#publisherscloth

Loving the cover decoration on this copy of Ocean Gardens: Glimpses Beneath the Waters (London, 1857).

Want a glimpse beneath the covers?

Hulme's Familiar Wild Flowers was originally issued in monthly parts between 1878 and 1884. These cloth bound editions came out beginning in 1883, each volume with 40 colored plates and embellished with a unique hand painted flower centerpiece on the upper cover.  

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.

To mark the end of National Poetry Month, we are sharing this lovely little publishers  binding which adorns a a copy of the Philopoena, a popular gift book of poetry compiled by Rufus Griswold.  The cloth cover was once a vibrant purple (mauvine), but over the decades has faded significantly. 

This #publishersbindingThursday we are admiring this wonderfully textured cloth grain and the very fitting gilt title decoration on the spine. It also has us wondering, when was the last time you sent someone a letter? Send us one! We’ll write you back!   

To add that little something extra, the binder of this pocket-sized gift book attached colored paper onlays to the upper cover, placed just right so as to make the flowers pop. If you look closely, you can see the outlines of the cut paper pieces underneath the gilt decoration.