The value of books depends on the degree of their preservation and the condition of the binding. Gradually, the scroll goes into oblivion, in its place comes the code. To keep copies in good condition, they began to be placed between two hard covers. All this was hemmed and fastened with glue, endpapers, chapters, and the result was a book, the principles of which are still used today.

Over time, a culture of artistic design develops, and the cover begins to perform not only a protective function, but also acquires artistic value. more expensive than new.

The following factors affect the value of an antique book:

• The condition and degree of deterioration of the binding;
• Binding material.

Wooden binding, salaries and embossing..

Many books published before the 18th century were “dressed” in wooden binding covered with leather. To do this, the boards were sawn through to pass leather straps through them. To them, in turn, connected a block of the book. The inside of the binding was pasted over with parchment. It was connected with a tie or fastened.

The most expensive specimens were decorated with a salary made of such precious metals as gold and silver. Copper salaries were also widespread. Filigree, granulation, chasing, multi-colored paint, precious and semi-precious stones were used as decorations. Under the salary, velvet or satin fabric, brocade was hemmed as a background component. The edge was painted, covered with gold. It could also be embossed. Such binding was most often characteristic of liturgical and gift books.

Everyday reading copies were made with leather bindings. Canvas could also be used as a material. For the preservation of the book, squares, mullions, "beetles" made of metal were used. Copies without additional elements were also produced.

The book production of Russia of the 15th century is distinguished by leather bindings with blind embossing. But already from the 16th century, gold stamping has been found, as well as the sign of the owner of the publication - a superex libris.

The end of the 16th century for the Moscow printing house was marked by the beginning of the publication of publications for sale. For this purpose, a bookbinding workshop was created at the court. Its workers create leather bindings without frills with blind embossing. Old books issued by the Moscow Printing House can be distinguished by a special coinage in the form of a circle with a lion and a unicorn. Above them is the imperial crown. The image occupies the center of the cover.

The Moscow Printing Yard also produced tray editions bound with a special cover. Similar bindings were issued by the masters of the Ambassadorial Order, as well as the Order of Secret Affairs. The latter operated a factory for the production of morocco products.

Printed editions of the 17th century, in contrast to the even and flat covers of literary copies of the 11th-16th centuries, are distinguished by bandage design. To do this, the binding is divided into several parts with the help of transverse rollers made of leather. Under them was a drape, which served as a fastener for a book block. As a result, the binding board protruded slightly above the book block. At the same time, the abbreviated title of the publication begins to be minted on the cover.

17th century to Russian Empire It is also characteristic that morocco leather, a special kind of leather made from sheep and goat skins, first processed in an original way in the Moroccan town of Safi, was used as a cover for expensive gift editions. It has a strong and beautiful texture. This by no means cheap material could be painted in any color scheme. Most often the binding was red and green. Instead of leather for tray books and custom-made books, velvet, satin, silk fabrics, as well as brocade could be used.

Cardboard, silk and velvet bindings

Under Peter I, in the 18th century, wooden covers were replaced by cardboard ones. The binding with a cover made of dark leather is designed in a simple and simple style. Gold-embossed patterns were common as decoration. The cover could also be sprayed with paints in a special way. In place of the leather straps that fastened the book block to the cover, a thinner braid comes.

Under the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, books bound in soft leather were at the peak of popularity. Velvet, silk covers, gold-edged editions were also fashionable. Everywhere there was a chic embossing. The same book could be published both in and in a simple version. So, the publication "Description of the coronation of Elizabeth Petrovna ..." was published by the Academy of Sciences in 1744 in three different variations. The most expensive and beautiful copy was a book made of red saffiano leather with gold embossing of the Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire, crown, orb and scepter. The mass version of the descriptions was published without embellishments.

The second half of the XVIII century is characterized by the active formation of nobles. Tray books continue to be issued with a rich morocco binding, embossed with a frame with ornaments, with application. Marble paper was used for gluing the endpapers. Gilded book edges were popular.

A new form of inexpensive binding began to spread: semi-leather. For greater safety, the roots and corners continued to be made of leather. Paper stylized as “marble” or “peacock feather” was glued onto the cardboard cover. The rest of the binding was also pasted over with paper, but of the same color. The output data, the name of the printed edition began to be indicated. Bindings made of thick paper - cardboard - began to be practiced in Russia at the end of the 18th century. The innovation was introduced by the publishers Ridiger H., Claudio H.. Such book production was produced by the publishing house of Moscow University, whose tenants were Christian and Christopher.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, periodicals and multi-volume books began to be issued with a printed publisher's cover. Then the books were bound by hand, so each binding option is one of a kind. Also during these years it was popular to produce books without binding. Subsequently, the customer intertwined them depending on his financial situation and desire.

If in Europe the author of the work and the performer were indicated on the binding, then in Russia such a practice was introduced only after the 50s of the XIX century. The most famous bookbinders of that time were E. Rowe, V. Nilson, A. Shnel, A. Peterson from St. Petersburg, A. Petzman and Z. Tarasov from Moscow.

The simplest covers were made of smooth and durable brown calfskin. Since the 50s of the 19th century, fragile but well-dyed skin of sheep, goat and horse was used for inexpensive bindings. Solid leather bindings for mass publications were also made from pigskin, sealskin and yuft.

Toward Modernity: Replication and the Emergence of Factories

The 19th century is famous for the large circulation of publications, the demand for books among the general population, so the publishers faced the task of reducing the cost of products.

Books from the beginning of the 20th century are distinguished by their binding, made of special leather of the “fantasy” type. This is a processed calf leather that imitates expensive bookbinding materials. And then it is less common. Increasingly, cardboard binding with lithography is used. New materials are being practiced more and more, including calico. It was invented in England, and 15 years later, in 1840, it appeared in Russia. Lederin material is also becoming popular.

Hand binding, practiced until the 1950s, begins to fade into obscurity after the emergence of factories in the 1860s. The first bookbinding enterprise opens in 1869: this is the Moscow Association “I.N. Kushnerev & Co." Later, a new T.I. Partnership appears. Hagen. It was also located in Moscow. And in St. Petersburg, the factory of O.F. Kirchner, opened in 1871. On the back cover of the binding of books of that time, you can find embossed or pasted names of factories.

