James
Burn and Company.
It was the year 1781 that Thomas Burn, a native of Newcastle-on-Tyne came up to London, established himself in business as a bookbinder in Middle Row, Holborn—a locality of which now no trace remains—and then and there may be said to have founded the present House.
The records of the ensuing period are so meagre as to warrant (on the principle that there is happiness where there is no history) the assumption that Burn was successful in forming a sufficiently large connection to justify his removal to more extensive premises at No. 37 Kirby Street, Hatton Garden, where he admitted his son, James F. Burn (the father of the present head of the Firm), into partnership.
In 1834 William Chapman, one of the partners in the present Firm, came up from Reading and entered the service of Mr. Burn. Speedily showing aptitude and capacity for the business he became foreman and subsequently general manager in the concern.
As “Burn and Son” the House obtained a share of the binding of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and continued to work for that Institution for a period extending over forty years. Such work was steady, fairly remunerative, and might reasonably have been supposed likely to continue to give employment to the staff of excellent workmen that it had called together. But there are risks and chances in all trades; and in 1842, a change in the arrangements of the British and Foreign Bible Society caused the sudden withdrawal of their work from the hands of their four binders, of whom Burn was one.
Contracts for the binding were placed with one house; and of the four who were “left out in the cold” Burn was the only one who commercially survived the unforeseen disaster. He died in 1843, and left his son, James F. Burn, to continue the struggle with the difficulties that arose in the conduct of affairs. It was not easy to find work to supply the gap caused by the loss of so large an account; but great and courageous efforts were made to keep the work-people together and fortunately the staff was not dispersed. Leather-binding seemed to promise but poor results for all the labour and anxiety that had been endured; when, in a lucky hour, relief came.
In 1846 Mr. Henry G. Bohn started the “Standard Library.” The first volumes were issued early in that year, but Mr. Bohn’s binder was, through, pressure of other business, unable to satisfy the publisher’s requirements. Mr. Bohn was impetuous, and would brook no delay. He sought for aid, and applied for advice to Mr. Cox the printer, of Great Queen Street. Mr. Cox recommended Burn and Son. Mr. Bohn hailed a four-wheeled cab (we believe he was never seen in a Hansom), rushed off to Kirby Street, and found Mr. Burn terribly disengaged, a misfortune that entirely turned the fortunes of the House.
The most strenuous efforts were made to meet the large demands of Mr. Bohn; an order was given on April 4, 1846, for 3000 sets of Sismondi’s “Literature of the South of Europe,” 2 vols. Work was carried on night and day—there were at that time no Factory Act Regulations to prevent such work. Mr. Bohn was satisfied; one volume after another of the series was issued with great rapidity; the initial order of each being at least 2000 copies, and a force was thus maintained which placed the hitherto small House in a position to deal with other work, and since “nothing succeeds like success,” other work came flowing in. It may here be added that the Firm has continued to bind Bohn’s various “Libraries” under his worthy successors, Messrs. George Bell and Sons, unto the present date.
In 1847 Mr. George Routledge, finding Mr. Burn able to deal with large orders, entrusted to him the binding of “Barnes’s Commentary,” and its many volumes and long numbers afforded much employment.
Meanwhile, other events had been working in favour of the House. In 1851 Mr. Daniel and his brother Alexander Macmillan gave Burn a book to bind. It was a small beginning, so small, in fact, that a leading publisher of that date, calling on and finding Burn engaged on an order from the Cambridge house, pointed to the little stack of books, and suggested that so unimportant a customer was obtaining more attention than he deserved. Mr. Burn was silent; with the prophetic wisdom that is one of the factors in the making of a successful man, he elected to serve that then small customer faithfully, and with diligence. In the result he obtained the confidence of a firm of publishers, the rapid rise of whose house has been one of the greatest and most remarkable successes of nay time. Maurice’s Theological Essays, in 1853; Westward Ho! In 1855; Tom Brown’s Schooldays, in 1857, by their vast popularity showed what Messrs. Macmillan were likely to accomplish in the near future, and Burn’s business, as he bound all their books, speedily became very large.
At this time, James Robert Burn (the present head of the Firm) began to lend valuable assistance to his father. He brought to his work a natural good taste and refinement that speedily inaugurated a new era in cloth-binding. It was he who introduced smooth-washed cloth, with a single thin gilt line around the front side of the book cloth to the outer edge; adding a small delicate gold centre ornament pertinent to the character of the book. Cultivated taste was pleased, and henceforward cloth-binding may be said to have found the opportunity to free itself from the charge of vulgarity or ugliness, to which it had previously been exposed.
Messrs. Macmillan opened a London house in 1863, and large binding orders began to come in. The “Globe Series,” remarkably cheap books for that date, obtained a distinguished success. Mr. Alexander Macmillan took great personal interest in bindings, and the “Golden Treasury Series’ afforded Mr. James Burn, junior, an opportunity to display his taste. Meantime, the educational works—always the backbone of the binder’s business—had firmly established themselves in the favour of the school-masters, and thus a never-failing supply of work enabled Messrs. Burn and Son to enlarge their premises, to erect steam-engines, presses, and the powerful machinery needful to enable them to deal with their ever-increasing business.
All the arrangements of this machinery were planned and carried out under the personal attendance of James Robert Burn. In 1867, finding himself overworked, he suggested to his father that it would be well to obtain help in the conduct of their growing trade. Thus, in January, 1868, a new departure was made; Mr. William Chapman, who had been for so many years connected with the Firm, was taken into partnership, and at the same time Mr. Orrinsmith, who had been educated as an artist, also joined the Firm as director of the decorative part of the binding.
A previous training in Art, having no relation to the embellishment of Book-covers, enabled him to break away from the trammels of tradition, to originate new forms and new combinations, and following, so to speak, the Japanese method, to abandon a slavish devotion to symmetry that had previously been the ruling principle in designs for cloth binding.
Mr. James F. Burn, whose kindly, gentle, and cheerful nature dwells in the memories of the present partners, died in November 1877, and from that date the three surviving members of the Firm have endeavoured, by adopting all the valuable inventions and improvements of the day, and by the closest supervision of every detail, to maintain themselves in the position that the House has achieved as Publishers’ Bookbinders in cloth.
They are now materially assisted by the son of Mr. Chapman and the nephews of Mr. Burn and Mr. Orrinsmith respectively, whose zeal and ability in the conduct of the business bid fair to preserve the prestige of the House.
--from The Bookbinder, volume 1, no. 5 (November 25, 1887), pp. 68-70.
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Last updated: 5/22/05; RM