centre bevels

Internal or external bevels cut in the centre of the edge of a board, leaving a portion of the board unbevelled at each end. Boards with centre bevels on the external surface are bevelled to leave enough of the board at each corner without a bevel to accommodate a metal corner (which may or may not have been used). These centre bevels will usually occupy no more than 50% of length of the edge, often less. On the fore-edge of a book with two fastening, the centre bevel will stop short of the fastening attachment sites. The short bevels found above and below the fastenings are called clasp bevels to differentiate them from centre bevels. Centre bevels are commonly found on German bindings from the late fifteenth century, and were subsequently used across northern Europe, though they do not appear to have been used in southern Europe. They are likely to be found only on wooden boards, though some pastiche antiquarian bindings in Britain of the early nineteenth century created rather exaggerated versions of centre chamfers in couched-laminate boards. Their widespread popularity in German-speaking countries led, in the eighteenth century, to the covering skins on flat board surfaces being tooled with fillets in blind in imitation of centre bevels. Boards with centre bevel on the internal surface will usually have much longer bevels leaving only a short length of square edge at each end. These edges were popular in Italy circa 1500.