International studio (33.1907/1908(1908))

Auditorium Japanese Tea Room

head-bands are carefully cut off flush with a pair of
heavy shears, using care not to cut the threads of
the head-band where they pass over the edge
Bands: The bands are now to be added. They
may be made of cord or leather. If of leather,
several pieces of thin leather should be thoroughly
glued with thin, hot glue, stuck together and put in
the press, squeezed tight and left to dry. When
finished it should be one-eighth inch or less in
thickness. Cut one edge straight. From this, strips
may be cut from time to time for bands. It is firm
and flexible. The width and thickness of the bands
is a matter for individual judgment in each book.
The back is now marked up for the bands, which
may or may not come just over the cords on which


the boards are laced. In rebinding a book it is often
resewn so the cords fall in the same grooves which
held the old cords, so the spacing may be irregular,
not at suitable distances for the regular spacing of
the back. The back should therefore be marked up
specially for the bands and pencil marks made
across it.
The bands having been shaped to a curve, are
glued on the under surface and accurately adjusted
to the lines and held in place till dry. When pieces
of cord are used for bands, in place of leather, the
work is done in the same manner.
The projecting ends are to be cut off as follows:
Lay the book on the edge of the bench, back to-
ward the operator—a sharp, rather wide-bladed
knife is run along the edge, cutting each projecting
band at the same angle. The blade should not be


CUTTING THE ENDS OF THE BANDS

held flat against the cover, but should be at an angle
of about 20 to 25 degrees.
If the cords on which the book is sewn are to form
the bands, the lining is done piecemeal between
them, but this lining should be much thinner and
of more flexible material, as this makes what is
known as a tight or flexible back. In some in-
stances no lining is used, the leather being pasted
directly on the sections.
(To be continued)
THE JAPANESE TEA ROOM OF
THE AUDITORIUM ANNEX,
CHICAGO.
An interesting instance of Japanese
interior decoration applied to American uses is pre-
sented in the tea-room of the Auditorium Annex,
Chicago, views and details of which are herewith
shown. This decoration, recently completed, is
the work of the Kawabe Studio, New York.
The room measures thirty by fifty feet, with the
ceiling eleven feet high. On the east, it looks out
through three windows toward the lake across
Michigan Avenue. On the west it connects with
the ladies’ boudoir and the waiters’ room beyond
and faces the Pompeiian Room across the corridor.
The west side wall of the room is divided into
three alcoves by pairs of columns. The middle or
main alcove is fitted up as a tokonoma (the main
alcove), and the other two as alcoves. The col-
umns that form the front of these recesses are of the
same construction as the other columns in the room
and stand on bronze bases, ending in entablatures
consisting of the hijiki and masugumi (compound
brackets) as the support for the main beams. The
spaces between the attached and outside columns
are paneled with open-work carvings framed in
black lacquer. Each of the two side alcoves is
spanned by a secondary beam called kashiranuki,
surmounted in the middle by a carved block called
kayorumata. This latter not only serves as an
ornamental brace between the two beams, but also
divides the otherwise too wide space into two pro-
portionate parts, which are filled with stained glass
panels in black lacquer frames.
The arrangement of alcoves on the eastern side
is much the same as on the other side, except that

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