In the first part of my blog series on binding The Songs and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, I detailed the process of forwarding, onlays, and embroidery. In this second installment, I will focus on the covering, doublures, and the accompanying box.
In the art of fine bookbinding, covering a volume with leather is a delicate marriage of precision and craftsmanship. As I had devoted significant time to embroidering the leather before it is finally affixed to the binding, this is an important stage of the project that is critical to get right. The leather must be applied so that it can turn in neatly, form clean corners, and sit well across the spine and boards, and all of this has to be done without damaging the embroidery.
To stick the leather to the binding, I made up starch-based paste by heating strong white bread flour with water on a bain-marie. The glue is strong, flexible and also reversible, plus it has a long “open time”, allowing more time to work the leather around the book during the covering process.
I first dampened the front of the leather with an atomiser to prevent the paste from staining the skin, and to ensure the leather dried evenly without leaving water marks (see below image). I then applied an even layer of paste to the flesh side of the leather and allowed it to penetrate into the skin for a few minutes. Two more layers were applied, with the final layer stippled on to prevent brush marks potentially being visible through the leather.
I additionally applied a thin and even layer of archival-quality PVA glue to the joints of the text block. This ensures better adhesion and structural integrity in this critical area, providing the necessary flexibility for the book to open smoothly while creating a durable, long-lasting bond between the text block and its future cover.
The embroidery on the cover can affect how the leather moves as the stitches can add tension, which all must be taken into account when the leather is dampened, pasted, and stretched around the book during the covering process. Once I was ready, I aligned the spine of the book precisely on the back of the skin before drawing the remaining leather onto the boards with my palms.
The next step was to turn the covering leather around the boards and down into the hollow of the spine. The top and bottom edges were carefully folded over the top and bottom of the boards, ensuring they were pulled flush against the perimeter, whilst also pushing the leather down into a hollow I had attached to the spine. The side edges were then turned in and the corners were folded in with precision, ensuring the leather lay flat.
Once satisfied with the turn-ins, I began forming the endcaps. Also known as headcaps, these elements define the durability and finish of the spine. After pressing the leather into the spine’s hollow, I pulled a portion of the material upward to provide enough slack for manipulation over the endbands, using a small, flexible metal spatula for precision (see below left image). The excess leather was then pulled over the top of the endbands using a Teflon folder (see below centre image). Finally, I tied the spine with linen thread and refined the shape of the endband by standing the book on its spine on a glass surface and working the leather with a Teflon folder to achieve a crisp finish (see below right image).
The binding was then placed between boards and blotting paper for twenty four hours, with the blotting paper changed regularly to draw the moisture out.
Opening a leather binding for the first time once the skin has fully dried requires careful handling. I applied moisture to the joints using a water pen, allowing it to penetrate before gently easing the boards open. When forwarded and covered correctly, the boards should easily rest flat against the supporting surface once opened.
The waste sheets were carefully removed to uncover the leather-jointed endpapers. Before adhering the joints to the inside of the book boards, I removed the small board spacers previously attached to the inner edges. A layer of Zerkall paper was then applied to the inner edge of the board and sanded to level the surface where the tapes were laced in (see below right image). As the leather joints measured 0.3 mm in thickness and the outer turn-ins measured approximately 0.5 mm, the Zerkall paper served to create a uniform, even surface around the board, which would help when it came to the infilling.
A piece of 0.4mm thick watercolour paper was cut to size, and stuck down as an infill in the centre of the boards (see below left image). Any irregularities in the thickness of the turn-ins were evened out by gluing down little pieces of paper to level it up (see below centre image). The surface was sanded and then a piece of Zerkall was cut to a few millimetres smaller than the overall size of the board, stuck down and sanded flush once dry. The binding was then left overnight to dry under a weight (see below right image).
Doublures are the linings on the inside of the covers, and they can be as important as the exterior design. They are the first surfaces encountered when the book is opened, and they help shape the transition between the outer binding and the text. For this binding I opted to apply edge-to-edge leather doublures in the same colour as the covering leather: a blue/grey goatskin.
The inside of the binding was to be a continuation of the cover design and I wanted to try and work on ways to make the onlays and embroidery flow around from the outside to the inside of the book. I had two pieces of the goatskin professionally split to 0.4mm in thickness and backed these with very thin Japanese tissue to stabilise them. Once the book had been covered in leather, I was able to work out exactly how big these pieces needed to be.
Creating edge-to-edge doublures requires extreme precision. The leather must be meticulously pared to a feather edge, ensuring the blade does not nick the margins (see image below left). For this binding, I varied the paring technique: on the three outer edges meeting leather of the same colour, I intentionally ‘nicked’ the edges to ensure they would blend seamlessly when glued down, rather than leaving a sharp, straight line. Conversely, for the fourth edge meeting the contrasting pink leather joint, I maintained a precise straight edge to create a sharp transition against the lighter goatskin. In the below right image you can see the contrast between the edge treatments.
This binding was a bit of an experiment in trying to get the design to flow around from the boards and onto the doublures. This required both the leather doublures and the embroidery threads to align perfectly at the board edges. I ensured the embroidery on the covering leather ended exactly at the inner edge to prevent the threads from being caught while sanding the boards in preparation for the doublures.
I secured additional lengths of matching thread to the stitches along the inner edges of the boards (see below left image). These were then adhered to the interior of the boards to seamlessly extend the line of stitching (see below right image).
When applying the leather onlays to the doublures, I left them so that they overhung the edges and were feathered. Once the leather doublures were glued down, these little extensions of the onlays could be glued around the curved edge of the board to soften the join.
The same embroidery stitches were applied to the doublures as to on the cover of the binding.
I constantly checked the positioning of the stitching as it curved around the board edges.
Once the doublures were ready for attachment, I used a roller to apply PVA to the reverse and carefully positioned them onto the inner boards. I then applied firm, even pressure with my palms to ensure a smooth, secure bond. Particular care was taken to ensure the entire onlay adhered correctly, as threads on the reverse can create bulk that requires additional attention to flatten.
A binding like this also needs an appropriate enclosure, so I made a wooden box to house and protect the book. The box is not simply packaging – for a fine binding, the box is part of the finished work. It protects the book from light, dust, handling, and environmental changes, but it also sets the tone for how the book is presented.
The box was made with a thick wall, to give is stability. The box was designed so that the book would sit in a well, made so that the book would fit securely without being tight. The well was lined with a mixture of suede and paper, and a ribbon was added to help to lift the book up.
I crafted a title panel for the box lid using off-cuts from the leather doublure. I added onlays and stitching to match the binding’s design, offering a preview of the binding within the enclosure. The lettering style was taken directly from the book’s interior. I carefully pierced the letters from thin leather and backed them with gold leaf, creating the impression of a title tooled in gold.
The inner leather required for some of the pierced letters was glued on afterwards, for example the circular centre of the ‘O’s and the triangular pieces of the ‘A’s. I scored the gold leaf slightly behind where these pieces were to be glued, to ensure good adhesion.
I hope this two-part blog series has provided insight into the creation of this binding. While I haven’t detailed every single step, I have aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the choices I made throughout the project. Documenting my work-in-progress is a significant commitment, and I view this written record as a meaningful extension of the binding itself. Beyond serving as a personal guide to the techniques I used, I hope this series proves to be a valuable resource for others as well.
Images of the finished book can be seen on my website in the Fine Bindings section. The binding is currently available for sale, please email me on hannah@hannahrownbookbinding if you are interested in purchasing it.
