Finding bindings
Beginning in 2019, I began a project to identify and document examples of hand bookbinding within the circulating ("Open Stacks") collection of the Arizona State University Library. These examples included:
- bindings with some mark of the binder (tickets, signatures, or stamps)
- trade bindings (ca. 18th-19th century)
- other bindings of significant aesthetic interest (such as "deluxe" or "extra" editions of 19th and early 20th century works, armorial bindings, or prize bindings)
- decorated publishers cloth bindings
To accomplish this I spent many hours walking the stacks of our various locations, as well as scouring the library's catalog for certain "je ne sais quoi" descriptive elements in the hopes that I'd spot yet another undescribed gem. However, the most efficient way to locate these bindings really was through visual inspection; our catalog records often did not include any documentation of the unique nature of these volumes.
As I identified bindings of interest, I added their bibliographic information and physical description (including the binder’s name if known) to a spreadsheet. I also took photographs of the bindings and their significant features, including the binder’s signature/ticket/stamp. Eventually I realized this data would be even more useful, and interesting, if I could enhance it with Linked Open Data.
The result of this realization is this site, which is a mostly comprehensive display of the bindings I have thus far identified.
As this project is still ongoing, I will update this collection with each new binding that meets my criteria for inclusion in this project.
Here is a list of the various pages on this site, or you may just scroll down and browse the entire collection of bindings!
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A. Nienhuis
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Albert Valat
A French bookbinder, whose ticket lists "Reliure, Dorure, Cartonnages", at 1. Rue Cambaceres, Montpellier. He is listed in a 1905 guide -
Acres, Blackmar and Co.
A blank book manufacturer and printing firm located in Burlington Iowa. It was founded by S.F. Acres; Edwin Carlton Blackmar joined the firm in 1867. In 1879 the firm was reorganized as a corporation, and Mr. Blackmar became the secretary of the company. Mr. Acres died in 1890, and Blackmar took over as president. He held that title in the company until his death in 1900. -
Alexander Milne
"Alexander Milne of Forres (c. 1779-1849), who settled in Forres in 1798, initially working as master of the grammar school and then becoming a bookbinder, bookseller and stationer in the early nineteenth century." (Description from Quaritch bookseller catalog (https://www.quaritch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Edinburgh-2016.pdf)) -
Alfredo David
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Angel Ureña
Angel Ureña was a 20th century Dominican bookbinder who ran the "Benefactor" bindery and bookbinding school in the city now known as Santo Domingo. -
Atelier Bindery for Charles Scribners Sons
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Bailer Bros.
Bailer Bros. was a large bookbindery firm located in Union Square, in New York City, during the 20th century. -
James Baker
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Baker and Son
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Bickers and Son
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Birdsall
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Blackwell
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Blunson and Co.
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Boutan-Marguin
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Burn & Co
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Vogt
C.W. Vogt was a German bookbinder who served as a Court bookbinder alongside Ernst Collins. -
Capre and Carpegna
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Carl Albert Kindle
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Charles Winstanley
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Crispin Marquez
Bookbinder from Guaymas, in the Mexican state of Sonora. -
Skelton
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Engel et fils
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Ernest Tiedemann
Ernest Tiedemann was a bookbinder in Albany, New York. He was born in 1839 and died in 1902. -
Eyre and Spottiswoode
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Francis Bedford
BEDFORD, FRANCIS (1799–1883), bookbinder, was born at Paddington, London, on 18 June 1799. His father is believed to have been a courier attached to the establishment of George III. At an early age he was sent to a school in Yorkshire, and on his return to London his guardian, Henry Bower, of 38 Great Marlborough Street, apprenticed him in 1817 to a bookbinder named Haigh, in Poland Street, Oxford Street. Only a part of his time was served with Haigh, and in 1822 he was transferred to a binder named Finlay, also of Poland Street, with whom his indentures were completed. At the end of his apprenticeship he entered the workshop of one of the best bookbinders of the day, Charles Lewis [q. v.], of 35 Duke Street, St. James's, with whom he worked until the death of his employer, and subsequently managed thebusiness for Lewis's widow. It was during this period that Bedford's talent and industry attracted the notice of the Duke