In Russia, book binding became known only with the advent of handwritten books - codes. Until the end of the 17th century, the covers of bindings were made exclusively of wood. Binding boards were cut flush with the book block and attached to it with leather straps, to which book notebooks were hemmed. From the outside, the boards were covered with leather, which was bent inward. Each belt was sequentially passed through cuts made in the binding boards. There was no flyleaf in the old Russian book, inner part binding covers were glued, as a rule, with parchment. The spine of the book was made flat or round, without lagging behind. Each book was supplied with clasps or ties, the edges were painted or processed with special tools in order to change their texture.

Depending on the intended purpose of handwritten books, their bindings were divided into salaried and everyday. The wooden bindings were covered with leather, covered with gold, silver or copper frames and/or cloth (satin, velvet) and decorated with embossing, enamel, colored enamels, filigree, precious stones or rhinestones. Velvet, brocade, satin were used as a background for the salary. Salaries were supplied mainly with liturgical books that were used during worship or religious ceremonies. The earliest salary is considered to be the binding of the Mstislav Gospel, created in the 12th century in Constantinople and updated by Russian masters as it deteriorated. Now this book is stored in the State Historical Museum in Moscow.

Salary of the Mstislav Gospel.

The first accurately dated Russian work of oklad art is the binding of the Gospel of the Week, created in 1392 by order of the boyar Fyodor Koshka and now stored in the Russian State Library.

Gospel of Fyodor Koshka.

Books intended for everyday use were “dressed” in simple everyday bindings. Everyday wooden binding was covered with leather or canvas and had a minimum of decorations (metal squares, mullions, leather embossing).

The State Historical Museum in Moscow has a copy of Ivan Fedorov's Apostle of 1564, enclosed in an unusual binding for that time: on the top cover of the full-leather binding, richly decorated with blind embossing, a double-headed eagle and an inscription are reproduced in gold in a rectangular frame, indicating that This is a personal copy of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. This is the first case known to us of the use of a superex libris (the owner's sign embossed on the cover) as an element of the cover decoration and the first gold stamping on the skin in Russian bookbinding.

The first book of the Moscow printing house - Apostle 1564, published by Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets

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Upper binding cover. The deesis is three-figured. Mixed media painting. First half of the 19th century On the lower field there is a cinnabar inscription, which previously contained the date of creation of this icon image on the cover (preserved in fragments)

Top binding cover. "Crucifixion" with the upcoming Mother of God and John the Theologian, with evangelists in medallions. Tempera painting. First half of the 18th century

The development of bookbinding in Russia in the 16th-17th centuries is closely connected with the work of the Moscow Printing Yard, at which a bookbinding workshop began to function as early as the end of the 16th century. The main part of the products of the Moscow Printing House was intended for sale and was produced in uniform simple full-leather bindings, modestly decorated with blind embossing. In the center of covers intended for sale, the trademark of the Moscow Printing Yard was often placed - a stamp depicting a battle between a lion and a unicorn, which is enclosed in a circular inscription. Two birds are depicted above the circle, and flowers below them. The whole composition is enclosed in a rectangle bordered by an ornamental border. Over time, this sign has undergone numerous changes. In the workshop of the printing house, “tray”, that is, intended for a gift, especially luxurious bindings were made from expensive materials - morocco (a kind of leather made from the skins of sheep and goats, which first appeared in the city of Safi in Morocco), durable, beautiful in texture, expensive material that can be dyed in any color (red and green were favorites) - thin, soft, durable and beautiful leather, velvet, silk, satin, brocade - with gold embossing and skillfully engraved clasps. The binding of books to order was also carried out by the workshops of the embassy order and the order of secret affairs, in which a small morocco factory functioned.

In the 17th century, the binding changed: the binding boards now protrude above the book block, and the even and flat spine of the book became “bandaged,” that is, divided into parts by transverse leather rollers (bandages) that hide the twine or drape that fastened the book block. For the first time, the title of the book was printed on the spine, still in an abbreviated form. The embossing pattern on the binding covers has become more complicated.

Bandage box. Ostrozhskaya.

At the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, wooden covers were replaced with cardboard covers. In accordance with the spirit of Peter's reforms, in early XVIII centuries, strictly designed bindings became widespread: covers, as a rule, were covered with dark calfskin without decorations, the spine was divided into parts with bandages, and the short title of the book was placed in one of its upper divisions. Much less common are full-leather bindings with a narrow, gold-embossed ornamental frame or a surface decorated with splashes of paint.

At the same time, there were significant changes in the technological process of making book bindings. To increase the strength of the binding, the spine was molded to give it a mushroom shape. Instead of thick straps for stitching books, they began to use a thin and flexible captal.

In the following decades, the art of bookbinding continued to improve. It received particular development in connection with the emergence of bibliophilia in Russia and the creation of large noble libraries. Covers of individual bindings, regardless of the content of the book, were covered with red morocco and decorated with a border frame and a super ex-libris embossed in gold on both sides of the bindings. The bandage spine was richly decorated, the edges of the books were gilded, the flyleaf was glued with handmade marble paper. This design of individual bindings is called the style of "palace libraries".

The gospel presented to Emperor Nicholas I on the day of the coronation and invested by Nikolai Pavlovich in the Life Guards Transfiguration Cathedral. Kyiv, 1746; salary - Moscow, around 1826 Silver, gilding, enamel, copper, rhinestones, board, paper; casting, chasing, gilding.

Appliqué "href="/text/category/applikatciya/" rel="bookmark">appliqué made of fabric with hand-coloring. On the top cover - the monogram of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, on the bottom - the image of the coat of arms of the Russian Empire.

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Under Elizabeth Petrovna, editions bound in soft leather, velvet and silk, with gilded edges and rich embossing were in fashion. The publication of the same book was practiced in several versions: an individual tray, luxurious and simple. In the second half of the 18th century, in connection with the formation of large noble libraries, the practice of creating tray bindings received further development. The covers of such bindings were covered with morocco, decorated with an embossed ornamental frame and superex libris, endpapers were glued with marble paper, and the edge of the book was gilded.

In addition, in the second half of the 18th century, new types and types of bindings became widespread in Russia. The half-leather, or spine-bound, had leather-covered corners, while the covers were glued with colorful hand-made paper (“marbled”, “peacock feather”, “bird's eye”). Publisher's cartonage, or binding in a folder, is a solid cardboard cover pasted over with one-color paper with a printed text of the title of the book and imprint. The emergence of new types of binding was caused by the expansion of the social circle of book consumers and the gradual democratization of book culture.

AT Russia XVIII- In the first half of the 19th century, bookbinding was done by hand, and each bookbinding was therefore unique. Most of the books at the beginning of the 19th century came out of the printing house not bound, and the bindings, if they were made, were created by order of the owner after he bought the book, in accordance with his requests and financial capabilities. Unlike Europe, in Russia it was not customary to leave the brand of its author and performer on the binding - only in the second half of the 19th century did the owner's bindings become “signed”. The most famous craftsmen for the manufacture of individual owner's bindings at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries were E. Ro (Row), V. Nilson, Meyer, A. Schnel, in St. Petersburg, A. Petzman, in Moscow.

The most famous Russian binding companies:

Owner			Nature of work
	Petersburg
Court bookbinder and casemaker			Production of bindings of all types and types by handicraft
		1872 - early 20th century	Factory production of all types and types of bindings
	Petersburg
		1868 - beginning of the 20th century	Factory production of all types and types of publishing bindings
Supplier of the Moscow Synodal Printing House.			Production of all types and types of bindings, mainly church books
Yard Supplier	Petersburg		Factory production of all types and types of publishing bindings; specialization in embossed calico bindings.
			Factory production of all types and types of publishing bindings
	Petersburg	1890s - early 20th century	Factory production of all types and types of publishing bindings
	Petersburg	1862 - beginning of the 20th century	Album binding, production of one-piece full-leather bindings.
Petzman. A.P.			Manufacture of cases and owner's (piece) bindings by handicraft
			Manufacture of bindings of church books in a handicraft way.
		1890 - early 20th century	Factory production of account books, all types and types of bindings
			Production of all types and types of bindings, mainly church books
yard supplier; Petersburg's most expensive bookbinder.	Petersburg		Manufacture of proprietary, especially luxurious and artistic bindings by craftsmanship

Binding types.

1. Solid-leather (XIII-XVIII centuries), full-fabric (XIII-XVIII centuries), full-parchment (XV-XVIII centuries) binding - the most common type: the spine and covers are completely covered with a coating material, which is folded and fixed on the inner sides of the boards .

2. Semi-leather, semi-fabric, semi-parchment binding (XV-XVIII centuries) - only the spine and no more than half of the covers adjacent to it are covered with material.

3. Double binding (XVI-XVIII centuries) - covered twice with different coating materials. On some editions of the Moscow Printing House, bound in a printing workshop, a rough top sheet protects the ornament embossed with gold and silver from damage and dirt.

4. "Bag" binding - a soft, flexible cover made of leather or fabric with a large, mostly triangular, like an envelope, flap with a tie, protruding far beyond the front edge. This binding, reminiscent in appearance of a "briefcase bag", was common in the 16th-17th centuries.

5. Cardboard binding, “in paper boards”, appeared in Russia in the 17th century.

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1. Russian book bindings of the 17th-19th centuries. 2. Signature mosaic binding by master E. Ro. Russia. End of the 19th century.

https://pandia.ru/text/78/232/images/image014_36.jpg" width="310" height="237 src=">.gif" width="239" height="310">.jpg" width="267 height=346" height="346">.jpg" width="225 height=297" height="297">.jpg" width="277 height=328" height="328">Binding materials "href="/text/category/pereplyotnie_materiali/" rel="bookmark">binding materials made on a fabric basis by mechanical means, primarily calico. Invented in England in 1825, calico has been widely used in Russian bookbinding since the 1940s, practically displacing all other bookbinding materials from use. It was possible to make durable, cheap and beautiful bindings from calico, various in color, character and finishing method. It was used with equal success for both solid and composite bindings (in combination with leather or paper), both for cheap mass-produced books and for luxury gift and bibliophile publications. From the end of the 1860s, binding factories appeared in Russia, the first among which were the Partnership and Co. and the Partnership organized in Moscow in 1869, as well as the St. Petersburg factory. The names of the factories were reproduced by embossing or pasted on the flyleaf of the back cover.

Partnership and Co. Moscow, gg.

A. Shch.". Composite endpapers made of tinted paper.

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1. Partnership and Co., 1904. Leather spine with gold embossing. 2. Factory, St. Petersburg, years. Five-volume book « Universe and Humanity. Binding in modern style.

1. Wolf. Multi-volume edition Picturesque Russia», y.. 2. Moscow, 1912. Partnership.

At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, bookbinding acquired modern features, types and types of book bindings were formed, which are still used today.

In the first years of Soviet power, the number of books published in publishing bindings did not exceed 10%. Covers and bindings of those years do not have a single design style, but reflect the struggle of various artistic trends: constructivist, futuristic, realistic - and are solved by different means: with the help of photomontage, realistic illustration, generalizing drawing, which has a dynamic, poster character, font, type-setting typographic decorations . Such covers are mainly made in the technique of lithography and woodcuts.

To bottom binding consists of two strong, usually hard covers (front and back) and a spine, in which the bound pages of the book are enclosed (pasted). A necessary element of a bound book are endpapers - sheets of thick paper folded in half, glued in front and behind the book to the outermost notebook of the book block and the inside of the binding cover, serving as a means of fastening the book and an element of its decoration. In addition, a bound book, as a rule, has a captal - a cotton or silk braid with a thickened edge, attached to the spine of the book block in order to most firmly fasten the pages of the book, as well as decorate it.

The binding is designed to fasten the sheets of the book together, protect the book block from damage and the effects of time. The protective function of the binding is the main and the earliest in time of occurrence. However, being essentially the "clothing" of the book, the binding also becomes an element of its artistic design, a kind of means of characterizing the book, bears the imprint of the era, existing social relations, and a certain artistic style. With the development of book production and book culture, the aesthetic and informative functions of binding are formed.

The prototype of modern book binding was a diptych (from the Greek diptychos - double, folded in half) - bone, wooden or metal plates fastened together, the outer sides of which had a smooth surface or were decorated with carvings, precious stones, etc., and the inner ones were covered with wax, according to which wrote with a pointed rod - style. In the ancient world, diptychs were used as notebooks.

In ancient Russia, book binding became known with the appearance of handwritten books - codes.

Until the end of the 17th century, the covers of the bindings were made exclusively of wood, the binding boards were cut flush with the book block and attached to it with leather straps, to which book notebooks were hemmed. From the outside, the boards were covered with leather, which was bent inward. Each belt was sequentially passed through cuts made in the binding boards. There was no endpaper in the old Russian book; the inside of the binding covers were glued, as a rule, with parchment. The spine of the book was made flat or round, without lagging behind. Each book was supplied with fasteners or ties, the edges were painted or processed with special tools in order to change their texture.

Depending on the intended purpose of handwritten books, their bindings were divided into salaried and everyday.

Salary is a binding decorated with a decorative metal coating (salary) made of gold, silver, gilded or silver-plated copper. The decoration elements of the setting were chasing, filigree - an openwork pattern soldered onto the cover of a thin smooth or twisted wire, niello, enamel, precious stones, pearls, etc. As a background for the salary, expensive fabrics were used - velvet, brocade, satin or finely dressed leather. The motifs and plots of the design of the cover bindings were borrowed from the book itself.

Salaries were supplied mainly with liturgical books that were used during worship or religious ceremonies. The earliest salary is considered to be the binding of the Mstislav Gospel, built in the 12th century in Constantinople and updated by Russian craftsmen as it deteriorated. Now this book is kept in the State Historical Museum in Moscow.

The first accurately dated Russian work of oklad art is the binding of the Weekly Gospel, built in 1392 by order of the boyar Fyodor Koshka and now kept in the Russian State Library.

Books intended for everyday use were dressed in simple everyday bindings - solid leather or rough canvas, with minimal or no decorations. One of the characteristic elements of everyday binding is metal fittings - squares, mullions, "beetles" (beetles) - convex diamond-shaped or round plates. Stuffed on the top and bottom covers of the binding, they simultaneously performed an aesthetic and protective function. Since the 15th century, the covers of Russian everyday bindings have been decorated with blind embossing on the skin.

The most artistically outstanding frames and everyday bindings of ancient Russian books are described in the works of P.K.Simoni and S.A.Klepikov.

The State Historical Museum in Moscow has a copy of Ivan Fedorov's "Apostle" (1564), enclosed in an unusual binding for that time: on the top cover of the full-leather binding, richly decorated with blind embossing, a double-headed eagle and an inscription are reproduced in gold in a rectangular frame, indicating that that this is a personal copy of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. This is the first known use of super bookplate (the owner's mark embossed on the cover) as an element of decoration of the cover and the first gold stamping on the skin in Russian bookbinding.

The development of Russian bookbinding in the 16th-17th centuries is closely connected with the activities of the Moscow Printing Yard, where a bookbinding workshop began to function as early as the end of the 16th century.

Most of the products of the Moscow Printing House were intended for sale and were issued in uniform, simple, full-leather bindings, modestly decorated with blind embossing. The trademark of the Moscow Printing House was often placed in the center of the lid of sales bindings - a heraldic image of a lion and a unicorn (seal of Ivan IV) inscribed in a circle, standing on its hind legs under a crown. Two birds were placed above the circle, and flowers below them. The entire composition is enclosed in a rectangle bordered by an ornamental border. Over time, this sign has undergone numerous changes. In the workshop of the Printing Yard, "tray" (that is, intended for gifts), especially luxurious bindings were made from expensive materials - morocco (thin, soft, durable and beautiful leather), velvet, silk, brocade, with gold embossing, artistically processed edge, intricately engraved clasps. The binding of books on orders was also carried out by the workshops of the Ambassadorial Order and the Order of Secret Affairs, under which a small morocco factory functioned.

In the 17th century, the bindings of Russian books acquire a number of characteristic features that significantly distinguish them from the bindings of the previous period, both in manufacturing technology and in design. So, the binding boards now protrude above the book block; an even and flat spine of a book of the 11th-16th centuries becomes "bandaged" - it is divided into parts by transverse leather rollers (bandages) that hide the twine or drape that fastened the book block. For the first time, the title of the book is printed on the spine, still in an abbreviated form. The embossing pattern on the binding covers becomes more complicated.

At the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, wooden covers were replaced with cardboard ones.

For Russia of the 18th century, the feudal-handicraft method of making book bindings is characteristic; each binding was a unique example of manual labor. Responding to the spirit of Peter the Great's reforms, at the beginning of the century, simply and strictly designed bindings became widespread: covers, as a rule, were covered with dark calfskin without decorations, the spine was divided into parts with bandages, and a short title of the book was placed in one of the upper divisions. Much less common were full-leather bindings with a narrow, gold-embossed ornamental frame or a surface decorated with spray (splashes of paint).

Already at the beginning of the century, significant changes were taking place in the technological process of making book bindings, which were the result of the development of book printing: to increase the strength of the binding, spine lamination was introduced (additional processing that gives it a mushroom shape); instead of thick straps for stitching books, they began to use a special braid, thinner and more flexible, hand-made captal began to be glued to book notebooks, etc.

In the middle of the 18th century, during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, entertaining and ceremonial publications, dressed in light soft leather, velvet and silk, with gilded trimmings and rich embossing, became widespread. One of the most luxurious bindings of this time is considered to be the binding of the already mentioned edition of "Description of the Coronation of Elizabeth Petrovna ..." (1744), made in the workshops of the Academy of Sciences in three versions: the most expensive - from red morocco, with the queen's monogram in the "rococo" style, embossed gold; less expensive - all-leather, with the coat of arms of the Russian Empire and attributes of royal power (crown, orb and scepter) embossed in gold, and the simplest - without any decorations.

In subsequent years, the art of individual tray binding improved. It received special development in the 70s in connection with the development of bibliophilia in Russia, the emergence of large libraries of the nobility. Covers of individual bindings, regardless of the content of the book, were covered with red morocco and decorated with a border frame and superex libris embossed in gold on both sides of the bindings. The bandage spine was richly decorated, the edges of the books were gilded, the flyleaf was glued with handmade marble paper. This design of individual bindings was called the style of palace libraries.

In the second half of the 18th century, new types and types of bindings became widespread in Russia:

• semi-leather, or binding in the spine, the spine and corners of which were covered with leather, and the covers were glued with colorful hand-made paper ("marbled", "peacock feather", "bird's eye", etc.);
• publishing cardboard, or binding to a folder- solid cardboard cover pasted over with one-color paper with printed text of the title of the book and imprint, the distribution of which was caused by the expansion of the social circle of book consumers, the gradual democratization of book culture.

A great merit in the approval of new bindings belonged to N.I. Novikov, who paid serious attention to reducing the cost of his publications.

The merit of introducing cardboard binding into the publishing practice of Russia belongs to H. Ridiger and H. Claudius, who in the last five years of the 18th century rented the printing house of Moscow University. One of the first Russian publishing cartons is the binding of A.F. Kotzebue's book "Hatred for People and Repentance", printed by the university printing house in 1796. Publishing cartonage marked the beginning of the creation of mass types of binding, produced by machine.

The introduction of cartonage into the publishing practice of Russia became possible due to the advent of printed cover. The first work of the Russian press, published in a printed publishing cover, is Academic News for January 1779, a monthly journal of the Academy of Sciences, published in 1779-1781. The publishing cover became widespread in Russia at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century. In addition to periodicals, it supplied individual works and multi-volume publications. Publishers used the printed cover extensively for book advertisements and special publishing announcements.

The development of book publishing in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century, the growth in the number of printing houses, the number of books published and their circulation, on the one hand, and the backwardness of bookbinding technology, the dominance of manual labor in it, on the other, led to the fact that most Russian books of this period ( up to 70%) came out of the printing houses unbound, in a printed publisher's cover. The binding was made by order of the owner after the purchase of the book.

During the 19th - early 20th centuries, already known types and types of book bindings were technologically improved, techniques and methods of their artistic and printing design were honed. The process of democratization of the Russian book, the change in the social composition of its readers and buyers led to a gradual reduction in the number of books bound in leather (at the beginning of the 20th century, natural leather almost completely ceased to be used as a binding material), an increase in the number of composite semi-leather bindings and the promotion of publishing cartonage with a plot picture printed in a lithographic way, as the most democratic and mass binding that meets the spirit of the times. One of the first bindings of this type is considered to be the binding of the famous almanac A.F. Smirdin "Housewarming" (1833).

There are new bookbinding materials made on a fabric basis by mechanical means, and first of all calico. Invented in England in 1825, calico has been widely used in Russian bookbinding since the 40s of the 19th century, practically displacing all other bookbinding materials from use. The use of calico made it possible to produce durable, cheap and beautiful bindings, various in color, character and finishing method. It was used with equal success for the manufacture of both solid and composite bindings (in combination with leather or paper), both cheap mass-produced books and luxurious, expensive gift and bibliophile publications.

At the beginning of the 20th century, among the binding materials appears lederin.

In the 1870s, a technical revolution took place in Russian bookbinding, as a result of which a transition was made from a handicraft method of producing book bindings to a factory one. The first Russian factories for the production of mass publishing bindings of all types and types arise - O.F. Kirchner in St. Petersburg (1871), T-va "I.N. Kushnerev and Co." (1869), T.I. Hagena (1869) in Moscow, etc., equipped with foreign-made equipment, working on modern machine technology. In order to advertise factory products, from now on, special stamps appear on the covers of book bindings - printed in a typographical way. labels(with the name or mark of the owner of the factory), which were pasted on the flyleaf of the back cover. Often the name of the bookbinding establishment was reproduced by embossing on the bookbinding covers. Similar hallmarks and stampings appear on individual owner's bindings.

At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, bookbinding acquires a modern character, modern types and types of book bindings are being formed.

In the first years of Soviet power, the number of books published in publisher's bindings did not exceed 10%. However, already in 1928-1937, the cover and binding were equally distributed largely due to books published by the State Publishing House fiction and publishing house "Academia" (these publishing houses also started publishing books in dust jackets). The following main types of publishing binding have gained distribution: 1) solid cardboard, with type printing on the top cover and spine (the first collections of works by K. Marx and F. Engels, V. I. Lenin); 2) pre-revolutionary publishing cartonage, which is a light paper cover pasted on cardboard - in this form, a cover with a small pattern of bookend paper of the 19th century with an imitation of a sticker with the title of a book on the top cover (Gosizdat books, Land and Factory publishing houses) is widely used. ", "Academia", "Circle", etc.); 3) full-collar binding with embossing in one or two colors, and sometimes with gold (many books of the Zemlya i Fabrika publishing house); 4) composite binding: calico spine and sides covered with paper (publications mainly of educational and technical literature from various publishers).

Covers and bindings of those years do not have a single design style, but reflect the struggle of various artistic movements (traditions of the "World of Art", constructivist, futuristic, realistic), are solved by different means (using photomontage, realistic illustration, generalizing drawing, wearing a dynamic, "poster "character, font, type-setting typographical decorations, etc.), are performed in various techniques (lithography, woodcut). Artistically the best covers of this time were created by B.M. .Rerberg, L.S. Khizhinsky, V.A. Favorsky and others.

By the end of the 1930s, most of the books were published in calico and leatherette bindings.

In the post-war period, new materials began to be widely used in bookbinding: gralex-kozhimit (dense embossed fabric with a special coating, made on rubber and imitating leather), plastic, new substitutes for fabric binding - reinforced (that is, glued with rare gauze) paper and albertin (cardboard pasted over with colored glazed paper), cellophane (a thin transparent film that gives the cardboard or paper a beautiful and shiny, as if varnished surface), etc. New methods of binding design are also used, bringing it closer to today's binding.

FROMSince ancient times, binding was considered as an important commodity property of a book, as an integral element of its evaluation.

This commodity property is determined by the totality of objectively existing trademarks, which make it possible to characterize any binding, regardless of the time and place of its manufacture. These features include the design of the binding, the texture of the binding material, the nature and method of its decoration, as well as the modernity of the binding of the book itself, its ownership (publisher's, owner's binding) and the craftsmanship. Only knowledge of all these trademarks, their classification, origin and main stages of evolution will help the book trade specialist to study and objectively evaluate an antique book as a commodity in terms of its binding.

The defining trademark of a binding is its structure, or design. By designs bindings are divided into two main types:

• whole(whole-covered), the sides and spines of which are covered with a single piece of binding material;
• composite, for the manufacture of which different materials are used.

The earliest in time of occurrence is the one-piece binding (salary, everyday binding). The first composite bindings (leather with marbled paper) appeared in Russia only in the middle of the 18th century. In subsequent historical periods, both types of bindings developed in parallel. History shows that each new type (variety) of binding material, as a rule, was used first for the manufacture of solid bindings - it was used to test, as it were, the technological, visual and aesthetic capabilities of the material, and then it was already used in composite bindings.

An important trade mark of binding is texture the material from which it is made. Various materials have been used to make bindings throughout a long historical development. So, for example, binding covers were made of wood (in the oldest bindings) or cardboard (starting from the end of the 17th century); metal (folding cover), leather, fabric, paper were used as their covering.

The most ancient binding material is leather, which was widely used for the manufacture of all types and types of binding, both individual, proprietary, and for sale (publishing).

The oldest variety used in Russian bookbinding is calf leather, which has a number of varieties, the best of which are considered outgrowth(skin of calves at the age of one year) and flask(skin of a two-year-old calf). Calfskin is textureless, has a smooth front surface, which has been additionally polished, and is highly durable. This leather, due to its natural qualities and the lack of the necessary technology, almost cannot be dyed into other colors, and therefore the vast majority of full-leather bindings of Russian books have a natural brown color (from light to darker).

In addition to calfskin, the following types of leather were used as binding material in Russian bookbinding:

Ram - sheep skin; low-strength compared to other varieties (it easily lifts up on a book), can be dyed in any color (it was dyed mainly in black, dark brown and green). It became widespread in Russia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, it was used to make cheap bindings for mass-produced books.

bull leather - A type of leather that is highly durable. It is rarely used in bookbinding, mainly in those cases when the pattern on the cover of the cover is knocked out with punches or cut out with a knife.

Velours(chrome leather) - chrome-tanned leather, produced from dense small skins of cattle or pigs; when grinding, it acquires a pronounced hairiness. Rarely used in bookbinding.

Foal- a kind of horse skin made from the skins of foals; very tough, easily passes water, quickly soaks from moisture, "nostrils". For dressing the binding is inconvenient, it became widespread in Russia in the second half of the 19th century; used for the manufacture of mass publishing bindings.

Suede leather - a type of leather made from deer skins, sheepskin or calf; characterized by softness, velvety, high porosity, water resistance. Rarely used in bookbinding.

Goat - goat skin; gets wet from water, inconvenient for dressing bindings. It became widespread in the second half of the 19th century for the manufacture of cheap mass bindings.

Moroccan (maroquin) - a kind of morocco (embossed morocco); has a strong and beautiful structure. It is used for the manufacture of tray and individual bindings. Paper imitating morocco is also used as binding material.

Sheep skin- the cheapest kind of leather used as a binding material. In Russia, it became widespread in the second half of the 19th century for the manufacture of cheap mass publishing and library bindings. By pressing, it can be forged under expensive varieties of leather, including morocco.

Morocco - a kind of leather made from the skins of sheep, goats by vegetable tanning; has a strong and beautiful structure, is distinguished by high strength and beauty, great visual possibilities, can be painted in any color. For the first time it began to be dressed in the East, mainly in Morocco, in the city of Safi, from where, apparently, it got its name. In Russia, it began to be used as a binding material in the 17th century, exclusively for the manufacture of luxurious individual and tray bindings; most often painted red, less often green; has always been highly valued.

Pigskin - a type of leather with a pronounced pimply structure, characterized by high strength and rigidity (the most durable and tough leather of all varieties used in bookbinding). Usually has a dark gray color with some "bloom"; the white color is achieved by tanning the leather with alum. It was rarely used in Russian bookbinding, mainly for binding the most frequently used books (for example, library books); became widespread in the second half of the 19th century for the manufacture of publishing full-leather bindings.

Sealskin - a type of leather with a strong structure, characterized by high strength; As a binding material, it became widespread in Russia in the second half of the 19th century for the manufacture of publishing full-leather bindings.

Fantasy leather - numerous varieties of leather, usually made from calfskin by pressing, marbling, etc., and giving them the structure inherent in expensive varieties. As a binding material, they became widespread in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.

Hoz - the name of goat or donkey skin. Rarely used for binding. At the beginning of the 18th century, tray and owner bindings were made from the household.

Shagreen - tanned horse or donkey skin; in Russian bookbinding was rarely used, exclusively for the manufacture of individual owner's bindings.

Yuft (yuft skin) - a kind of leather dressed with tar from horse or calf skin, black. As a binding material, it became widespread in the second half of the 19th century for the manufacture of publishing full-leather bindings.

Various types of fabrics were widely used in Russian bookbinding. So, expensive fabrics - brocade, velvet, tripe (woolen velvet), satin and its individual varieties: silk, damask (Chinese silk fabric with stains), obyar (wavy silk fabric woven with gold), etc. - were used to make luxurious trays. and owner's bindings, simple ones - a row (rough canvas), a harsh canvas, etc. - to cover cheap books used in household use. Cheap fabrics were rarely used, since leather, the most durable and cheapest material at that time, was usually used to make simple sales bindings.

The era of fabric binding, but already made of special fabric-based artificial materials, the most durable, durable and cheap compared to leather and fine fabrics, begins in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, when it first became widespread. calico- cotton fabric with a double-sided starch-coaline coating, varied in color, character and finishing method, and then (at the beginning of the 20th century) - lederin(from German Leder - leather) - a similar fabric with an elastic water- and adhesive-resistant layer on the front side and a machine-applied texture (under the skin, satin, silk). Lederin is the most durable and elegant (due to its luster and texture), but more expensive than calico material.

The cheapest material (but less strong, durable) used in bookbinding is paper. As an independent binding material, it became widespread only in the 19th century (in publishing cardboard). This paper practically did not differ from printed paper (except for sizing), and therefore it can serve as a starting point for a specialist in the book trade to evaluate the commercial properties of various binding materials.

An important trade mark of the binding is the originality of its artistic solution, which is based on the method of decorating the binding - binding covers, spine, flyleaf and edge together. to the main historical ways of registration bindings include the following:

1. Printing with grated paints

Reproduction of text, ornament or pattern by letterpress printing, while images can be single-color and multi-color. It is the simplest, most economical and widespread type of binding design for mass publications; in Russian bookbinding has been widely used since the 19th century.

2. Embossing

The technique of artistic processing of leather, fabric, metal, cardboard, etc., obtaining an image of a drawing or text on their surface by pressure. One of the oldest ways of binding design; has been used in Russian bookbinding since the last quarter of the 14th century. There are the following main types of embossing:

2.1. Flat-Depth Colorless

("Blint", fire, blind - blind (English)) In essence, it is a kind of letterpress inkless printing; the simplest and most economical type of embossing; the earliest in time of appearance (late XIV - early XV century). Synonymous with the term "blind embossing".

2.2. embossed, or embossing

Obtaining a convex image on binding covers. It is distinguished by great visual possibilities, the complexity of the technological process and high cost, it is used to a limited extent, mainly in the most artistically designed editions to reproduce the portrait of the author of the book, various emblems, etc. It can be colorless and colored. Named after the English inventor W. Kongrev (W. Congreve, 1773 - 1828), who proposed this embossing method. In Russian bookbinding, it became widespread in the 40s of the 19th century (usually the portrait of the author of the book was reproduced by hot stamping).

2.3. in depth colorful

Type of embossing, similar to that described in paragraph 2.1 and differing from it by the presence of a colorful image. Until the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, embossing on bindings was carried out with paints and natural (leaf) gold (from the end of the 16th century), from the beginning of the 20th century - with binding foil (colorful and metallized).

3. Inlay, or mosaic

Decoration of the binding surface with patterns or images from other materials that differ from the main one in color or quality. It was used exclusively to decorate the owner's and tray bindings. It was especially widely developed in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries.

4. Drawing and coloring by hand

5. Attaching metal jewelry

1. Decoration of binding covers with metal fittings (corners, mullions, beetles) or salaries.
2. Attaching clasps.
3. Attaching veils (closes) - shields in the form of silver plates to the upper salary board in order to protect the artistically designed edges of books. It is the oldest way to decorate the bindings of Russian books.

6. Torchonization

Processing the surface of bookbinding material or book edges with special tools in order to change their texture.

The choice of a specific binding material, a certain nature and method of decorating it were determined belonging binding (publishing, owner's).

Publishing is called a binding made simultaneously with the entire edition. It is, as a rule, uniformly designed for the entire edition or part of the edition of the book. In contrast, the owner's (piece or individual) binding is made individually, by order of the buyer or owner of the book, it is different for each copy of a particular publication.

Until the end of the 18th century - the time when publishing binding appeared in Russia - virtually all book bindings were, to one degree or another, individual, piece, owner-made. Starting from the second half of XVIII centuries, the bindings of all Russian books can already be clearly divided into two large groups: publishing and owner's.

It is important that the fundamental differences between them were by no means in the binding materials, which practically almost did not differ from each other (in this regard, the only exceptions are morocco and expensive types of fabrics, which for a long historical development were used exclusively for the manufacture of owner's bindings), but in approach to intended purpose binding, in the nature and method of its decoration. So, if in the design of publishing bindings, artists sought to reflect the content of the book, often placing a plot picture on the top cover of the binding, then individual owner's bindings were solved almost exclusively in terms of decorative and decorative terms, applications, mosaics of multi-colored pieces of leather, and leather carving were widely used in them. , rich gold embossing, especially on the spine (which, in contrast to the flat and even spine of the publisher's binding, remained bandaged), etc. A characteristic element of the design of the owner's bindings was the superex libris. In addition, the initials of the owner of the book were sometimes embossed in gold at the bottom of the spine.

The value of the owner's binding is largely determined by the skill of the binder. Unfortunately, the history of Russian bookbinding is not rich in the names of the creators of unique bindings; unlike European countries, in Russia it was not customary to leave the brand of its author and performer on the binding. Only in the second half of the 19th century, due to the intensive development of the Russian book business, its capitalization and monopolization, a sharp increase in the number of books produced, and the widespread development of mass publishing binding, the situation changes: the owner's bindings become "subscription" bindings. The most famous craftsmen for the manufacture of individual owner's bindings at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries were E. Ro (Row), V. Nilson, Meyer, A. Schnel (the official supplier of his court imperial majesty, the most expensive bookbinder in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century), A.D. Peterson in St. Petersburg, A. Petzman, Z.M. Tarasov in Moscow, etc.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, publisher's bindings often differed from each other within the same edition of the publication. This was due to the fact that many books during this period came out of print in a cover, and then, at the request of the customer, were enclosed in one or another binding. This form of relationship with customers, for example, was actively used by the publisher A.F. Marx when sending free supplements to the Niva magazine to subscribers. Books of the series "Collected Works of Russian Writers" by A.F. Smirdin were published in the same type of gray covers and publisher's cartons. Books in various publishing bindings were repeatedly issued by M.O. Wolf. Thus, the well-known to bibliophiles editions of "Picturesque Russia" in rich full-collar bindings with gold stamping and paints were also sold in the publisher's cover. The "Bible" with illustrations by G. Dore (St. Petersburg, 1867), "Picture Galleries of Europe" (St. Petersburg, 1862) and even "Grand Duke and Royal Hunting in Russia from the 10th to the 16th century" (St. Petersburg, 1896), etc.

