In a heavily digital age, it can be easy to forget the importance of preserving the tactile book. While future-gazing, we’re quick to jump onto the information rich world of e-books or print-on-demand book services, yet there is nothing quite like a welcoming old good book or journal tucked in your bicycle panniers for the end of long day’s ride.
Our history of books began with long scrolls of text written onto tree bark, leaves and papyrus. But soon, as the length of texts increased and with the growing need to preserve important documents, the art of bookbinding gained popularity. The craft developed in the religious sectors of India through carefully assembling by hand a large number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper and threading them into a book. This was then protected with outer wooden boards and animal leather – usually goatskin which has a natural grained surface and is durable and attractive and comes in wide variety of colours.
Over time bookbinding developed a whole host of techniques, including rounded spines and strapped books, creating a delicate and considered craft that is still being traditionally utilised today.
Shepherds is home to two of London’s oldest and most prestigious hand bookbinding companies, Zaehnsdorf (est.1842) and Sangorski & Sutcliffe (est.1901) of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From its bindery, it creates new bindings, repairs and full restorations and helps to conserve existing sewn bindings in order to keep paper artefacts alive for more decades to come.
Tasks include cleaning and repairing the paper; rebinding with either basic cloth-case binding or valuable and full-vegetable tanned leather bindings that have been dyed with natural dyes; and repairing tears with exclusive handmade papers are used, including its own range of marble papers based on historical examples.
This is achieved through patience, delicate attention to detail and many specialised hand tools of hammers, knives and brass finishing equipment. The bindery can support with expert finishing, such as 19th century techniques of engraving and gold decoration too, that take many years of practice to perfect.
If you would like to experience the Slow Skill of bookbinding, you could enrol on one of Shepherds’ two day beginner’s courses at the pleasantly named Daffodil Barn at its workshop in Wiltshire. This covers the basic principles of bookbinding including grain direction, and how to handle adhesives and bookbinding materials with confidence. The course is based around practical demonstrations and hands-on exercises; at least two books will be completed by the end of the course.
Image: Nate Steiner
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