Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2005 - (Page 8)

LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM same techniques and materials Following her New York visit, Buck employed by binders since the 16th studied bookbinding at the studio of above: Samples of bookbinding materials century. During the first year of the René Kieffer on the Rue Sevier in Paris. from the collection of Cora Buck, c. 1912. program (the 1914-15 school year), Kieffer (1875-1964), who was also a At right are three of her tools: a steel-nib two bookbinding classes were offered. publisher, is considered one of the pen, a bookbinder's knife, and calipers. The instructor was most likely Lota Lee masters of the bookbinder's art and is courtesy of the Louisiana State Museum Troy, who joined the faculty in 1909. represented in collections of significant She had studied bookbinding at Art Deco and Moderne bindings. One opposite page: Catalogs of bookbinding Columbia University before coming to of his creations, containing a rare edisupplies from the collection of Cora Buck. courtesy of the Louisiana State Museum Newcomb. Troy remained head of the tion of a Victor Hugo work, is currently bookbinding department until 1931, offered through a rare book dealer for when she took over as director of the $75,000. Department of Art. Cora Buck began keeping her Paris The basic bookbinding class met for three hours a week and notebook on August 6, 1913. The small leatherette journal bears was intended for freshmen majoring in Constructive Design. the stamp of the Papeterie St. Sulpice on Rue Bonaparte and is Students needed no special equipment for their projects, which entitled, "Notes on Forwarding," which is the process of creating included useful items such as boxes, portfolios, desk pads, notethe bound book up to the point of decorating its covers. Buck books, scrapbooks, and guest books. Juniors and seniors could take often referenced her New York notes in these instructions, giving an advanced bookbinding course for six hours a week, using a full the impression that the earlier course was more complete than the array of bookbinding equipment consisting of sewing frames, French one. Indeed, her New York notes included such refinements presses, backing hammers, and embossing tools. Students would as gilding, which was not offered in her Paris studies. learn, so the catalog promised, "library mending, binding of magaIn February 1916, the Art Association of New Orleans held its zines, and rebinding of old books in cloth, part leather, full leather, 15th annual exhibition at the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art. gold and blind tooling." Classes in design and drawing were also Among the pieces displayed were eight of Cora Buck's bindings, recommended. including a volume of Aesop's Fables, La Belle Dame sans Merci, Newcomb crafts attracted much attention at the PanamaPoems of Robert Burns, and At Sundown, which was priced at $25 Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, but bookbinding was (equal to about $450 today). not among the work mentioned in coverage of the event. The proAlthough no examples of Buck's finished bindings are known to gram was too new to have developed a body of work suitable for exist, her notes provide a valuable insight into the bookbinding exhibition, but orders would soon start to pour in. Like other crafts process as it was carried out during this period. Bookbinding was taught at Newcomb, bookbinding proved a lucrative skill for its practiced at Newcomb according to similar instructions, using the 8 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Fall 2005

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2005

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2005 Contents Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Louisiana State Museum After Katrina and Rita Tabasco: Edmund McIlhenny and the Birth of a Louisiana Pepper Sauce Historic New Orleans Collection Louisiana Association of Museums New Orleans’ Coffee Connection No Man’s Land Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism Bookstand (Book Review by Thomas Uskali) Sound Advice (Music Review by Ben Sandmel) Forum (Commentary by Roy Blount, Jr. )

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2005

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.