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.”

found + noted

The Wolf and the Dog

* image via NYPL archive

A wolf was going over a high way in the evening. It was hungry. He met a dog. The dog was fat and appeared happy. The wolf made friendship with the dog.

“You are looking better. It appears you are happy and enjoying. Your skin is so nice. You have been fed properly with vitamins, proteins and minerals” said the wolf.

“Look my friend, my life is simple. I watch my master’s house. He feeds me daily four times. I have been given a small house where I sleep well. I don’t have any difficulties.”

“Then your life is good. I also wish the same. But you see my plight. I am always hungry. You see my bones. I am fed very little. I don’t have vitamins and proteins in my food.”

“Ok then. Come with me. Live with me. You will also be happy. Luxury maketh a person” said the dog.

The wolf agreed. Both of them reached the house where the dog lived. Both were happy. As the wolf entered the house accidentally he saw the top of the dog’s neck. He found no hairs there. If at all there were hairs they were too short.

“Why there are no hairs on your neck?” The wolf asked the dog.

“Oh! my dear friend. Why doyou ask it? My master puts a belt on my neck. The belt rubs the neck while the belt is tied to a chain tight. My master pulls it and pushes me into the kennel”  said the dog.

“What ? neck tie and chain” the wolf thus said and didn’t enter further. He was astonishedto hear what the dog said.

“Friend, let me go back. I am not jealous about you. You eat good food. But you are tied here. My bones are thin, true. But I am free in my world. I can go anywhere I like. Thank you. I shall go back.”

Thus said wolf went back to his forest.

---

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

---