#scaleboard

To Scale

We have found three 1805 copies of this work against Deism with identical bindings! Each has boards made of very thin wood, called scaleboard (or scabbard, sca'board) covered with marbled paper. Having multiple, similar copies like this suggests they may likely have been sold in this state: an early kind of publisher's binding.

Citation with link to catalog record:

We shared this sweet scaleboard binding a few weeks ago and our conservation staff were horrified by the 1960s-era repair that was visible on the front cover. So here it is again, fresh from the lab, looking so much better! #FlashbackFriday

Here’s the text from the original post:

We love the decorated paper and scaleboard binding on our copy of John Witherspoon’s A Series of Letters on Education (New York, 1797).

Witherspoon, who was the president of Princeton College in 1797, was an avowed and determined disciplinarian. In a Series of Letters, he recommends parents “begin the establishment of authority” at the age of eight or nine months, and goes on to say “Do not imagine I mean to bid you use the rod at that age; on the contrary, I mean to prevent the use of it in a great measure, and to point out a way by which children of sweet and easy tempers may be brought to such a habit of compliance, as never to need correction at all.”

We find it interesting that the work was issued in such a tiny format, as though it were meant for the children themselves and not their parents. #MiniatureMonday

Scaleboard Scales

We found this early 19th century singing lesson book (with hymns) in an uncatalogued pamphlet collection. The gorgeous scaleboard binding is in rough shape but hanging on!

Be still our hearts! We have fallen in love with this woodblock printed paper and scaleboard binding, which seems fitting as the text within features letters on courtship and marriage. #WoodcutWednesday

We love the decorated paper and scaleboard binding on our copy of John Witherspoon’s A Series of Letters on Education (New York, 1797). 

Witherspoon, who was the president of Princeton College in 1797, was an avowed and determined disciplinarian. In a Series of Letters, he recommends parents “begin the establishment of authority” at the age of eight of nine months, and goes on to say “Do not imagine I mean to bid you use the rod at that age; on the contrary, I mean to prevent the use of it in a great measure, and to point out a way by which children of sweet and easy tempers may be brought to such a habit of compliance, as never to need correction at all.” 

We find it interesting that the work was issued in such a tiny format, as though it were meant for the children themselves and not their parents. #MiniatureMonday