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Notes
The standard treatment of binding description, upon which the present discussion is based, is Fredson Bowers's Principles of Bibliographical Description (1949), pp. 376-78, 446-50.
Some canvas bindings were used in this transition period (from about 1770 until the early 1800's) and are discussed by Douglas Leighton in "Canvas and Book-cloth: An Essay on Beginnings," Library, 5th ser., III (1948-49), 39-49. This period is also treated in Charles M. Adams, "Illustrated Publishers' Bindings," BNYPL, XLI (1937), 607-11 (cf. Davidson Cook, "Illustrations on Bindings," TLS, 17 April 1937, p. 296, and the letter from John Carter, 12 June 1937, p. 452). A survey of the binding terms used in catalogues in this period is R. A. Peddie's "Publishers' Bindings, 1762-1850: A List of Terms," Library World, XLVI (1943-44), 20-21. For background, see also Graham Pollard, "Changes in the Style of Bookbinding, 1550-1830," Library, 5th ser., XI (1956), 71-94; and Ellic Howe "London Bookbinders: Masters and Men, 1780-1840," Library, 5th ser., I (1946-47), 28-38.
Sadleir, The Evolution of Publishers' Binding Styles, 1770-1900 (1930); Carter, Binding Variants in English Publishing, 1820-1900 (1932), and Publisher's Cloth: An Outline History of Publisher's Binding in England, 1820-1900 (1935) — also published in Publishers' Weekly, CXXVII (1935), 807-09, 901-04, 1006-08, 1085-87, 1167-69; Rogers, "The Industrialization of American Bookbinding," Gutenberg Jahrbuch 1938, pp. 243-52, and "The Rise of American Edition Binding," in Bookbinding in America, ed. Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt (1941, 1967), pp. 129-85. In 1931-32 a series of letters in Publishers' Circular discussed the origins of publishers' cloth, following an article by A. Whitaker Ridler, "The Earliest Cloth Binding," Publishers' Circular, CXXXV (1931), 763-64; the letters, from John Carter, Joseph Pennell, Douglas Leighton, R. A. Peddie, and others, appeared in CXXXV (1931), 781; CXXXVI (1932), 12-13, 28-29. 47, 66. A more recent specialized essay is Sybille Pantazzi, "Four Designers of English Publishers' Bindings, 1850-1880, and Their Signatures," PBSA, LV (1961), 88-99. See also George A. Stephen, Machine Book-sewing, with Remarks on Publishers' Binding (1908); Douglas Leighton, Modern Bookbinding: A Survey and a Prospect (1935); The Andrus Bindery: A History of the Shop, 1831-1838, ed. Newton C. Brainard (1940); Edith Diehl, Bookbinding: Its Background and Technique (1946), I, 40-42, 70-78; and Lionel S. Darley, Bookbinding Then and Now: A Survey of the First Hundred and Seventy-Eight Years of James Burn & Company (1959). A standard account of the present technology of edition binding is in Victor Strauss's The Printing Industry (1967), pp. 617-716.
Rogers shows that "English book cloth was the standard article in use in America throughout the century" (p. 163).
Sadleir's photographs were reprinted in the Book Collector two years later "in order that they may reach the widest possible public and so encourage the use in catalogues and bibliographies of a potentially standard vocabulary." See "The Nomenclature of Nineteenth-Century Cloth Grains," Book Collector, II (1953), 54-58.
For a list showing the equivalences between Sadleir and Blanck, see my note on "The Specification of Binding Cloth," Library, 5th ser., XXI (1966), 246-47.
An example of a thorough and complex scheme of classification in this area is Law Voge and F. R. Blaylock, "Tentative Expanded Classification of Bookbinding Techniques," Share Your Knowledge Review, XX (May 1939), 12-21. This outline, intended as a subject guide for a card index of current literature, is not appropriate for the present purpose but does illustrate some of the complications involved in attempting to construct a comprehensive classification in this field.
Since there are only five adjectives employed in the Hartzog system ("fine," "smooth," "coarse," "diagonal," "reverse"), they could easily be abbreviated with small letters to render the symbols more concise — thus "coarse P2" could become "P2c."
Logically, the thousands-digit should be employed to make the primary distinction between "Regular" and "Irregular" patterns; but in order to keep the figures more conveniently manageable, the two major divisions under "Regular" and the two under "Irregular" are assigned to four consecutive hundreds.
This parallel system of referring to colors by the names and reference numbers established in the ISCC-NBS dictionary (1955) and color charts (1965) is described in my "A System of Color Indentification for Bibliographical Description," SB, XX (1967), 203-34.
Just as the adjective "regular" need not be used for patterns representing the norm, so the letter "a" need not be attached to the number when there is no other modfier. But whenever a regular grain is moiré or diagonal, the "a" should be inserted before "d," "e," or "f'" in order to keep the regular grains grouped together. Thus "102" would be followed by "102ad" and "102ae" and then by "102b."
The adjective "reverse" (included in the Hartzog system) is not listed here among the basic adjectives which are assigned letters in the classification because it seems superfluous to provide photographs of reversed patterns. Sometimes binders do use cloth with the reverse side out, however, and in these cases the verbal description can include the word "reversed."
The 1953 printing of the Sadleir photographs in the Book Collector (II, 54-58) shows the grains in the same order (and with the same names) as in XIX Century Fiction but without the accompanying roman numerals. The "ribbon-embossed" cloths depicted by Sadleir (Plate IVb, 1931), Carter (Photograph e), and Rogers (Plate 33) are here classed as "pebble-cloth" because the background corresponds to pebble-cloth; the embossed ribbon pattern is the kind of ornamentation which — as explained below — must be taken up separately for each book.
