onlay
A method of decorating a leather binding by means
of thin, variously colored pieces of leather,
usually of a different color than the covering
leather, which are attached by means of paste or
P.V.A. to the surface of the covering leather,
thus giving it a kind of mosaic effect. The pieces
of leather are usually, but not necessarily, of
the same type of leather as that covering the
book. The onlay was certainly in use in England by
the 17th century and was also a technique
occasionally adapted to publisher's cloth bindings
between 1840 and 1860, with onlays sometimes made
of paper. Cf: INLAY
(4) , for which the onlay is often mistaken.
(69 , 236 , 335 )
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