opening, leaving you with a mess of loose pages that never quite fit back into the binding.

Sewn bindings stand up to use much better than adhesive-bound books because the text block sections are physically linked together. A properly sewn book will open gracefully, the spine arching up and pages gently falling to rest on either side. Even well-produced Cahen bindings will open this way. Perfect bindings of the individual sheets of paper slathered with glue variety, do not stand up to repeated use as well. Their leaves will often pop out of the adhesive on opening, leaving you with a mess of loose pages that never quite fit back into the binding.

Sharon Fickeissen is the Conservation Technician at Hagley Library.

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