Things that matter —

It is possible that I discovered my own originality through a series of self-imposed detours

Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1953 by Robert Rauschenberg

1830s Publishers' Bindings

I can never get enough of old books. I collect plenty myself and then here I am combing online archives late at night finding more to look at. Can't help myself. Selected bindings from the Rare Books & Special Collections of the University of Rochester, River Campus Libraries

“The earliest cloth bindings are plain and unassuming, decorated with nothing more than their own color and a paper or leather label. To a public accustomed to the tradition of leather bound books and the elaborately embossed or silk bound annuals of the 1820s, these books were unattractive. In an effort to disguise the very cloth itself, it was impressed with textures imitating first, in 1830, leather with “morocco” graining and then, in 1831, watered silk with moiré graining. English publishers and binders alike worked to solve the problems of titling and decorating cloth in gold. They finally met success in 1832 with the introduction in England of the Imperial arming press, which applied pressure to an engraved brass die to emboss a cloth case. One of the most significant developments in the mechanization of bookbinding, the arming press made possible the economical decoration of cases by allowing one man to accomplish with one pull of a handle what would have taken a traditional finisher hours to achieve.”

YOUMA 1890

Lafcadio Hearn; Youma; New York: Harper & Bros., 1890 -- found via River Campus Libraries

book bound in a simple untreated dress fabric. From the 1890s on, it was common for the cloth itself to be a featured aspect of the cover design, even imitated in the interior. 

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Songs From Vagabondia

endpaper designs from Songs From Vagabondia by Bliss Carman & Richard Hovey; designed by Thomas Buford Meteyard who was an Impressionist landscape painter who studied with Monet

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Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt

Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt (b. 1932); German artist in the fields of Visual Poetry and Mail Art 

Pieces above from her typical typewriter graphics (Typewritings) developed as Mail Art in collaboration with her husband, Robert Rehfeldt. Cannot get enough of this series found via ChertLüdde.

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Archive: ice cream wrappers

Assemblage of vintage ice cream labels c.1930's - 1950's / compiled via Letterology and Pinterest

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what will i write here and why

Raymond Meeks, Cabbage White Folio (link)

Raymond Meeks

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here, a new spot to share: art, design, photographs, music, thought. work and life; process and progress; things i've found, things i'd like to be able to find later; some things i'd like to remember. 

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