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Stone Glossary
Alum
A salt used in papermaking and in the Tawing
of skins.
Doublure An ornamental inside lining of a book
cover, which takes the place of the regular pastedown
and flyleaf. It is usually of leather or (watered) silk,
generally with a leather hinge and is often very elaborately
decorated. The typical doublure consists of a
silk flyleaf and a leather board covering, but sometimes
both board covering and flyleaf are of silk;
rarely, both are of leather.
Foredge The edge of a book opposite the spine.
Sometimes called 'front edge'.
Head band & tail band The functional and/or ornamental
band at the head and tail of a book between
the sections and the spine covering, which projects
slightly beyond the head and tail. Originally, the head
band consisted of a thong core, similar to the bands
on which the book was sewn, around which the ends
of the threads were twisted and then laced into the
boards of the book. Today, however, the head band is
much simpler and is usually made of colored silk
sewn to the book or simply attached after the volume
has been forwarded.
Inlay
A piece of leather, of the same thickness as the
leather covering of a book, but usually of a contrasting
colour, grain, or both, cut to a desired shape for
placing into the leather covering, from which a piece
of the exact same size and shape has been removed.
Onlay
A method of decorating a leather binding by
means of thin, variously coloured pieces of leather,
usually of a different color than the covering leather,
which are attached by means of paste or pva to the
surface of the covering leather, thus giving it a kind of
mosaic effect.
Tawing
An ancient process of treating prepared hide
or skin (usually pigskin or goatskin) with aluminum
salts and (usually) other materials, such as egg yolk,
flour, salt, etc. The process renders the skin soft and
warm to handle; the tawed skins have a high degree
of stretch. Handle and stretch may also be improved
by the addition of egg yolk and flour to the basic alum
and salt solution. A tawed skin is usually white in
colour but may yellow slightly with age.
Source: Matt T. Roberts and Don Etherington
Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: A Dictionary of
Descriptive Terminology, Washington, 1982
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