Greetings from the President James Finger.
I hope you have enjoyed our exhibition at the show.
We have four different parts to our involvement at the show.
First we have the Royal Show Bookbinding Competition. This annual competition has three different classes.
First Traditional Western Bindings. These are bindings using materials and methods common in the Western world over the last 3 centuries. Next year this class will be changed to be called Traditional bindings to allow a broader range of historic bindings not just of the European tradition, but also Japanese, Asian, and Islamic styles.
Second designer Bindings . This encompasses fine binding, extra quality techniques, and the use of more difficult materials and techniques, as well as housings for books.
The Third is Art Bindings. These are those which use the elements of construction in creative ways to reveal the contents of the book.
Follow the links to see each of the classes and entries at this years competition.
Secondly we try at the show to tell another story of some factor of bookbinding, and book arts which may be new different or educational. In the past we have used this space to tell the histories of member binders who have made significant contributions to society in ways other than bookbinding. This year we have a presentation from myself of some aspects of how the book arrived to us, with some artefacts and history that I find challenging and I hope you will too.
My apologies the show opens today, with QR code for this page, and alas I was so busy preparing the displays, I did not get the pictures loaded here. Please coma again to hear the explanation of the content of our display.
Jim Finger President.
Middle shelf.
Far left A clay tablet from Mesopotamia with cuneiform writing. Circs 2500 BC. This item is a replica made in Melbourne at The Institute of Archaeology in the 1960’s as part of their training program in archaeology. Many thousands of these tablets have survived from a variety of digs in that and surrounding countries. For the most part, these are daily use records, and archives for the royal treasury recording the doings of the rulers of the time. A few record the traditions and history/origin stories of the culture. One of the first forms of writing that started, as some suggest, about 10000 BC
Center. Two different types of Oracle Bones circs 1500-2000 BC. These contain the oldest seal characters of the Chinese language. Variously dated at 2000-5000BC.
Are they genuine?
They certainly are bone, and the seal characters are certainly old in style. However when the deposits of these bones were found by non Chinese explorers in the early 1900’s they were ground up and called dragon bones. Dragon bones used for the production of medicines were discovered by non Chinese explorers and became interested in them, they ceased to be ground up and became saleable. Genuine bones usually have only a few characters on them , but the “tourists” wanted more so extra lines were added. The result was modern Chinese who did not know the meaning of the seal characters added extra characters for bigger prices. The result is script which does not mean a lot as the writers were just copying seal characters from other old items.
Back to the Question. I think these are original with additional characters on them, the original bones from the period around 2000 years ago in Shang.???
There are two different bones used. The Scapula of larger animals, sheep, and cattle possible also deer, and the Plastron of the tortoise. The enquirer came to the priest seeking to know the future. Questions like should I take a wife? will I get a good job? will I have a son? These words are engraved on the bone purchased from the priest, and after an appropriate ceremony, a hot iron was placed on the back of the shell until it cracks. The priest then “read” the cracks to give an answer. The petitioner may or may not be pleased with the result, and the bones were thrown into pits, where they were discovered and recycled as Dragon bones. Patient searching in the back blocks of Chinese markets still occasionally turns them up.
About the same time In as these bones from China, in Egypt, several new types of script were being developed and recorded on Papyrus and on stone. Large volumes of these items appear, and the papyrus paper industry flourished with papyrus becoming a large industry supplying paper for most of life. Priestly teachings, daily business, government correspondence and personal letters. Much ended up in the coffins of the dead, positioning the bodies in the correct form for their transition to the afterlife. Much ended up the rubbish dumps of the civilization. Much of that was discovered and taken to other places for scholarly examination. Languages on the Egyptian papyrus range from Early Egyptian pictorial similar to that which is recorded in many tombs, through a range of demotic scrips and in later times other languages like Greek and Latin.
One little fragment known as P52 is in the Chester Beatty library, and as a researcher sorted through a pile of material a small fragment caught his eye. A fragment in the Greek language he recognized as from The Gospel of John. The fragment was from a codex, that is a double sides folded sheet just like our modern books. After much discussion, it is now agreed that this fragment is from close to the last decade of the first century. A photocopy is in the display.
But a codex, in a time when all was still scrolls, hundreds and hundreds of them. Why?
The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in the 20th century created a great stir. They showed the transmission of the Jewish Bible from then to now has been a remarkable consist transmission. More recent studies have caused doubt on the idea that Qumran was a religious cult, but instead shown it was a community who were book producers, using the waters of the dead sea as part of the leather scroll making process. Many documents, religious and secular were produced there.
Roll forward to the discovery of the oldest complete Codex books . These were found in a ceramic jar, still sealed. A number of complete books , all in codex folded sheets, all of a religious nature. So we see that in the Christian world, the transmission of religious books as at least in part, in codex. Many say the codex was a Roman invention because the Romans used 2 wooden boards coated with beeswax to do daily transactions and early “tablet”. But scrolls were still the official writing method for 400 years after Christ.
So why the development of the codex? The material under the second shelf is Papyrus, modern, purchased in Egypt. The pieces are a common size , which after production were beaten on the overlaid edges to form a long roll. The roll standard size was about 10 metres, though lots of variable sizes have been found. The roll of papyrus in the display is about that length but when a cover and rolling sticks are added is quite bulky.
In the time of the early Church, Christianity was outlawed and its books limited. the development of the codex was a logical development as both sides of the papyrus were uses, and in the folded sheet structure formed a thin small rectangular block easily hidden from the eye of the Roman administration, and easily protected in a flat leather covering. The Nag Hammadi model we make is an example of the portable robust book easily moved from place to place and easily hidden.
In due course by about 400ad the Codex or folded sheet book became the norm.
In the lower shelf is a display of book models. A common training method is to make a replica of some special features of historic works, to enable the techniques to be remembered and the skills of production transmitted to a new group. The Nag Hammadi Model on the 2nd shelf is one like that, not intended to be identical to the recovered manuscripts book, but to show the techniques of production.
Moving from left to right are 5 different spine construction methods, showing stitching types, some different spine coverings. Vertically on the right is a Coptic ( Eqyptian) binding on wooden boards, and below it a leather non adhesive case for that book.
Covering books is another creative area of binding with materials all the way from the vellum sheet behind the upper display, to the Emu leg skin, to the Snake skin and the Red Morocco goat skin around the lower shelf, and Eel skin from Korea is on the floor
Some of the many tools and materials are scattered around the lower floor representing some of the different techniques materials and tools used by binders in traditional historical and creative art binding.
Upper cabinet shelf.
Chinese Writing implements from a traditional Chinese writing desk.
Bamboo matt , rice paper,Ink block, Ink stone, water bottle, Paper weights, Brushes
On the left Chinese Chops or signature stamps.
Hanging on the rear wall, Vellum, used for pages or as part of binding operations
Center Balinese tourist wall hanging, of palm leaves. Also some blank palm leaves. In traditional works of many parts of Asia, large palm leaves were uses for documents often illuminated with gold ink. The leaves were stacked and not bound but placed in a box for protection.
On the right another type of story telling Aboriginal canoe and panel, from the Gove peninsula circa 1950. In most Aboriginal art , the lines and strokes tell stories that we still do not understand.
