Page:The Art of Bookbinding, Zaehnsdorf, 1890.djvu/87

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DRAWING-IN AND PRESSING.
57

be entirely uncut, the size of the book is measured, and in addition the portion called squares must be added.

When a book has not been cut, the amount that is to be cut off the head will give the head or top square, and the book being measured from the head, another square or projection must be added to it, and the compass set to one of the shortest leaves in the book. Bearing in mind the article on trimming, enough of the book only should be cut to give the edge solidity for either gilding or marbling. A few leaves should always be left not cut with the plough, to show that the book has not been cut down. These few leaves are called proof, and are always a mark of careful work.

About twenty years ago it was the mode to square the foredge of the boards, then lace or draw them in, and to cut the head and tail of the boards and book together, then to turn up and cut the foredge of the book.



CHAPTER XIV.


Drawing-in and Pressing.


The boards having been squared, they are to be attached to the book by lacing the ends of the cord through holes made in the board. The boards are to be laid on the book with their backs in the groove and level with the head; they must then be marked either with a lead pencil or the point of a bodkin exactly in a line with the slips, about half an inch down the board. On a piece of wood the mill-board is placed, and holes are pierced by hammering a short bodkin through on the line made, at a distance from the edge in accordance with the size of the book. About half an inch away from the back is the right distance for an