Lawrence Town states that one of the reasons for introducing endpapers was to prevent the first and last sections of a
book from being dragged away from the text block by the boards.
While Arthur Johnson emphasizes two purposes: the pull of the board paper countering the pull of the external covering
material, and the fly leaves protecting the opening and ending pages of the text.
Douglas Cockerell suggests that for people who must write notes in books and to do so with the least injury to the
book, it is advisable to put a good number of blank papers at each end.
The endpapers include the board paper, also known as the paste down and the fly leaves, or free endpapers.
In modern 19th century onwards letterpress, the endpapers were supplied and added by the binder, but it was desirable
that the binder use the same paper as the text block if available.
The board paper and the recto of the first flyleaf being one sheet of paper are often decorative papers.
As already mentioned by Johnson, the paste down also has a special role in countering any pull by covering material and
keeping the boards flat.
One of the simplest forms of endpapers is a tipped on single fold of paper, which provides a board paper and a
single flyleaf.
This is fine for the simplest of books not expected to take much wear.
For most books, a more robust endpaper configuration should be used, which is appropriate for the end use of the book.
Town suggests that in the light of long experience, the most successful endpapers are sewn on.
The history of endpapers is long and complex.
Very early manuscript bindings did not have endpapers or they were very simple.
The move towards the use of paper marks the beginning of more sophisticated end papers.
Of the hundreds of endpaper configurations that have been used over hundreds of years.
I will mention a few that I use regularly.
I will not cover at all leather jointed endpapers.
The AIC Book and Paper Group Wiki has an excellent history of endpapers if you're interested, as well as description of
more variations than you can probably imagine.
There are many construction techniques for endpapers, with Johnson illustrating 14 different configurations.
And this is far from exhaustive.
Each one attempts to solve different structural goals and provide aesthetic value in accordance with the overall
binding. As I said, I will mention the endpapers I use and what the function is that I want them to perform.
Some guidelines I've been taught and may or may not be widely used are: the free endpapers, or fly leaves, should
either match the text block paper or be slightly darker - not lighter - but similar to the text.
The fly leaves should be the same weight or heavier than the text paper.
Facing pages should match.
The verso and recto should be the same, though I do break this rule occasionally.
Marble paper should have the pattern with the combing direction down.
Before talking about specific endpaper structures, I'll mention that for many people, the endpapers are simply the
decorative paper on the board, the paste down and the recto of the first free endpaper.
There is a Facebook group about Endpapers, and they are exclusively interested in this, and I suggest they might be
called the decorative paper used in endpapers group.
There is no problem with this, as long as one understands there is a lot more to endpapers than decorative paper.
To help describe different endpaper construction methods, authors of books and papers on bookbinding develop ways to
represent them, diagrammatically.
Unfortunately, every author seems to use a different system.
My favorite by far is Arthur Johnson's, as used in the Thames and Hudson Manual.
I particularly like how it differentiates between the white and coloured paper, and cloth and leather.
Once you get used to reading these, they all - more or less - make sense.
Another convention is to call the decorative paper that becomes the paste down and recto of the first free endpaper,
the coloured paper, and subsequent papers that match or are in harmony with the text block as white pages.
When talking about endpapers, it has often occurred to me that an outsider would hear this language as somewhat
racist. The simplest endpaper is a tipped on folio, a folded sheet of paper.
Often used in case bindings and other fast and cheap bindings, it has a nasty habit of letting go at either the
glue line or splitting at the fold.
It is usually reinforced by scrim that lines the spine and wraps around under the paste down.
But it is nonetheless a weak endpaper.
To address the big weaknesses of the tipped on foilo, the endpaper fold at the spine can be reinforced by guarding it
with cloth. That is, wrapping a strip of cloth around the spine fold, which should stop the endpaper tearing at the
fold.
Then to stop it separating from the text block, it can be sewn along with the sections.
This does leave a line of thread exposed between the paste down and first free endpaper, which I do not like in
letterpress except a traditional library binding.
Now there is another issue to deal with.
