#decorative binding

[nemfrog]

The ladies' hand book of fancy and ornamental work. 1860. Cover.

Internet Archive

[oberlincollegelibraries]

Papier-mâché Covers

This book from the mid-19th-century is an example of the brief trend in book decoration and binding, of using papier-mâché in moulds to create decorative frames that could be attached to the covers of a book.

This compilation of Shakespeare was edited and designed by the British naturalist and illustrator Henry Noel Humphreys, who also studied medieval manuscripts and the history of printing. 

[rooke-books-blog]

Some of our many publisher’s bindings. 

[oberlincollegelibraries]

Paper Marbling Decorations

Sharing examples of paper marbling from covers and endpapers of some volumes in Special Collections in celebration of the end of another week! 

Paper marbling began over a millennia ago in East Asia, and then migrated through the Islamic world to reach and become popular among European book makers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Made by floating pigments on an aqueous solution and then lifting the colors off the vat using a sheet of paper, each marbled leaf is unique.

 A bit of the possible variety can be seen here - from the subtle to the gold-flecked, to the technicolor (and the one that looks like a petri dish...).

[dbderbz-books]

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (Franklin Library/Oxford University Press, 1984). One of fifty volumes in Franklin’s “The Oxford Library of The World’s Greatest Books”. Bound in a full leather decorative binding and housed in a custom-made slipcase.