#bookbindinghistory

Just in case you needed another reason to wash your hands... 

The vibrant emerald green cloth on these bindings gets its shocking color from copper acetoarsenite, more commonly known as arsenic. The inorganic pigment was also famously used in Victorian era wallpaper. 

The bindings seen here, along with others in our collection, were tested by Melissa Tedone, Conservator at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, in December 2019 as part of the Poison Book Project. The sample is comprised largely of green cloth case bindings, but some green paper (upper left) also tested positive. They have since been properly rehoused, along with updated safe handling instructions. Read more about the Poison Book Project here.

Have we mentioned we love fall? Well, we do. We also love these squishy soft padded bindings from the late 19th century, so this Longfellow edition is a real win-win.

This book belonged to Harriet.  

We love seeing these traces of ownership and provenance, these hints at the history of treasured objects.  Do you mark your favorite books in any way? Maybe with an ex libris or even a simple signature? 

We’ve got a serious soft spot for ribbon embossed cloth.  

Ribbon embossed cloth can be found on publishers’s bindings starting around the mid-1830s.  It was produced by passing the cloth through a hot rolling machine which impressed the design into the cloth. It was a more expensive, and harder to produce and work with, so wasn’t used much after the early 1840s.

Another Fore-edge Friday is upon us! These beautiful gauffered edges are on a binding presented "as a token of respect to Capt. Samuel Tatem by the crew of the steamer Major Reybold." The Major Reybold was built in 1853 and served on the Delaware River between Salem and Philadelphia until 1906. 

Knock, knock, knock.  Someone’s at the door!

This canvassing book, or salesman sample, shows the various binding styles available for purchase.  Bound into the book are samples of engravings, a family record page, photograph album pages, and a marriage certificate. These special pages have pink notes attached with a script for the canvasser to use in his sales pitch. 

New devotional and practical pictorial family Bible. Philadelphia, PA.; Chicago, Ill.; St. Louis, Mo, and Atlanta GA: National Publishing Co., 1879.