Fore Edge Friday
Bubbles and vacuoles! At least, that’s what we see in these patterns on the covers, edges, and endpapers of this gold-stamped, calf-skin half binding for the 6th edition of John Tyndall’s 2-volume Fragments of Science, published in London by Longmans, Green, and Co. in 1879. The pattern appears to be what the University of Washington’s site on Patterned Papers identifies as Zebra.
The pattern begins with a Turkish base, with the first colors constricting as others follow and become the ‘vein’ colors for the latter thrown inks. A comb with one set of teeth is then drawn through the bath twice vertically, once in either direction with the second pass halving the first. The last step is to sprinkle or splash on one or more colors, which in the Zebra pattern are usually quite large drops. As we’ve noted before, when marbling the edges of a book, the text block is clamped tightly shut, and once dipped, the excess fluid is blown or shaken off quickly to prevent it from running into the book. Once dry, the marbled edges are burnished.
