panel stamp bindings
A method of decorating leather bindings by means
of panel stamps. Throughout the middle ages the
normal method of decorating a book was by means of
repeated impressions of variously arranged small
stamps. The great increase in book production near
the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th
centuries, however, led to various methods of
reducing the labor involved in bookbinding, of
which the panel stamp was one. The large stamp
required the use of a press because the pressure
required was considerable, particularly for the
octavo and folio size stamps. The earliest stamps
were employed in the Netherlands, and Flemish
binders continued to use finely designed and
engraved stamps well into the 16th century. The
French began using the technique near the end of
the 15th century, when, in Paris and Normandy,
they began producing bindings of great beauty,
often pictorial in design. Panel stamped bindings
were not produced in England to any great extent
until near the end of t he 15th century.
Virtually all panel stamp bindings produced in
England were calfskin, which, of all leathers,
best produces the details of the engraving, mainly
because of its fine, smooth-grained surface. The
panel stamp binding declined in popularity in
England after 1550 until revived in the 1820s when
stamps were used to emboss bindings. These were
usually small books, covered in roan or morocco of
a dark color, blocked in blind, and usually with
gilt edges. The lettering on the spine was in
gilt. The covers were often embossed in huge
fly-embossing presses before covering. The
impressions made by the blocks on the dark leather
were striking in their effect, particularly so
because they were in blind. This type of binding
appears to have been popular for about 20 years,
although blind blocking continued into the 1850s.
(141 , 236 , 347 )
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