I wish I could have a larger photo of this binding Robert Buist's The Family Kitchen Gardener! The large gold stamping on the cloth binding is champ. I wonder how many tools are there that I can't see.
Below is the new 1832 technology that made this impressively large area of gold die stamping possible.
The larger the area of a stamp, the greater by far is the needed force to stamp gold. The Imperial Arming Press ushered in a wonderful period of stamped bindings. Because of its power, even the less tractable materials such as cloth could be firmly and flatly squished allowing gold to clearly show the details of a complex design.
Look at this thing and note the classical details in the cast iron!!
Lion paw feet, acanthus leaf leg decoration...
...be still my heart.
Here is another binding from the same period. Note the blind (ungilt) stamping around the central motif.
LINKS: