Henry Bookbinding Co

[Stephani Kapnick]

Itis not only the first bookbinding designed by Henry van de Velde (in 1893-95), but also the first Art Nouveau bookbinding made in Belgium, which makes it even more exceptional. Fortunately, the preparatory drawings for the bookbinding have also been saved.

Henry van de Velde opted for a classic technique and materials, combined with a rather sober motif for this publication, which deals with the art of bookbinding in France. An approach that contrasts significantly with the elaborate decoration usually afforded to older bookbinding.

This bookbinding is also a wonderful example of how the talented young van de Velde gradually found his own style. Here, the flowers are still in a relatively figurative style, but they would later develop into the more linear forms that are specific to Art Nouveau.

The owner of the book wished it to be safeguarded as part of our public collections and this led him to sell it directly to the Heritage Fund. The Fund made the acquisition so that this precious bookbinding would not only be secure, but also accessible to everyone by entrusting it to the Bibliotheca Wittockiana.

This page is about Stikeman & Co. (bookbinders), and is an effort to record some of the work of a once-prominent (among his peers) art book binder, and the company he founded. Feel free to contact me if you have anything to add about the bindery, or if you spot anything here which is incorrect.

By far the most common and least expensive (both when originally executed, and when purchased today) are the half- or three-quarter leather bindings. Content aside, the bindings are relatively affordable. A paradox here is that although there are vastly more of these types of bindings on the market than there are the full-leather high end extra-gilt versions, the latter are usually in much better shape. The more common bindings are more likely to be kicked around, and so I actually see very few three-quarter or half-leather bindings in pristine shape despite their overwhelming numbers. Those three-quarter bindings that are in fine shape are usually part of a set, many of which seem to have sat on shelves unopened since the day they were bound.

The Greville set is three-quarter in buckram (a waxed or impregnated linen of sorts), the rest have marbled (paper) boards. For Stikeman, the buckram is more common, generally. Very generally, marbled boards appear usually only on books published in (or whose subjects concern) Continental Europe. The general pattern is that the fillets or rules on the boards are somewhat thick and there is only one single rule. There are only a few Stikeman examples of marbled boards without the gilt rules, and fewer where the rule is a double one. The majority are buckram with a single gilt rule. All of the bindings above exhibit rubbed hinges and some chipping. Not terribly desirable examples, but they hold a special spot in the collection since they represent my first plunge into collecting Stikeman & Co.

As far as I can tell, this extra-gilt two-volume set (below) was a rebinding job for its owner, as opposed to a set that was executed for a publisher and sold in a limited edition. I picked these up from Bauman Rare Books, in New York. Housed in custom chemises themselves further protected by slipcases, the set is in virtually new condition, despite being published a hundred years ago. The sunning of the slipcases, to a uniform light brown from green, is testament to the reason for the slip cases in the first place.

The set is heavily tooled. Although the wide board borders are likely done from a single stamp, they are lined inside and out with fillets, and the outer board edges are traced with a fillet of squared brackets stopped by heavy dots. The raised bands are also filleted with a dotted rule, also stopped by heavy dots.

Note here the bands of the spine are very broad and shallow, as though sewn on wider cloth tape (as opposed to narrower cords), which they may have been. This is uncommon in Stikeman & Co. work, and here permits a very unusual addition of small flowers to be gilt-stamped along the bands themselves.

They were produced (if we may date them by the dates on the fore-edge paintings) just as or just after Henry Stikeman retired from the art bookbinding profession. He had been binding for over 30 years, starting under William Matthews, and was president of Stikeman & Co. since founding it in1887. This pair of bindings was produced in the first year with Morris Kalaba at the helm.

They are wonderful examples of post war (WWI) , pre-depression American bindings, and carry the bookplate (oddly slapped on the front doublures) of James Augustine Farrell, President of U.S. Steel, and the first businessman to build a billion-dollar company. They were not inexpensive to produce.

The earlier volume at top is done in a blue Moroccan leather that has been only slightly crushed or flattened. The later volume is in the same blue, but the leather is smoother and more highly crushed.