For a general statement on this subject, see my "Tolerances in Bibliographical Description," Library, 5th ser., XXIII (1968), 1-12.
This concept was suggested by Kenneth L. Kelly's system of levels for specifying colors in "A Universal Color Language," Color Engineering, III (March-April 1965), 2-7; its application to descriptive bibliography is more fully discussed in the essay on "Tolerances" cited above.
Pictures blocked into or pasted onto the binding cloth are a different matter, of course, since they are not "designs" or "patterns" as those terms are used here. A bibliographer may choose, for various reasons, to reproduce such pictures; but their inclusion in a bibliography is less important than the inclusion of patterns, for patterns often recur on other books (whether by the same author or other authors) issued by the same publisher. Reproducing these patterns thus enhances the value of the bibliography as a contribution to the history of the book trade and will ultimately facilitate the comprehensive study of publishing practices in a given period.
See Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt, "The Use of Paper as a Cover Material," in Bookbinding in America (1941, 1967), pp. 211-18 (cf. pp. 269-72).
The second edition of the book (1952), edited by Philip Hofer, contains an essay by Dard Hunter on "Rosamond Loring's Place in the Study and Making of Decorated Papers," pp. xxvii-xxxii. Another comprehensive work is Albert Haemmerle and Olga Hirsch, Buntpapier: Herkommen, Geschichte, Techniken, Beziehungen zur Kunst (1961), which includes an extensive bibliography (pp. 183-95). Other historical studies are Bertrand Guégan, "History and Manufacture of End-Papers" (trans. Katherine Knight), Publishers' Weekly, CXVI (1929), 1755-57, 1759; Edith Diehl, Bookbinding: Its Background and Technique (1946), I, 182-89; and Charles M. Adams, "Some Notes on the Art of Marbling Paper in the Seventeenth Century," BNYPL, LI (1947), 411-22.
See, for example, Enid Marx, "Pattern Papers," Penrose Annual, XLIV (1950), 51-53; and Olga Hirsch, "Decorated Papers," Penrose Annual, LI (1957), 48-53. For further samples, see A Specimen Book of Pattern Papers, Designed for and in Use at the Curwen Press (1928).
The marbling process can be applied to cloth as well as paper, and marbled cloth has occasionally been used as a binding material; see Bernard C. Middleton, A Manual of the Art of Bookbinding Technique (1963).
See Dard Hunter, "A Bibliography of Marbled Paper," Paper Trade Journal, LXXII (28 April 1921), 52, 54, 56, 58.
C. W. Woolnough, The Whole Art of Marbling (1853, 1881); Josef Halfer, The Progress of the Marbling Art (1884; trans. Herman Dieck, 1893). Other prominent treatments of marbling, with a number of samples, are M. Fichtenberg's Nouveau Manuel Complet du Fabricant de Papiers de Fantasie (1852); James B. Nicholson's A Manual of the Art of Bookbinding (1856), pp. 82-130, 246-56; and Rosamond B. Loring's Marbled Papers (1933). A more recent display of marbling patterns is the frontispiece to Bernard C. Middleton's A History of English Craft Bookbinding Technique (1963). Verbal descriptions of the standard patterns are given in E. J. Labarre's Dictionary and Encyclopaedia of Paper and Paper-Making (1952), pp. 155-58. The best places to examine samples, of course, are in such outstanding collections as that of Olga Hirsch (British Museum) — see Printing Historical Society Newsletter, No. 12, Feb. 1969.
Because a watered effect can be produced on other patterns as well, "moiré" must be used as a modifying adjective which can be attached to any pattern name; therefore "Spanish," though a prominent pattern, cannot logically be listed as one of the basic unmodified patterns, since the moiré effect is an essential part of what the name traditionally implies.
Detailed descriptions of the methods of producing the various patterns are found in the books by Woolnough, Halfer, Nicholson, and Loring. Among other treatments are Sydney M. Cockerell, Marbling Paper as a School Subject (1934); J. Halliday's essay in How to Make Hand Decorated Patterned Papers for Book Craft (2nd ed., 1934), pp. 36-42; Franz Weisse, Die Kunst des Marmorierens (1940); Tim Thrift, Modern Methods in Marbling Paper (1945); Morris S. Kantrowitz and Ernest W. Spencer, Process of Marbling Paper (GPO-PIA Joint Research Bulletin B-1, 1947); "Marbling Magic," Inland Printer, CXXII (Jan. 1949) 48-49; G. Bernard Hughes, "English Marbled Papers," Country Life, CXII (1952), 2100-01; William Bond Wheelwright, "How Marbled Papers Are Made," Paper Maker, XXII, no. 2 (Sept. 1953), 1-5; and "The Neglected Art of Paper Marbling: A Detailed Survey of Current American Techniques and Materials," British Printer, LXVII (March-April 1955), 36-41. Cf. Kiyofusa Narita, "Suminagashi," Paper Maker, XXIV, no. 1 (Feb. 1955), 27-31.
Engraved title pages, though produced separately and not part of the sheets, are also covered by this discussion. For terminology to employ in describing typographical ornaments, Franz Sales Meyer's A Handbook of Ornament (trans. Hugh Stannus, 1894) is sometimes helpful.
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