China at Work and Traditional Crafts of Persia - Sammelband both MIT Press
Jim’s Description
Overview
Year complete: 2020
Dimensions:
(Book) H: 25.4 cm, W: 18.7 cm, T: 6 cm
(Box) H: 32 cm, W: 23.5 cm, T: 11.5 cm Housed in thick Clamshell box
Materials
Paper - Various handmade paper front and rear sections (16 leaves). Documented, but not inscribed in book yet.
Sewing - Pack sewn on double raised cords (Clarkson 1988 flax cord) in 2005
Endbands - Back cut spine, our home grown flax processed spun and sewn by the binder.
Boards - Quarter split Oregon White Oak, air dried, worked totally by hand in the 1980’s
Splines - Tapered dovetail splines of Elk Bone, all by hand after bandsaw
Trim - Plough, even egg shape on fore edge (stopping for egg), burnished
Clasps - 11 gauge brass, all by hand, flush rivets
Two of my favorite books. Clasps finished while listening to the Trump impeachment (Jan. 6th) hearings, helped me stay on task. The tapered dovetail spline, rarely seen today, was historically an all-wood cross grain reinforcement often seen on higher quality (wood) panel paintings and Antiphonals. They weren’t glued, allowing the main board to swell and shrink with the changes in humidity and temperature, but still firmly held flat with the tapered dovetail spline.
Bag is French Hemp from Moulin de Verger. Utilitarian type textile (small slubs perhaps fine tow), but beautifully rubbery texture “naturally white” French Hemp.
** I call it economy, because of exposed rivets and parchment covering. Paper documented.