Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books
A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology

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Middleton, Bernard C. ( 1924- )

One of the outstanding modern day bookbinders and conservationists, Middleton won a Trade Scholarship to the Central School of Arts and Crafts, Southhampton Row in 1938, and was apprenticed to the British Museum Bindery in 1940. He was a City and Guilds Silver Medalist in 1943. Middleton was later bookbinder at the Royal College of Art and, for a short time, managed the Zaehnsdorf bindery. He started his own business as a book restorer in 1953.

Middleton's forwarding is considered to be superlative, while his designs and tooling, though restrained, are always in good taste and are superbly executed. He is also considered to be one of the most skillful book restorers at work today.

Aside from being a gifted bookbinder, Middleton is recognized as an outstanding scholar in the field of bookbinding history, and is the author of a comprehensive work entitled A History of English Craft Bookbinding Technique , as well as The Restoration ot Leather Bindings . He is unique among historians of bookbindings because he writes with such a vast knowledge of technique, largely overlooked by others.




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