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Visited the Library of Congress bindery exhibit and noticed something weird
They were showing off old leather bindings from the 1800s where the spine hinges were completely flat, not rounded at all. Has anyone else seen this style and know why they stopped doing it?
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reeselewis12d ago
Those flat spine hinges were a common style back then, actually. They were called "flat backs" and were popular because they let the book open completely flat, which was nice for reading. The problem was those flat spines didn't hold up well over time. The leather would crack and separate from the book block way faster than a rounded spine. By the early 1900s most binderies had switched to rounded backs because they distributed the stress better and the books lasted longer. Some modern binders still do flat backs for certain projects but its pretty rare now because of the durability issues.
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