Lecture and workshop on Islamic bookbinding

GBW Potomac Chapter

Lecture

    "Satisfying an Appetite for Books: Innovation, Production, and
    Modernization in Later Islamic Bookbinding"

    Lecturer: Jake Benson
    Washington Printmakers Gallery
    Pyramid Atlantic
    8230 Georgia Ave.
    Silver Spring MD 20910
    February 4, 2011
    6:30pm

    To sign up send an email to gbwpotomacchapter<-a t->gmail< . >com

    Cost: Donation of $5.00 for non-members

    Jake Benson will present a revised redaction of an illustrated
    lecture given at the conference Codicology of Manuscripts in the
    Arabic Script, held in Madrid, Spain in May 2010.

    Fluctuating changes in style are often described in terms of
    fashion--especially at court--when in fact they are often
    developed to better meet the practical demands of everyday life.
    This is especially true of the craft of bookbinding in the
    Islamic world, which evolved from the early scribal tradition,
    into a separate and distinct trade over time. Rather than an
    individual scribe creating an entire manuscript from start to
    finish, a specialized bookbinder would instead concentrate on
    completing the covering of a book in a range of styles depending
    on their patron's budget.

    By the 16th century, binding specialists in the Eastern Islamic
    world had adopted a number of innovative procedures to reduce
    the cost and increase the speed at which books could be
    produced. For example, panel stamping largely supplanted the
    time consuming process of tooling covers by hand. While some of
    these advances allowed books to be luxuriously decorated for the
    elite, it also made the cost of manuscripts more affordable to
    less affluent members of society. Comparatively frugal covering
    materials such as cloth and decorative papers were used to face
    the covers in place of more costly leather.

    These methods proved so effective that they spread throughout
    much of the Islamic world, and they eventually became viewed as
    a distinct tradition. In the 19th century, the introduction of
    mechanized printing and lithography further transformed the
    operation of the bookbinding trade.

    In the specific context of Iran, several important documents
    shed light on steps taken by members of Naser al-Din Shah's
    administration to reform the trade with a view to increase book
    production. The impact these reforms had can be gleaned from
    changes in specific bookbinding operations given in Indo-Persian
    technical literature at the time. When considered together with
    surviving physical evidence, these documents help to explain
    why, how, and to what extent the bookbinding trade in Iran
    dramatically changed in the early modern period.

Workshop
Leather-Edged Islamic Binding
Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center
Silver Spring, MD.
Main classroom.
February 5, 2011
9:30am - 4:30pm

    Cost:

        Members: $100.00
        Non-members: $125.00

     Material: $20 (all material will be provided by instructor)

    Essentially a forerunner to what is called often called
    "millimeter binding" today, Islamic bookbinders have produced
    book covers using a minimal amount of leather for several
    centuries, especially for producing small pamphlets and
    lightweight books. Leather is applied to the spine, edges of the
    board, and part of the flap, resulting in a 'framed' appearance
    when the covers are closed. The method is very flexible in that
    it allows the binder to utilize a variety of materials such as
    decorative paper, cloth, or even different, contrasting leather
    to face the boards, and then apply only a minimal amount of
    leather need to join the binding together and cover the outer
    perimeter. For this workshop, we will prepare and cover a sewn
    pamphlet in this manner, complete with a foredge flap that is a
    characteristic feature of Islamic bindings.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:36
                Distributed: Saturday, January 29, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-24-36-010
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