Properly Made Commonplace Book #01
Indulge in the timeless elegance of this handcrafted binding, one of a series of 10.
Within this series, each book is bound in a one-off combination of leather and hand printed paper making each book unique.
VPCo never makes the same book twice.
WHAT IS A COMMONPLACE BOOK?
A commonplace book is a personal compilation of knowledge, ideas, inspirations, quotations, and observations, written and drawn by an individual and kept in one place, making them easy to refer back to.
Of course, we're not prescriptive as to how you should use this book - it could be a diary, a sketchbook, a guest or recipe book - anything. You might even want to just have it as a thing to look at or gift it to a special person.
PROPERLY MADE
These books are made properly. That's why we call them Properly Made Books.
Properly Made means made using techniques and materials that hark back hundreds of years, before the mechanisation of book production in the mid 1800s.
Every process, from beginning to end is carried out by hand - we don't use machines, not because we're bloody minded luddites, but because these techniques are so demanding, they cannot be carried out by machine.
The book pages are made from large sheets of paper, folded and cut by hand. The individually folded sheets of paper are gathered and sewn together through tiny, hand punched holes, with linen thread making a book block - the inside papery part of the book.
The linen thread is sewn over thick hemp cords which are designed to work as an anchor, joining the book block to the book's cover boards.
In the above photograph, you can just see the hemp cord fed horizontally across the back of the book block and woven through the cover boards.
After the book block is joined to the boards with the hemp cord, vegetable tanned leather (calf or goat) is pasted and moulded over the spine and the book boards creating a one piece, strong, flexible structure.
The binding technique we use allows these books to open fully and lay flat on a surface. Try this with a normal, "case bound" book and see how quickly the spine pops and breaks, ruining the book and putting its valuable contents at risk. This won't happen with a Properly Made Book.
In fact, Properly Made Books are so well made and flexible, they can be opened a full 360 degrees, allowing the covers to fold back on themselves without any fear of breaking the binding.
In the studio, these can be laid completely flat on a table or, if out in the field, or working in tight spaces, they can be completely folded back and held in one hand.
Before the paper covers are added, a little rectangle of vellum (an animal skin product similar to leather but processed to give a papery surface) is glued and folded onto the four external corners of the book boards.
Vellum corners look great but they also act as a protectorant, making sure the most prominent extremes of the book aren't damaged when the book is in transit or if it's dropped.
At this point, the paper covers are added. We always use hand decorated paper, either lino printed or marbled.
Once the cover paper is in place, we return to the interior of the book.
The "end papers", the very first and last pages of the book are pasted to the inside of the cover boards, completing the structural process, giving you are beautiful looking book, made to the highest possible standard, and blessed with strength and flexibility.
Attention is then turned to the external presentation.
Once the book has been made, it's left alone to settle, making sure all the adhesive is dry.
When dry, the cover papers are burnished (polished) with an agate burnisher. The act of burnishing consolidates and flattens the fibres of the printed paper, making it stronger and less prone to damage. It also adds a glorious sheen, adding to the beauty of the book. You can read about burnishing here.
Once burnished, the entire external areas of the book, the leather, vellum and paper are coated with multiple layers of shellac (called glaire) methodically applied with a ball of cotton wool. This adds a sheen, much like a varnish would, and yet another layer of protectorant for the book.
Finally, the leather is tooled using heated, decorative, antique brass tools and genuine gold leaf.
These patterns can be as simple or ornate as skill, time and budget allows.
On this series of books, we've added a pair of solid lines and a single dotted line to the top and tail of the spine and a dog tooth pattern, blind tooled (embossed with no gold leaf) along the length of the spine on the cover sides.
PROPERLY MADE BOOKS vs EVERY OTHER BLANK BOOK
Here's a challenge - go to a stationery shop now and look for something made in the same way as a Properly Made Book - you will not find one. Why? Because they're expensive and difficult to make.
Every book in that store is either made en masse by machine or, and this is something that never ceases to bemuse us, is handmade in the same style as a machine made book (known as "case bound"). Case bound books are inherently weak and not made to last. Properly Made Books are strong and will pass the test of time.
This binding:
- 140 pages of blank, British-made, Five Seasons paper for writing & drawing x 6 inches, 215 x 150 mm
- 10⅜ x 8½ inches, 258 x 216mm (approx)
- Hand printed covers - No.72, a lino relief printed and hand coloured print.
- Tightback structure allowing the books to be opened fully without breaking.
- Vellum/parchment corners.
- Leather spine, gold and blind tooled