boodust Thanks for sharing. Glad to see you posting again.

Google and Wikipedia are not substitutes for education or intelligence. —cornercube, 2009

1839 Early in the nineteenth century publishers began to experiment with cloth bindings. many of the early cloth bindings that one finds look as if they were modeled after the old board bindings. Shown above is a two volume issue of The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. . This early edition was published in 1839 by Lea and Blanchard, in Philadelphia. On the title page is announced "New Edition." This appears in the Bibliography of American Literature (BAL) as item # 10320. Despite the rather eroded or effaced appearance of the title labels on the spines, I consider this to be a sterling example of its type. Again we are presented with a binding supplied by the publisher. This type of cloth binding was common from the late twenties through the early forties... In this case it consists of a very thin, sized cloth , dyed a deep slate green. It has an almost silky feel, but you cansee that the publisher has given no thought to decorating the book...we have not yet entered the Victorian Age. I could certainly wish that the labels were not so eroded, and displayed clearly, but such ,alas is not the case. In presentation for auction , one would have to describe the condition of the labels, as well as the frayed nature of the head and foot of the spine (the extremities); other faults noticed would be bumped corners with attendant splitting of the cloth fibers and a moderately rubbed surface with scattered sundry small spotsand scrapes. Now it might seem that such detailed delineation of a books faults would work to the detriment of a sale, but I assure you that ... and this is from observation of buyers habits ... a collector would rather that you have laid all of the sad peculiarities of a particular copy, rather than be dissapointed upon receiving a book that did not meet expectations. So we look at this set and think my, my it seems somewhat tired.... it is foxed all through the interior... But this is, thankfully not a book for auction, but an old friend through which awkward hoops I will not push it. Half way through the book Irving penned some words that I often think could equally well apply to my library and the books within it: "What then is to insure this pile, which now towers above me, from sharing the mightier mausoleums? The time must come when its gilded vaults, which now spring so loftily, shall be in rubbish beneath the feet; when, instead of the sound of melody and praise, the wind shall whistle through the broken arches, and the owl hoot from the shattered tower .... Thus man passes away; his name perishes from record and recollection; his history is as a tale that is told, and his very monument becomes a ruin."

Thanks boodust for a delightful synopsis on the topic "19th Cnetury Bindings and Publishings"
Meself being also partial to the product
Thanks again

boodust - thank you so much for explaining these bindings in such detail, with good scans as examples. Hard to find that sort of helpful information all in one sitting! I sell quite a few of these old books, and now my descriptions will be better. "Spine slant" will be much better than my "the book does not sit straight"!

boodust: I bookmarked it for the later reading. It looks detailed and absorbing.

The Song of Hiawatha
1856 As the nineteenth century progressed, it was not just leather bindings upon which embellishments were lavished. Publishers began to realize the marketing value of attractive packaging. A book's packaging is its binding. Hence along side the the plain janes of the early part of the century one started to see cloth bindings with impressed designs. Embellishments became more complex. Boards would frequently have the borders along the edges imprinted with geometric designs. Sometimes these were quite simple, and at times a complexity entered into the design to a degree that the poor book seemed burdened by its cover. These designs were either impressed into the cloth with no color, leaving behind a depressed design which, considering the lack of distinguishing color, could at times dramatically enhance the appeal of a plain binding, or they the impressed designs were enhanced with gold filler. Later in the century other colors were added to the binders palette. But initially gold was the material at hand. When there is an impressed design on a cover, with no added color it is called blind tooling or blind stamping. If the binder impressed the designs by hand with tools, it is blind tooling; if the binder used a machine press to impart the design it is called blind stamping. By adding gold filler to the design binders were able to further enhance the binding. Like the blind-work, the gold embellishment was either gold-tooled or gold-stamped. Most high volume publishing made use of machineimpressions, both to save time and cost. The book pictured above is a superb specimen of mid-nineteenth century publisher's binding. Here is The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in Boston by Ticknor and Fields, in 1856. On the copyright page is a simple announcement of the twenty-fifth thousand. The first edition was issued in 1855. ( actually for this title, the London edition preceded the American edition, even though Longfellow was an American Author. This precedence was proven by the presence of dated publisher's ads in the book). Such a high figure as 25,000 copies in a little less than a year was a sure sign that Longfellow was widely read and purchased. This was a succesful book. The copy above displays several features which mark it as a product of its time. The covering used was a sturdy, workman-like, ribbed cloth which displays both blind-stamping and gold-stamping. This ribbing is quite common for books of the period, although one sometimes sees other patterns worked into the cloth, such as a pebbly texture or...and I have seen several examples of this ... a repeating blind-stamped floral design. On this copy of The Song of Hiawatha, the front cover has a medallion in the center thickly tooled with gold in a lovely hybrid floral/geometric, almost egg-shaped oval, with many rays extending around the edg. This is, in turn is surrounded by a blind-tooled border incorporating both geometric and celtic knots . The over-all effect is extremly attractive. The color of the cloth and the brightness of the gold have faded little through the years. this is due to the fact that the sides of the book were, naturally, kept from light by the books shelved to either side. By the way the rear cover was treated in the same manner, complete with gold medallion. the great majority of books usually continued the same decoration on the rear but only using blind-stamping, but on this book both covers are treated with gold. The ribbed texture of the cloth should not be considered as part of the blind-stamping. The spine , on the other hand has faded slightly, since it is , of course the spine which faces outward on the shelf, thus being effected by whatever light has entered the room. The binder chose to use a floral design for the spine. The central floral motif, the title and the publisher's name are all surrounded by a free-flowing border of elegant simplicity. By the way, all the edges of the book are covered in gold leaf. In the trade this is called all edges gilt, or AEG as you might see in listings or catalogs. Most frequently only the top edge was covered in gold leaf (top edgegilt, TEG). The text is elegantly printed in a fairly large type face (11point or Small Pica). For me, this is a beautiful boook, and reading from it extremely pleasurable. From his pouch he took his colors,
Took his paints of different colors,
On the smooth bark of a birch-tree
Painted many shapes and figures,
Wonderful and mystic figures,
And each figure had a meaning,
Each some word or thought suggested. Gitche Manito the Mighty,
He, the Master of Life, was painted
As an egg, with points projecting
To the four winds of the heavens.
Everywhere is the Great Spirit,
Was the meaning of this symbol.

Lucille was one of the first 'lovely Victorian bindings' that I became familar with. It and a number of other lovely Victorian bindings were in a box at an indoor flea market.Out of a box of the many boxes of books, I picked quite a few. The seller had an unhappy look on her face when we took the pile to the register...the box was with all the other boxes at the tables and tables of $1.00 per book.

One in particular I was very pleased with the selling price was - Ivanhoe.

Dear boodoc,

Thanks so much for your wonderful teaching thread. I have recently been selling late 19th century fiction with brightly colored, appealing boards, so I have copied down the info on that subject, and will slowly make my way (like a bookworm), digesting all of the subsequent material.

Please do MORE! MORE! MORE! You are good at it and the info goes down easily and pleasantly.

Also..the lot of you were so very kind not to mention my typing fingers' predilection for barely pausing over the apostrophe key. I do know the difference between a possessive and a plural. When it comes to books, I am blessed with a plurality of possessions. When it comes to typing I am cursed with too many fingers.

Thanks for all the effort and information, Boodust. Let's make sure we keep this one so we don't lose it like we lost your leather monograph. If Giles weren't a figment of our collective imagination, we could have him add this discussion to the sidebar.

Hi
Its the weekend, may be somebody would enjoy this thread, before it disappears into nirwana.