The spines of both were handled similarly, with the same tools used on both volumes, only spaced more closely together on account of the narrower spine of the second. At the middle top and bottom of each of the narrower spine panels, a smaller tool was substituted for the longer scroll of the first (wider) volume, which would not have fit. Otherwise they are essentially handled the same. There were nearly 200 individual tool impressions required for the spine of each volume.

An inner rectangular deeply blind-stamped thick fillet forms the inner panel, which is ruled in gilt by thin fillets again, and then bordered each side by dots and individual scrolls. Outside that, large floral stamps, with lots of black breathing space between them, run around the boards in an equal rhythm pierced by graphic, long sharp needle-like darts. The inner panel border is of smaller tools, with the same needles used diagonally at the inner corners. The scale is quite large, and the effect is a cross between a traditional Roger Payne binding, and something from the English Arts and Crafts.

This binding shares about 6 stamps with another binding in my collection, the Rip Van Winkle described already, a good bit further up the page. Young binders do not have as many tools in their stable, and we see Henry here developing a pattern and design which is wholly different from the other, yet comprises mostly the same tools.

A more direct comparison below, board to board, shows the tools used on the covers more clearly. The lancets or darts on the covers of the larger binding were also used on the interior of the Van Winkle, which can be seen in the previous photographs of that volume.

The corner devices of the front and rear boards feature subtle purple-black ovals, flanked by small comma-shaped curlicues, also onlaid in black. The corner devices on the bright purple doublures (the inner boards) are architectural in style, gilt (no onlay).

The set is made up of more than 300 plates depicting plans, sections, elevations, and enlarged details taken from field measurements and surveys conducted by Pugin in the early 1820s-1830s. The plates here were issued loose, in five volumes (here bound into two).

The inner boards have proportionally wider dentelles than usual, with mottled paper paste downs. The top edge is gilded, but all others untrimmed, with original deckled edges as straight from the press. The style points of the binding put it ca. 1920, based on my experience.

In late July I received an email from a fellow binding collector with whom I correspond occasionally. Often, to be truthful. He, I, and another binding collector trade a good number of emails discussing various binders, techniques, our hidden gems, mistakes, and (with much complaint) rising prices.

The volume is about 7 inches tall, and the scale somewhat different than in the photos, where we almost always imagine the binding to be larger than it really is. This means, generally, that the tooling reads more delicate and fine in the hand than in the somewhat clinical photographs of a catalog, or web page, for that matter. Both boards, being mirror opposites, are obviously hand-tooled, with the minor differences indicating the human hand rather than the brief brutal impress of a block stamp, an inelegant economizing machine prevalent and used in all binderies at the time (including on occasion, Stikeman and Company).

But I collect bindings, often over content. And this was an unusual one. The tooling is deceptively reserved, the design seemingly simple and not overly bravura. Overall the scale is quite small and fine, diminutive, delicate even. The majority of the tools (comprising left-and-right-facing leaves, curved gouges, flower tools, and dots) are miniscule, and built up impossibly close to each to form the curving vines.

At the beginning of October, I heard that it was to be offered in a new catalogue mailing. With regard to seeing it again, let alone owning it, that would likely be the kiss of death. Someone else would likely acquire it. I enquired a last time, but it did not come together. Still, there are always others out there. We just need to practice patience.

Suffice to say, it is, I think, a spectacular American example of homage being paid to the fantastic bindings associated with Grolier. It is ca. 1892, and both boards are done in the same pattern. all tooling is by hand, built up of multiple individual impressions, including the offset filets and thin gilt lines which follow the onlaid strapwork. These same tools were used on the other two binding variants, in similar, but entirely different patterns.

Most everything I have relating to Morris Kalaba seems to indicate that he tended toward tricking out books whenever possible, up-selling. Like a car salesman pushing for undercoating. Especially after Henry retired.

I found your glowing site which immediately offered me considerable satisfaction for learning about the binder of this Cellini set. These books I have are bound in full red leather with cover panels that offer wide borders. These are made up of lunettes filled in with floral devices. I looked closely to see if the designs are built up from small tools. What you offer here by way of instruction in your own descriptions, has me thinking they are indeed built up, and not large single stamps.

3a8082e126