Characteristics of C19 Rebindings

Session with Sandra, 7/20/17

Characteristics of later rebindings of EM texts:

• date on spine bottom - later than first EM binding (could be date of original publication)
• Marbled paper on cover - C19 at least
• Look for match/mismatch between endpapers and textblock paper (even mismatch between acid burn of leather and endpapers)
• library buckram - post-1900 (often in composite with earlier materials for conservation)
• cardboard-type material beneath leather: pressboard (waste paper) would have been used until the 19th cent
• Handle tools would be earlier (in blind)
• Stuck-on headbands: stuck with glue, not actually woven into binding structure
  • if you can see little knots, it’s probably a good headband
• Spine: individual handle letters on title vs a palette (all in one) - take a ruler to look at unnevenness (palette would be later and individual handle letters might still have been used to give the appearance of age)
• Label title on spine: dating by this is tricky, but often rebindings have leather labels that don’t match the binding leather
  • date on label is not necessarily indicative of a rebind (like tooled date on spine)
• stained leather (with acid: blotchy or wavy Rorschach-y pattern): again, later
• Pebble-grain leather: later, machined to look like goatskin (it’s calf - you can tell because it breaks down like calf)
• watch for raised bands on spine not matching the sewing impression (or look to see if you can see under the endsheets)
• handwritten labels on spine: 1810s (transition between book issued in sheets and early publishers’ bindings)
• handmade endpapers and handmade textblock paper = contemporary to each other
• look for issues with collation at the beginning and end: they might be out of order
• if marbling patterns inconsistent between cover and endsheets, or on the edges of the textblock, it’s been rebound
• redrot: late C19 calfskin
  • binders complained about this: they couldn’t get any better materials
• rubbing pattern:
  • calf is smooth and shiny, structurally like a cracker, brittle - it scars easily. If calf isn’t scarred, the book hasn’t really been used.
  • goat is structurally like an orange rind, wants to stay together
• You can tell if decoration is tooled or stamped: if it’s exactly the same on all sides of the binding, or between books in the same edition, by measuring, it’s been stamped rather than tooled

Good examples

• The Life of Lt. Gen. Sir John Moore (London: John Murray, 1834)
  • Example of a good-quality 1830s binding (not a publisher’s binding)
  • Goatskin: you can still see it’s patterned under the decoration (calf would just look flat)
  • probably stamped decoration because of uniformity on both sides
• Faerie Queen/Shepherd’s Calendar (printed 1611, rebound probably 18th century)
  • Good headbands
  • Calfskin wearing pattern at spine
  • Spine characteristics described above
  • Match between endpapers and acid burn from leather
  • Acid-stained leather

Session

• panel binding - 17th-18th cent
• rebacking
• deciding whether it's been resown is impt - end bands (sewn on or stuck on), endpapers, raised spine matching cords, on top and bottom it's a consistent color and not wavy (meaning it's been resown)
• someday compile a dictionary of styles of bindings and decorations -- get some representative examples for each time period
• mull - linen fabric - under spine of a reback
• hollow back - 19th century, can see all the way through when opened (like a modern one)