g
cloth well adapted to large books, and which furnishes the most
durable binding of all the book cloths. The colors of buckrams
correspond closely with those of the linens; they are also sold under
trade names given them by manufacturers, such as "art canvas" and "E"
grade.

Buckrams are sometimes embossed to imitate in part the appearance of
an irregularly woven fabric called "crash." Crash is a special cloth
which might properly be classed with the buckrams, and when suitably
used is a very artistic material.

Basket cloth is still another material which could properly be
included with the buckrams. This grade of cloth gains its name from
the fact that the threads are woven in squares resembling a basket
mesh. They are made in the same coloring as the linen cloths.

In describing the cloths above, only those of American manufacture
have been considered. There are English cloths which correspond to
nearly all of these fabrics, but they are little used in America on
account of the delay in importing them and because of the duty, which
makes the price here higher than for corresponding grades of domestic
manufacture.

One cannot stand before the windows of the large book stores at
holiday time without being impressed by the possibilities offered by
the many colors and patterns of cloths and the varied hues of inks and
foil, in helping the artist to make books attractive to the eye, and
suggestive of the sentiment and motive of their contents. One feels
that the designer of book covers has surely a wider field to-day than
when he confined his attention entirely to making intricate designs
for single leather-bound folios.

BOOK LEATHERS

By Ellery C. Bartlett.

There is hardly any part of the world that has not been drawn upon for
suitable skins to be made into leather for bookbinding. The skins
generally used are goat, seal, pigskin, cowhide, calf, and sheep, and
they vary in quality according to the country they come from and the
manner in which the animals are cared for, the stall-fed animals, or
those that are protected from storm and have regular food, producing
the best skins.

In preparing these skins for bookbinders, great care has to be taken
to extract as much of the natural oil as possible, as this is apt to
discolor the gold leaf decorations put on by the artistic binder.

Tanners usually buy skins with the hair on. They are first put into
water, for the purpose of softening them, after wh