ABSTRACT
The absorbing interest and extreme beauty of some of the extraneous work can only be dealt with exclusively or in relation to its own craft; only when one arrives at the decoration on the leather actually covering the book can the binder fairly claim that the decoration wholly belongs to his craft. Although the decorative treatment of leather has been very varied, the making of impressions on its surface has been the chief mode of decorative expression from the birth of the leather-covered book. The small stamps were hammered on to the wet yielding surface of the leather, and the large ones were pressed in with the aid of the laying press. Lines were made by wheels of varying widths of line, and often the repeating ornaments were made by cutting the design on the surface of a broad wheel, and impressing that on the leather.
