Sunday, January 18, 2015

Book #18

16th Century Ledger Binding

This is another example of an historic ledger binding. In this case I was replicating the construction but not the materials. This ledger binding is based on a 16th century European example where the textblock is sewn onto supports which are woven into the cover. The tacketed overbands cover the woven sewing supports.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

That's beautiful! Thanks for your recommendation of Keith Smith books. I picked one up at the library and it's so interesting.

MyHandboundBooks said...

Thanks Carley Bibin. Have fun trying some of these yourself!

Sarah said...

Beautifully done!

MyHandboundBooks said...

Thanks, Sarah :)

Cassienne said...

What a beautiful binding! I'm just wondering what sewing technique you used....you said you used supports, was it tapes, or did you sew right through the leather? I wish we could see photos of the binding under the leather strips!

MyHandboundBooks said...

Hi Cassienne, thank you. The supports were strips of leather. Then those strips of leather were woven into the cover then that is covered by the leather bands that you can see there.

Of course I did not have time to document all these things as I was making them. If you are especially curious about the structure and sewing of these sorts of books, the absolute best resource is "Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding" by J. A. Szirmai.