One cannot stand before the windows of the large book stores at holiday time without being impressed by the possibilities offered by the many colors and patterns of cloths and the varied hues of inks and foil, in helping the artist to make books attractive to the eye, and suggestive of the sentiment and motive of their contents. One feels that the designer of book covers has surely a wider field to-day than when he confined his attention entirely to making intricate designs for single leather-bound folios.
There is hardly any part of the world that has not been drawn upon for suitable skins to be made into leather for bookbinding. The skins generally used are goat, seal, pigskin, cowhide, calf, and sheep, and they vary in quality according to the country they come from and the manner in which the animals are cared for, the stall-fed animals, or those that are protected from storm and have regular food, producing the best skins.
In preparing these skins for bookbinders, great care has to be taken to extract as much of the natural oil as possible, as this is apt to discolor the gold leaf decorations put on by the artistic binder.
Tanners usually buy skins with the hair on. They are first put into water, for the purpose of softening them, after which they are laid over a beam and a knife is drawn over them, to still further soften them. They are then put into vats containing slack lime-water, which loosens the hair and kills the animal life remaining in the skin. After having been in these vats for a period of about ten days, they are washed in water, to remove the lime and clean the skin. Afterwards they are put through a process called "bating," which destroys any animal matter in the skins which may have escaped the first process, and they are then finally cleansed by a solution of bran and water, which also prepares them for tanning.
After the skins have been in tan for a week or more, they are taken out, tacked on drying frames and all the wrinkles stretched out of them. When thoroughly dry, they are ready for the coloring process. After being colored, they are again tacked on the frames; and when they are thoroughly dry again they are taken to the graining room, where the finishing processes are done by skilled workmen, the utmost care being needed to produce the desired result.