vellum, and leather,
often reenforced with metal, were generally used.

The nineteenth century has marked a great progress in the variety and
quantity, if not in the quality, of published books. Improvements in
methods and in machinery have progressed side by side with economies
in paper making. As the cost of producing the printed sheets became
less, a demand arose for a correspondingly cheaper material for
bindings. The want was satisfactorily met by the use of cloth, and
from the day that it was first used it has become more and more a
factor in book manufacturing.

When so commonplace a binding material as cloth was selected, artists
and binders and publishers considered that ornamentation on such a
material was almost a waste of time and money. So the libraries of our
grandfathers contained rows of gloomy and unattractive books, bound in
black cloth stamped in old-fashioned designs, with a back title of
lemon gold, and it is only comparatively a few years ago that binding
in cloth began to be considered worthy of the attention of the
designer and the artist, but since then the demand for a more varied
assortment and a wider choice of colors and patterns has been steadily
growing.

Let us consider briefly the different kinds of book cloths that are
most commonly used to-day and try to make clear to the lay reader the
different fabrics, whose nomenclature is so frequently confused even
by binders and publishers.

Book cloths, from their appearance and manufacture, fall into two
natural divisions, the first being the so-called "solid colors," in
which the threads of the cloth are not easily distinguishable. This
division contains two grades of cloth, generally known as common
colors and extra colors. The standard width of all book cloths is
thirty-eight inches. The commons and extras are sold by the roll, and
the standard number of yards to the roll of these fabrics is
thirty-eight.

The second division consists of the so-called "linens" and "buckrams,"
in which each thread, with the imperfections and peculiarities of the
weaving, are plainly seen and form a large part of their picturesque
effect.

The first of the "common colors" to be used was the black cloth
already referred to, but they are now made in many colors, though
chiefly in simple, pronounced shades, such as browns, blues, greens,
and reds. These cloths have been dyed, and sized with a stiffening
preparation. They are the cheapest of the solid c