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Book
Bindings
For
anyone with an interest in the aesthetics of books, there are two
inescapable areas of fascination. The first is typography and the
second is book binding. One of the pleasures of reading is the feel
of the book in your hand. Poorly designed books (whether their shortcomings
are typographical or physical) are simply difficult to read.
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To
illustrate the point, I've pulled four books from my shelf.
Each is an example of a nicely bound book, a volume that is
pleasant both to look at and to touch. Two were discovered
in England and two here in the States, and each meets the
criteria I set up for myself when I first started collecting
fine bindings: they are titles I would want to read, no matter
how they were bound. I haven't always kept to that
rule, of course!
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An
Introduction to Dante
by Julian Symonds
third edition, published 1893
bound by mudie
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I
purchased this volume in an American bookshop for $85 in the
late 90s, primarily because I was interested in the subject
matter. But I was also intrigued by the unusual scale effect
on the binding, and by the fact that, in addition to marble
covers, the book featured marble endpapers and marble edges
(as you can see in the photo above).
This
book is a fine example of the bookbinders art in full. Every
detail is addressed. The marbling extends to all three edges
of the pages. Some bookbinders used to paint pictures on the
page edges that were only visible when the edges were turned
a certain way. I've seen this effect before, but none of the
books in my collection have hidden images. Still, this volume
has just about every embellishment short of that.
At
the time I was intrigued by the Victorian scholar Symonds
and, of course, by Dante, too, so this book made a splendid
addition to the collection.
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A Sentimental Journey
by Laurence Sterne
First Impression of this edition
published 1924
Riviere Binding |
Here,
two undistinguished editions are transformed by their
elegant bindings. At left is a 1924 edtion of Laurence
Sterne's A Sentimential Journey, and at right
is a 1905 edition of Anne Bronte's Tenant of Wildfell
Hall and her sister Charlotte's The Professor.
Sterne is distinguished by a beautiful Riviere binding
reminiscent of burled wood. The marble boards are a
little wild, which is in keeping with the volume's 20th
century origins. Tenant is a perfectly ordinary
book with green cloth boards, transformed by this incredible
vellum binding. I have always been in awe of the parchment-like
effect of such bindings, and came very close once to
spending far too much money on a book in indecipherable
German just because it was fully bound in vellum. With
Tenant, I satisfied the urge without breaking the bank,
since it only cost about $35.
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Tenant of Wildfell Hall
and The Professor
by Anne and Charlotte Bronte
Published 1905
Vellum Binding
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Private
Memoirs of the Royal Family of France
by the Duchess of Angouleme
Published 1817
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The
binding of these memoirs about the captivity of the Bourbons
during the French Revolution caught my attention while browsing
through a bookstore in Cambridge. I've always wondered about
the significance of the colored flowers; perhaps the sequence
of the black petals spells out a message? Like many earlier
books, this one is printed on paper with an exotic, tissue-like
feel.
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