How Beautiful Books Were Made in the 19th Century

[mdengraver]

How Beautiful Books Were Made in the 19th Century

http://www.wimp.com/beautifulbooks

 

[Gargoyle]

Beautiful. I knew someone in the 80's who ran a couple linotypes, used them to print daily menu inserts for a lot of Greek restaurants in Chicago. I have a couple of eatoin shrdlu slugs that he ran off for me.

 

[JJ Roberts]

Ken Thanks for sharing this beautiful book it bring back my many happy days in the printing trade It all start in high school move into the my time in the Navy got out and when to work for a folding box co after three years left and joined the printer union commercial & new paper union was luck to be guided by the men of WWII the great generation. I worked in letter press set type and went on to offset forty two years in the trade my father was a lino type operator & machinist.The Vandercook press in the video was really design for making proofs,Ken thanks again for sharing. J.J.

 

[Terrezar]

I now see why my own book-binding attempt went south... Thanks for sharing

 

[Chujybear]

That's why I pay someone else to do it.
Marvelous process tho

 

[LVVP]

Thank you for the link, very good info

 

[Ron Spokovich]

The film clip brought back memories of two of my total of five years in Print Shop while in high school in '63 & '64. Back then, all students rotated in the various facets of the printing trade, such as setting type by hand, reading upside down and backwards, operation of all presses, and operating all related equipment, such as the linotype of which I'm quite familiar. We cast our own pigs, suspended into the pot of molten metal from which type slugs were cast, and occasional splashes of hot metal weren't uncommon. We operated the platen presses wide open, by hand. The equipment, such as the German made Heidelberg, were flawless and efficient works of art. Unfortunately, such craftsmanship and examples of teaching and art are now in the annals of history. . .I wish they'd return. Engravers and other artisans might be on the tail end of art & skills many had in those days. Will we return?

 

[mdengraver]

All these skills are useful in teaching people how to think, organize a process, see our hands and minds as tools for creativity. The hand/eye/brain coordination is somehow lost when we get too detached by the advanced technologies that take us away from roots of our humanity. The methods of yesterday were advancements in their day that required a high level of sophistication. It's ashame that civilizations must take on the new ways at the expense of the old ways. There are merits to be found in each. One method shouldn't be at the exclusion of the other. Something is definitely lost, like craftsmanship and quality for instance. There are incredible jewelry masterpieces for instance that were created by the Etruscans. Even today people look at what they accomplished in awe and wonder as to their methods and what they were able to produce at a much earlier time in history using their available knowledge and levels of technology. And in their level of technology their are things they achieved that most of us would find quite daunting if at all possible to reproduce.