In the second half of the 19th century, for the first time, there was a clear differentiation of publishing bindings depending on the type of publication, its target and readership. Technological features of the binding of educational, scientific, artistic and children's books have developed. Thus, the fundamental publications of a scientific and reference nature were mainly in compound bindings with a leather spine richly embossed with gold and calico sides without decorations (the bindings of the Brockhaus-Efron encyclopedic dictionaries, the Garnet brothers, etc.). Children's books were dressed in publisher's cartons or full-collar bindings with a plot picture printed by a lithographic method, or a fabric spine and sides pasted over with marbled paper, etc. When studying binding as an important commodity property of an antique book, it should be remembered that its assessment is determined by the totality of all the above trademarks. The older the book, the more important its binding becomes as a monument of the material culture of the past and the greater its share as a price-forming factor in the new selling price of the book; for books published after 1917, only the owner's, individual bindings are of value. In addition, a binding modern to a book should be valued higher than a later one, even one made individually. Naturally, this rule does not apply to the unique, most rare and artistically designed bindings that have an independent artistic value.

Speaking about the degree of "marketability" of the binding of an antique book, one cannot help but dwell on the commercial properties of the binding that sometimes replaces it. covers- any relatively light and fragile (mostly thin paper) shell of a book, connected to it, as a rule, by gluing to the spine. The cover itself, due to its fragility, cheapness, temporality, of course, does not have a significant impact on the modern commodity assessment of an antique book, but its presence or absence cannot be ignored by a merchandiser, especially when it comes to the first Russian printed publishing covers of the late 18th century. century, uniquely elegant covers in the "Empire" style of the early XIX century, decorative and graphic covers created by the artists of the "World of Art" in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, bright and imaginative covers of the 20-30s of our time, bearing an illustrative and poster character, etc. Created in various artistic styles, directions that reflected the individual style of the artist, they carry the unique features of their time.

Books of the last century with a preserved cover are rare, due to its fragility, as well as the desire of the reader, primarily a bibliophile and collector, to enclose the book in hardcover. At the same time, bookbinders subject the book to additional three-sided trimming, not trying to preserve the publisher's cover. So, for example, the cover of the first edition is considered a rarity. dead souls"N.V. Gogol (M., 1842), made according to the drawing of the writer himself; copies of the book with a cover are extremely rare.

Thus, many art covers, and even more so bindings, of Russian antique books are unique and should be considered as a monument of book art of their time.

Great help to the second-hand book dealer in studying Russian binding and cover, their history, individual types and types will be provided by the works of P.K. Simonyi, S.A. Klepikov, I.M. Polonskaya, O.L. Tarakanova.

We carry out the following types of binding works:

1. French binding;
2. Printed binding (with a straight or rounded spine);
3. Binding for cuts;
4. Binding for punctures;
5. Folded binding (landscape).

The strongest and most durable is French binding. Books made using this technology adorn the best libraries in the world.

What is the difference between French binding and printing?

Printing binding has a limited lifespan. After a few years, the book literally crumbles into pages, at the risk of turning from an important thing into ordinary rubbish.

The fact is that the basis of such binding is gauze impregnated with a certain composition. Over time, it dries up and cannot perform protective functions. As a result, the book falls apart into separate sheets or completely falls out of the cover. In addition, staples are often used as fasteners, which rust over the years, which adversely affects both the beauty of the publication and its safety.

Book binding according to French technology is qualitatively different from printing. Sheets, or rather notebooks, are sewn together with linen threads on strong and durable cords made of natural materials. Next, the sewn block is placed in a clamp and the spine is rounded with a hammer and given the shape of a fungus, after which it is glued.

Binding using French technology allows you to save valuable editions and extend the life of your favorite books. So, old books of the 18th century remained intact and almost unscathed, without losing a single page.

Leather bound books

Leather is one of the main and most commonly used binding materials. Soft and plastic, with a special dressing, leather binding is able to maintain elasticity and not dry out for centuries.
Our bookbinding workshop uses leather not only in those tones that were popular in past centuries, but also selects original color schemes at the request of the customer.

As a binding material, leather provides great freedom to work with it: you can cover the covers entirely or make a composite binding, covering only the spine and corners; decorate with painting, embossing, relief or marble; combine several types of material on one cover without visible transition boundaries. Leather is strong, durable and gives any edition a noble and solid look.

Hand binding prolongs the life of books and keeps a piece of the master's soul invested in the work.

We offer a full range of services for working with books. Restorers-binders will help you to preserve the most valuable editions by restoring the original binding or creating a new one according to your desire.
If the binding of the publication is not deformed, but only worn out from time to time, we will help restore its original appearance: we will restore the lost material, decor, preserve the original cardboard and delicately raise the binding material.

For books that have not passed the test of time and literally crumbled, a set of restoration work is provided, including stitching the block and restoring the old cover or creating a new one. Our craftsmen create real miracles, turning a dilapidated ugly book into an excellent unique copy. cultural heritage families.

For paperback book owners, we offer the following binding options:

1. Saving and restoring paperback;
2. Production of hard cover;
3. Create a beautiful and durable book case.

The latter option is perfect for those cases where the owner, for various reasons, wants to keep the original aged cover and prevent further damage.

If the book was fastened with staples (paper clips), which rust over the years and destroy the spines of the sheets, we recommend replacing them with cords.

What are the advantages of our bookbinding workshop?

The binding of each book in our workshop is carried out exclusively by hand. The painstaking work of our masters, who respect traditions and have excellent taste, creates unique works that meet high quality standards and the wishes of the customer. We provide a lifetime warranty on all binding work performed.

Prices for binding services

The cost of works is calculated individually depending on the chosen design, the materials used, the format and circulation of the book, as well as the wishes of the customer. We carry out full-leather or composite binding, decoration of edges with foil and gold leaf, tinting of edges, painting, bindings with figured recesses and inserts, decoration of covers with gold, decorative elements or locks, and much more.

The cost of binding works starts from 8000 rubles. For more information on the cost of book binding, see

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