The action of opening the book pulls the paste down away from the text block, and now it is so strongly attached
through the cloth guard and sewing, a pulling force is transferred to the sections at the front and back of the
book. And there is a solution to this, too.
In 1901, Douglas Cockerell popularized the zigzag endpaper.
It has an expanding gusset, a zig and a zag, which expands out as the boards of the book are opened, relieving some of
the pulling force from the paste down.
While many people talk of the merit of this design, I see it's seldom used.
It is easier to execute than maybe the diagram of it suggests, and I strongly recommend we all use it more often.
Like all endpapers, variations of this can be used, such as adding leather joints and made pages.
And this brings us to the next endpaper.
As mentioned earlier, for many people, endpapers are synonymous with decorative papers.
But often these highly decorative papers, a single sided with the reverse often being downright ugly.
Marbled paper is a good example.
The other issue with some decorative papers is that they're often very thin, not strong papers.
So how to use them in endpapers?
The answer is to laminate them with a paper which suitably matches the text block.
This laminated page is known as a made page.
The made page is stronger and the other half of the coloured paper is pasted down.
This structure can then be sewn to the text block through the folios, usually to a white, one of which is the one
laminated to the coloured paper.
This endpaper and its many variations is called a made endpaper.
Now the made endpaper has some drawbacks, too.
For one, the made page being two sheets of paper laminated together, can be conspicuously stiff compared to the rest of
the text block. A way of reducing this is to not laminate the entire sheet together, but to do a wide tip, maybe 5
millimeters at the spine.
And then near the completion of the book, tip the coloured paper and the first white at the fore edge.
Only someone looking for it will notice that these two leaves are not fully laminated.
And the new first free endpaper remains nice and flexible.
I've not seen this described in the English literature, but I have heard it called a flexible made page, which is a name
that works for me until someone corrects me.
I do not know its history, but Peter Verheyen says it is well documented in the German literature.
Another large class of endpapers worth considering is hooked endpapers.
Some amount of a folio or single sheet is folded back then either wrapped around the first and last sections, or goes
under the paste down.
If it is hooked around the outer sections, then it is sewn into the text block with the sections.
Or if it goes under the paste down, it can be sewn through the hook.
It will usually be tipped to the outer sections also.
The hooked endpaper acts in a similar manner to the zigzag endpaper and reduces the pull of the boards on the outer
sections. Hooked endpapers were particularly important in Scandinavian bookbinding tradition.
The final endpaper I'll mention is what I'll call the springback binding endpaper.
As you would imagine, it's a particularly strong endpaper designed to deal with the rigors of heavy use, expected of
ledgers and stationary binding.
The distinguishing feature is the two folios, joined by a strong strip of cloth.
The outer white is a waste, which will become the lever that is inserted into the split board.
The interfaces of the whites are usually made, as in laminated with coloured sheets, often marbled paper.
Finally, another strip of cloth is often wrapped around the outside of the endpaper.
This endpaper is sewn to the text block and the sewing encircles the supports, nearly always tapes.
So there is a continuous line of thread in the fold between the paste down and the first free endpaper.
This design can also be used for library bindings, without the second cloth guard, to give the robustness expected of a
library binding. Finally, I should say something about waste sheets.
Many endpaper designs include a waste sheet.
A waste sheet is an outer leaf that protects the text block during the binding process.
It is usually removed, torn out, before the outer sheet is pasted down.
Though, for instance, if the boards are warping out and additional inward pull is required, you could paste down the
waste and then the actual paste down.
And in some binding structures such as springbacks and 19th century library bindings.
They become the insert for the split boards.
The main feature of waste sheets is that they are never seen in the finished product.
This is a brief introduction to a subject which is worthy of a lifetime of study.
I have not even touched on leather jointed endpapers.
Very few people will notice how endpapers of a book are constructed unless they are badly done.
But it is an important aspect of the design of a well-functioning and aesthetically pleasing book.
In the next video, we'll get back to the mini springback.
I hope everyone's staying safe and getting lots of binding done.
As always, I appreciate the feedback through your comments and hitting the big thumbs up button.
If you want to be notified of my future videos, please hit the subscribe button.
And until next time, cheerio.