Quiet Rebirth of Classic Craft

The craft of bookbinding is enjoying a rebirth of sorts, even though the number of people who can practice the ancient art is not growing by leaps and bounds.

“We’re practically non-existent,” said Nicholas Frankovich, who noted that bookbinding today basically is practiced by a small but growing number of artists.

“Binding is not one of the necessities of life,” said Frankovich, who studied almost eight years with bookbinder Barbara F. Hiller of San Francisco before striking out on his own. “It has to be treated as an art form. It was a practical craft in the old days.”

Bookbinding is not just sewing pages together, he said. Working on an old book amounts to restoration: cleaning and filing in wormholes or rips, replacing fronts and backs and binding.

“There’s an awful lot of books that are falling apart,” Frankovich said.

‘It’s Very Delicate Work’

Restoration is only one aspect of binding, but the two are interwined.

“In order to be a good restorer, you have to be a binder,” Frankovich said. “It’s very delicate work, especially when you’re dealing with an old book.”

The oldest book Frankovich has worked on was “probably late 1500s.” The paper, he said, was “still marvelous.”

“Paper until the mid-18th Century was generally done with rags,” he said. “When the pulp paper started coming in, (that) was the beginning of trouble.”

The well-made, handcrafted book of today is an art form, Frankovich said, and can last about 500 years.

“The mass commercial book nowadays is just becoming the pits,” he said.