This post was made for the Victorian Bookbinders Guild, otherwise know as bookbinding Victoria. I thought it might be of interest so I copies it across here.
The John Willis Challenge this year was Glam Boxes, featured else where. It was a typo for clam boxes, a common storage box for books and literature. In the process of making a few boxes, I asked my self “Why make boxes? I have seen some weird ones and some go to inordinate lengths to make them. This article is a bit long winded but ;lots of pics, unfortunately size reduces to fit the web.
Here are two of John Willis Box bindings and I think rightly called Glam Boxes.
John was a member of the Prayer Book Society and these two were his hard back commercial prayer books, the Book of Common Prayer and the Illustrated Gospels. The Boxes were made to accommodate these books and were entered in Melbourne Royal Show Bookbinding competition but I do not know which year. The cases are drop back clam shells single layer with book cloth covers. The front of each has an oval shaped leather onlay with an inset illustration matched to the era of the book. The Hand Gold foil tooling of the title is on the leather. The lining is satin.
A fitting standard of finish for us to aspire to.
This lead to the thinking about the different boxes used in book binding, and the whys and how of the techniques. Here is a sort of summary of the options that come to mind, and all these are in my bindery.
1/ As a development of bookbinding skills. Box making takes many of the same skills as book making. Designing the box, selection of appropriate materials, design techniques, and glues , then cutting to size so the book fits neatly, but not too small or too large, easy to open and close, covering, lining are all book skills. In some ways simpler as a wrong dimension just means a finished book for storage of “stuff” rather than a specific book. This one a double wall clam shell.
2/ To protect a book. The design of the box so that the book is held gently, so getting the book in and out is easy, and once closed the book cant move around is really important. Double wall, double clam shell, felt lined, with finger gap to allow easy book removal.
2B. Here is another, Bone Folder bt Collin reprinted. Book, chemise, slipcase
Cloth slip case on book board, book case with goat skin leather covered, leather onlay of a laying press, ivory inlaid bone folder, marbled book end paper, eel skin leather board lining . The Chemise is cloth covered matching the skip case with hand marbled paper linings.
3/ To store the book effectively. I am reminded of the life of Daniel Solander, a botanist b 1733 died 1782 the first botanist to set foot in Australia, developed a box for the transport of sample but it had to float and be fire resistant. Many samples and collections of the era were lost in boating mishaps. Solander set about the design of a box that would give his samples the best hope of surviving. and the same techniques go into our modern Solander boxes. Much museum storage is in these design boxes as they have been shown when close stacked they resist fir damage and water and smoke entry. A bit unruly, but effective storage.
4/ To store items used in making a book. In the preparation stages collection of materials for projects often gets lost in the materials on the bench, ( if you are messy like me, so I select all the stuff I will use and put them in a box specifically to ensure all match before I start. These are recycled document boxes.
5/ To store items not suitable to be made into a book. I often have pamphlets, booklets, and ephemera from various sources which should be kept together, but don’t suit binding. So I find a suitable sizes box, or make a suitable sized box, label it and store all the “bits” together. Similar to above.
6/ To store a book that is valuable. This is an important reason. But value is in the eyes of the beholder, so I store many books in different styles , and always books with a significant either in price, history, or preference. So examples follow.
This sequence shows a book with a history and I feel compelled to tell the story. I was in a bookshop not long after I first started binding and saw a laying press. I asked if it was for sale and was told everything was for sale. It was the whole bindery of Bettine Gresford, a well known Canberra Binder who had retired to Queensland.
After some negotiation and the expenditure of a substantial amount, and a return trip from Melbourne to Brisbane with an empty van, IO had a complete bindery with lots of bits and pieces. In there was the records of every book Bettine had bound. I kept the bindery together and record in a litte book all the tools and equipment so as to keep the integrity as far as possible of the bindery.
After 10 years or so, I was at a function in Canberra, and I said to the person I was speaking to I had bought this bindery years ago. A person ran up to me having heard her mothers name. “ You bought mum’s collection”. “Indeed I did”.
It turned out that they were all overseas at the time and the house Bettine was living in had to be cleared out, and the bindery disappeared in the process. “ And I have all her dairies as well “ These were very important to the family and I was happy to return them to the right place. However, I did not have a book bound by Bettine and I asked the family, if one might be available. I was offered a choice, and I chose this one.
Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield The outside box shows some wear, but the inside is pristine, and the quality of the binding excellent, with meticulous good tooling of real gold leaf. I can identify each tool used in its making. . They are still in the collection. It will be one of the last books to leave the collection, and perhaps even make its way back to the family. So value is in the eye of the beholder. Excuse that I have shown too many pics. I didn’t make this book, but its history, and provenance made the value of the book far greater.
7/ To store a book that is valuable but damaged and in need of repairs, but maybe also beyond the owners ability. I have a decent pile of these!!
This one box is a recycled box from I cant remember where. I added the studs to give it a bit more zing
Inside is a copy of the first edition of the Birthday Book from 1875. This one printed in the USA, was bought in England by my wife's grate great grandparents and has been handed down with additions for each generation. It is however damaged and I have not the confidence to remove it and start work. The mount is acid free paper over acid free card. Maybe one day I will attach but for now we just relate the story, and open the box to show the book held in a ribbon.
8/ To store valuable history in a book but not restore the book. By this I mean a book which could be restored but is perhaps better left I its original historic state. Double lipped clam shell with felt fining, contents acid free tissue wrapped. Leghorns By Verrey.
9/ To transport a book, or an archive from one place to another without damage. I have a stack of boxes for this purpose. Some are made by commercial sources, some inherited or bought in with collections, some adapted and recovered to suit a particular use. This box contains fragile Oracle bones reputed to be 2000 years old . The box is a delightful perfume box made in the middle East to hold perfume, now repurposed protecting valuable artefacts.
10/ As a fireproofing method . One of the features of Solander boxes , perhaps described as double shell, double shell stepped walls, double bottom and top, all covered in bookbinding cloth, is that when stacked together, they are vert resistant to fire and inbcase of a fire also resistant to the entry of water and smoke, yet able in normal storage to gently breath. More difficult to make and requiring good precision, I enjoy the challenge and made them either for specific books or as a batch of general storage. .
11/ As a storage method where book shelves are not available. Good boxes, can stand in a stack and have side labels , and don’t need the shelves. Ideal for archives. See item above
12/ To keep a set of books together, and protect from shelf damage. This is a set of 5 books I published on chickens, Numbered set no 2. Numbered no ! always went to the Author, as individual volumes. This is the complete set of all 5. Lift top lid, lines in marbled paper made at the Guild Marbling night, overlapping join for minimum air flow. Each volume also wrapped separately in acid free tissue.
13/ Simplest slip case. This style holds the two volumes together and allows easy “slip” to get them out. A missing volume is immediately shows on the shelf. An early binding, of mine blind tooled with object seen in Rome, the top of a Corinthian column and the Parthenon, Ruins of Ancient Cities Charles Buck, tooling copies from engravings.
14/ Boxes made for the exercise of box making. These two pieces were made in Florence, the purple a very small box, the lighter coloured is larger, has with it an address label from the maker and also a miniature book from the maker. A test of the fine skills of design, cutting and glueing, and the combination of colours for the effect. Outer covering is cloth.
And for those who wish to contribute to the discussion, email trewallaattrewalladotcomdotau with a reason and a picture of the example and I will add to the post.
This picture is drawn from a collection of poultry literature that Jimmy Gwin passed on to John Skinner and then came to me when I purchased his whole collection back around 2005. Note the scorch marks along the edges and also the mailing label on the right hand edge.
John Skinner related to me a story of when he was young and still at school, I do not know what age he was but he was still riding a pushbike. Johns saw the fire truck pass his street and like all curious boys turned to follow. When he arrived at the fire the brigade men were watching the old “clap board” house burning. John asked why they were not putting it out. He was told it’s just a derelict empty house. John replied it contained one of the biggest collections of poultry literature in the world, after which they decided to put it out. Much later when John was a colleague in the industry the two became good friends with Jimmy being a mentor and encourager of John’s poultry career and collection of literature.
John and his wife Jean treated me very well, and showed great hospitality especially when I became very unwell and spent time in hospital in the USA. I visited then a number of times when in the USA for Poultry Expos.
In later years John’s collection came to me with many poultry serials and wonderful books.
This bunch of magazines shows the results of the Jimmy Gwin fire, with smoke and some burned edges.
