inlay
1. A strip of kraft or other relatively stiff
paper, used to stiffen the spine area of the case
of a library binding. The paper used should be
between 0.012 and 0.025 inch in thickness,
depending on the size of the book. Edition
bindings generally do not have inlays. See also:
HOLLOW . 2. An
illustration, photograph, picture, or other
decoration inlaid in the cover of a book. 3. A
manuscript, letter, leaf, etc., mounted in a
cut-out frame to protect it and/or permit both
sides to be viewed. The edges of the plate, etc.,
are beveled and pasted to the beveled edges of the
sheet cut out to its size. 4. A piece of leather,
of the same thickness as the leather covering of a
book, but usually of a contrasting color, grain,
or both, cut to a desired shape for placing into
the leather covering, from which a piece of the
exact same size and shape has been removed. If the
scheme of decoration calls for tooling over the
area of the inlay, the leather for the inlay is
cut on a bevel so that the grain surface is
slightly larger than the flesh side, while the
leather covering is cut in the opposite manner.
If, however, the area of the inlay is not to be
tooled, the inlay and leather covering are cut
vertically. Inlaid bindings were produced in great
numbers in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially
in France. Onlaid bindings are often mistakenly
described as inlaid. Cf: ONLAY . 5. The
setting of a leaf or plate into a larger leaf by
cutting out a portion of the latter, beveling, and
pasting the leaf or plate over the gap. (161 , 183 , 335 , 343 )