Leather
Leather is the most common binding cover because of its durability and flexibility. They can last for centuries and can be decorated in various ways to create beautiful bindings. Different animals would be used to create the leather, based on what was available in that region. Calfskin, goatskin, sheepskin, and pigskin were commonly used in book bindings and were often treated with acids to create various patterns or with dyes to create colorful bindings.
Introduced to Europe in the late sixteenth century, Morocco leather quickly became valued in luxury book bindings. It was usually made from goatskin and practically always dyed with hues of black, green, red, or other rich colors.
Tooling, a process in which a heated metal piece is pressed into the leather to create an imprint, can be done in blind or gold. Blind tooling refers to decoration which is only the imprint, while gold tooling results in a gold-colored imprint.
Intricate designs can be created with inlays or onlays, which are pieces of leather adhered to the cover of the book, usually in a different color. Onlays are placed on top of the main covering, while inlays are created by cutting out and replacing leather.
Colonial and revolutionary lineages of America
Armorial binding.
A coat of arms traditionally denotes rank within a nobility, prestigious associations, and suggest aspects of personal and familial identity. Because of this, armorial bindings, which feature a coat of arms, were a common way to personalize a book binding.
The Kelly and Sons binding firm, founded in 1770, developed what they referred to as a Kelligram binding in the 1880s. These bindings feature an image created with elaborate leather colorwork and sometimes reproduce an illustration found within the book.
