change-over stations (Q241): Difference between revisions

The stations at which the sewing thread passes from one gathering to another as the book is sewn. They will be found on both supported and unsupported structures and will occupy the stations closest to head and tail, or at each end of a pair of sewing holes as in Ethiopic bookbindings. This could be achieved in different ways, either as a kettlestitch or an unlinked or stitched change-over station. In many late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century books, the change-over stations were marked up with a single knife cut and kettlestitches worked over them were often pulled down into the knife cuts, which therefore becomes a sort of de facto kettle-stitch recess, into which the kettle stitch can almost disappear, though it would appear that this was not the intention. The stations at which the sewing thread passes from one gathering to another as the book is sewn. They will be found on both supported and unsupported structures and will occupy the stations closest to head and tail. Although they themselves are mostly unsupported, they can, on occasion, incorporate supports. Although usually hidden under the covers of bindings, the thread of the changeover stations on books with pierced supports will be visible on the outside of the pierced support and may therefore be visible on the outside of the binding. The term change-over station was first published by Pamela Spitzmueller (Spitzmueller 1982/3).