I also had some volumes of Poultry Tribune with singed spines, and also a copy of Bement American Poulterer's Companion , that came with the collection. The Bement was soaked during the fire, into a solid block, and I decided to “learn” something of such a restoration. I soaked of each page from the block, with a total loss of less than half a page of text from the whole book. Then resized all the pages, and rebound to a nice volume, a little stiff in the opening and lacking finesse, but much treasured for the results and all I learned.. I had the pleasure of showing John many years later before he passed.
So the legacy of Jimmy Gwin and John Skinner are important to me, and these items will one day pass from me and I hope the story will live on as a legacy of the poultry collectors who came before me.
Jim
Obituaries.
James M Gwin.
Born in Blair County, Pennsylvania, in 1906, Dr. Gwin pursued a lifetime interest in poultry to gain national recognition as an educator, administrator, promoter, and one of the world's most persistent collectors of poultry literature. His extensive collection of "poultry papers" and books now resides in the National Agricultural Library. It is recognized as one of the world's most completer poultry information resources.
Dr. Gwin's education included a B.S. in Poultry Husbandry, University of Connecticut; an M.A., American University; and a Ph.D., Cornell. He served in every phases of the poultry industry: as a military procurement officer in WWII; as a regulatory official in grading and inspection; as a professor of poultry husbandry; as a Director of Extension (University of Maryland); as a marketing manager for a major feed supplier; as general manager of the Poultry & Egg National Board; and as Professor of Marketing (University of Illinois, Edwardsville).
Dr. Gwin was charter member of the American Poultry Historical Society, served as its president (1960 - 1962), and was elected to the American Poultry Hall of Fame in 1977. Gwin's awards and honors would fill a college textbook, and much of the poultry and egg grading system in place today is a result of his groundwork.
Dr. Gwin was married to Helen Woodward, and had three children, Gailyn, Geniel (Strock), and Graydan. He was affectionately known throughout the poultry industry as "Jimmy." On July 10, 1993, the poultry world suffered a great loss with passing of this man who so devoted his life to its industry.
John Skinner Obituary
MADISON/MIDDLETON-John Skinner, age 93, of Madison, left this world after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s disease on Sunday, July 2, 2017. John was born on his parent’s farm in Nebraska and spent his first night in a hospital at age 77. He was an only child. John inherited a love of fancy poultry at the age of four, when his father gave him a pair of pure-bred Buff Cochin Bantams. This led to a fascination for avian life and he later pursued it as a career resulting in his being inducted into the American Poultry Hall of Fame, the youngest person to be so honoured. He met his future wife, Jean, in front of his chicken display at a fair in Nebraska in 1940 and they were married four years later. John served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in WWII and was in on the securing of Iwo Jima. This gave him access to the GI Bill enabling him to get two college degrees. John experienced period of industry employment followed by faculty positions at Texas A&M College, the University of Nebraska, and the University of Wisconsin. John’s goal early in life was to be a licensed poultry judge which he achieved in 1953, the youngest person to hold a general license. He joined the Poultry Science Dept. at the University of Wisconsin in 1963. He was awarded a full professorship in 1967. In 1971, he became the country’s first designated Poultry and Small Animal Specialist. John participated in the writing of 18 books, numerous journal articles, and educational and 4-H publications. He served on many organizations, advisory panels, and committees. Because of his early recognition of the society’s effect on commercial agriculture, he was frequently asked to speak at industries, organizations and conventions, including organizing the first symposium on poultry industry waste management. He retired as Emeritus Professor in 1985. He was a member and licensed Judge of the American Poultry Assn., the American Bantam Assn., Poultry Science Assn., World Poultry Science Assn., Life member and Lifetime Director of the American Poultry Historical Society, and a member of the British Rare Breeds Survival Trust. He was elected into the American Poultry Hall of Fame and a Fellow in the Poultry Science Assn. John and Jean lived in Middleton for many years and were very active in their community. In 2010, he was awarded a Proclamation by the City of Middleton and in 2003 they were recipients of the Middleton Good Neighbour Festival Award. John was a charter member of the Middleton Historical Society and served as director from 1986 to 2006, (seven years as President). They enjoyed extensive foreign travel, giving John the opportunity to research his writing for foreign poultry publishers, expand his collection of automotive toys, and add to their collections of poultry oriented material. John is survived by his two devoted and loving children and their spouses, John Jr. (Delphine) Skinner of Madison and Jan (Jeff) Lynn of Marine of St. Croix, Minn. He was preceded in death by his wife of 66 years, Jean, and his three grandchildren, Deborah Skinner, Jaime Lynn, and Jenna Lynn.