Panther Peak Bindery
You might want to start by reading my article on the history of these bindings. It can be found here.
Now, the misconceptions:
1. They are not all “millimeter bindings.” Collectively they are Danish Paper Bindings, of which there are four types. ONE of those are Millimeter Bindings, but only one! Calling them all Millimeter Bindings is like seeing a Ford Mustang and saying “that’s a Mustang!” Then you see a F-150 pickup truck and yelling “that’s a Mustang!” Then you see a 1963 Ford Falcon and yelling “that’s a Mustang!” They are all Fords, but not all are Mustangs. We need to stop doing that.
2. They are not all a result of wartime shortages. Really only one was a result of wartime shortages and that is the Millimeter Binding. Sandgren started his bindery in 1920, so his binding style really had nothing to do with WWI. Did that war have an impact on his life? Yes, he spent the war in Berlin and left after the German economy collapsed and he returned to Denmark. But that’s the only impact WWI had on these books, and that’s barely a thread.
The Rubow came about in 1940. Two things about that. The occupation happened in April of that year. Was Rubow’s suggestion before and or after that event? Secondly, there isn’t much difference in material usage between the Sandgren and the Rubow. Park’s preference for the Rubow wasn’t due to material usage but that he liked making them more.
3. They did not all use paste papers with geometric patterns. I have a few of these books in all four styles and have actively tried to get ones with paste paper covers. My percentage of books with paste paper covers is 38%, and many of them do not have geometric patterns. That leads me to say that, overall, probably about 30% of them had paste paper covers. The vast majority of my books are between 1920 and around 1960, which might be called the heyday of these bindings, the era when they were mainly a commercial product. After that time they became something different than an economic alternative to leather bindings. One might say it’s likely that paste papers became a more common cover material after that era because the bindings were more about art and fun and education. But for the era of the “privatbind,” when folks took their books to a binder to have covers put on, I’d say around 30% had paste paper covers
Within my books the distribution is this: Paste paper 38%; Decorated paper 25%; Marbled paper 15%; Salto paper 7%; and plain paper 6%
3. They are not “edelpappbands.” This was confirmed by a German trained binder after being shown how they were made. I am protecting their identity for their own safety. But even if they were, isn’t “edelpappband” the guts of the book? I’d argue that Danish Paper Bindings are defined by their covering methods and material. Going back to the first comment above, a Mustang and the Falcon were built on the same frame. But no one would call a Falcon a Mustang, because the body of the car is the defining feature not the frame or other shared features under the metal shell.
4. They virtually only had machine made endbands. Exceptions to this rule are extremely rare (again we’re talking about the “privatband” era).
