gauffered edges ( gauffred, gaufré, goffered )
The edges of a book, usually gilded, which have
been decorated further by means of heated
finishing tools or rolls which indent small
repeating patterns. Gauffering is most successful
on a book printed on hard paper and gilt solid. It
may be done directly on the gold, or by laying a
different colored gold over the first, and tooling
over the top gold, leaving the pattern in the new
gold impressed on the original metal. The effect
of gauffering is sometimes enhanced by scraping
away parts of the gold and then staining the white
paper showing through. While this technique was
used by a number of European bookbinders, it was
especially associated with German bookbinding of
the 16th century. The use of color on the edges of
books bound in England was less frequent and more
restrained. Plain gauffering was done well into
the 17th century, usually on embroidered bindings,
but appears to have declined sharply after 1650 or
so. It was then revived and exploited from the end
of the 18th century onwards, and was especially
popular in the latter half of the 19th century,
when it was found on elaborately bound devotional
and other books.
Almost all gauffering was done with
pointillé tools, or, as in many examples,
the designs were built up with repeated
impressions of a large dot. Pointillé
tools, as well as those cut in outline, produce
delicate effects and are more easily impressed on
a hard paper surface than are solid tools. The
term comes from the French word for honeycomb, and
also applies to the practice of crimping or
fluting cloth with heated gauffering irons. See
PLATE VI . (236 ,
335 , 343 )
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