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364 M. MAITRE AND HIS WORKSHOPS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
" If You Stop At Dijon, Be Sure And See ...
marone , and the brightest scarlet . The basement story also containshuge stacks of for the insides of pocket-books ,
sketchbooks , & c . and also the paper printed sheets of editions of books ready for the , binder , ' s hand . These several stacks are wrapped in paper
covers of different hues , so that the eye may in a moment distinguish "which is which . In this part of the building are also six
great furnaces , by means of which the different stories are thoroug The hl first y supplied with is that warm of air cutting . out the leather into the
of required the utmost shapes process importance . The material that there is should so expensive be absolutel as to y no render waste it .
One of the inost important workpeople in the establishment is a womanwho Is a remarkably clever cutter , and who Is the only
woman , who earns as much as the men _, namely , three francs a day . Each shape when cut out is neatly pared round the inside edge , so
as to enable it to be turned down" with ease ; hemmed , as it were , upon the frame of wood or paper which constitutes the case of an
article . We will take for example an ornamented prayer-book with follow gilt edges its , stages such . as Monsieur First , the Maitre leather sends is cut out to b the y the required thousand shape , and ;
then it is stamped with a design by means of pressure between plates of hot metal , which turns but the neatest and most beautiful
forms . The lines of this design are then usually traced in varnish . This operation is performed by young girls with a delicate camelhair brushand is very clean and easy work . It is then stitched to
the printed , sheets of the book , and lined with paper or with silk . The printed sheets have previously been cut perfectly even by
machinery woman lay , ing and on a the thin gold flake wi of _^ h . gold the utmost laid on dexterity their edges ; but . wonder I saw a -
ful to relate , these gilt edges are afterwards polished by handrubbing with agate , a process which requires the whole strength
of a man . If gilding is put on the cover , it is fixed with instantaneous idity by means of a stamp ; a flake having previously
been laid rap over the required spot . Tlxe shreds of gold which are brushed off in the process are carefully collected , sent to be melted
into ingots , and then again to be rolled into flakes . All these various operations are _^ _iDerforined by men and women sitting at
. to spacious allow counters le ro , om with for a delicate distance work of some requiring feet between steadiness each , of * so eye a / S amp
and hand . The division of labour is , completely carried out , and each only executes one process . Nothing is thus allowed
person for individual taste ; and the _" art" of binding has become a manufacture . "
The articles when completed are alL brought to one spot , and separatelinspected ' by M . Maitre . _TTie slightest spot or
imperfection causes y them to be thrown on one side and sold as damaged
goods and ranged . From on the wide workshops shelves . they Seeing are carried in som into e p la vast ces a magazine heap of
364 M. Maitre And His Workshops.
364 M . MAITRE AND HIS WORKSHOPS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1861, page 364, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081861/page/4/
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