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Reflections on Bindings: Methods of Study

This guide is an online version of the exhibit "Reflections on Bindings: Using New Imaging Technology to Study Historical Bindings" held at the Lillian Goldman Law Library Rare Book Collection

Traditional Methods of Study

One traditional way to record the surface of a stamped or tooled binding was rubbing. Rubbings are made by running a soft pencil over a thing, smooth sheet of paper placed on top of the binding. Compare this rubbing (top) with an RTI image of the same section of the binding (bottom):

methods of study