of Portland, who became not only one of his most liberal patrons, but also one of his staunchest and kindest friends. In 1841 Bedford, who had left Mrs. Lewis's establishment, entered into partnership with John Clarke of 61 Frith Street, Soho, who had a special reputation for binding books in tree-marbled calf. Clarke and Bedford carried on their business in Frith Street until 1850, when the partnership was dissolved. In 1851 Bedford went to the Cape of Good Hope for the benefit of his health, where he remained a considerable time, the expenses of his journey being defrayed by the Duke of Portland, and on his return to England he established himself in Blue Anchor Yard, York Street, Westminster. He afterwards added 91 York Street to his premises, and remained there until his death, which took place at his residence at Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith, on 8 June 1883. Bedford was twice married, but had no children by either of his wives. The work of Bedford is not excelled by that of any English bookbinder of his time. If not distinguished by much originality, it is always in good taste, and although it may not be quite equal in finish to that of the best of the contemporary French binders, for soundness and thoroughness it could not be surpassed. Bedford appreciated tall copies, and a book never came from his hands shorn of its margins. He was also a very skilful mender of damaged leaves. The number of volumes bound by him is very large, and for many years a continuous stream of beautiful bindings issued from his workshops, the great majority of which are now to be found on the shelves of the finest libraries of England and America. Many of his choicest productions are imitations of the work of the great French bookbinders of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and the bindings of Rogers's 'Poems' and 'Italy,' of which he bound several copies in morocco inlaid with coloured leathers and covered with delicate gold tooling in the style of Padeloup, are exquisite specimens of his skill. These two volumes have repeatedly realised upwards of one hundred guineas. Bedford himself considered that an edition of Dante, which he bound in brown morocco and tooled with a Grolier pattern, was his chef d'oeuvre, and wished it placed in his coffin ; but his request was not complied with, and it was sold at the sale of his books for 49l. He obtained prize medals at several of the great English and French exhibitions. His books were disposed of by Sotheby, Wilkinson, & Hodge, in March 1884, and realised 4,876l. 16s. 6d. Many of the best examples of his work were among them. In addition to his skill as a bookbinder, Bedford possessed much literary and bibliographical knowledge. -
Francisco Aviles
Bookbinder, printer, and blank book seller from Guatemala City, Guatemala. Advertisements before the 1917 earthquake list his address as "11 Calle Oriente, Junto al Edificio San Marcos". The Edificio San Marcos was the home of the Hotel Imperial, which was located in the Zone 1 district, on Calle 11 at Avenida 8a. So his bindery was next to the Hotel Imperial, at least until the earthquake hit in 1915. Aviles was also a signer to the 1892 statues of the "El Porvenir de los Obreros" ("Future of the Workers Society") a mutual aid society of unionized craftspeople and artisans. -
Franz Lysakowski
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Franz Ostermann
"Coming to Paris after 1870, he founded his workshop in 1872 at 80 boulevard Malesherbes, then transferred it to 28 rue Ampère in 1902". (https://data.bnf.fr/fr/16007987/franz_ostermann/) -
Fried Bruckmann
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G. Desnaux
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Gresswell
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H. Sperling
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James Hayday
HAYDAY, JAMES (1796–1872), book-binder, born in London in 1796, served his time with Charles Marchant, vellum-binder, 12 Gloucester Street, Queen Square, and then for some time worked as a journeyman. In 1825 he became one of the auditors of the Journeymen Bookbinders' Trade Society. He commenced business in a very humble way. In 1833 he rented premises at 31 Little Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he continued until his retirement in 1861. Hayday had long seen that it was desirable to make printed books open freely and lie flat; his attention is believed to have been drawn to this matter by seeing Bagster's polyglot bibles, which were bound by Joseph Welsh of 10 Queen Street, Golden Square, in what was known as ‘Bagster's Renowned Binding.’ These books were made flexible, and covered with purple pin-headed sealskin with a blind tool ornament. In his own binding he sewed the books all along every sheet, and to remedy the extra thickness that would be caused by sewing with thread, used silk, and to equalise the thickness rounded the fore edges more than was customary. To make the back tight he dispensed with the ordinary backing of paper, and fastened the leather cover down to the back. Still the constant opening of the book disfigured the grain of the leather, and to obviate this he introduced the cross or pin-headed grain, or what is now termed Turkey morocco. Works bound by Hayday became famous, and his name attached to a book raised its value twenty-five per cent. Edward Gardner of the Oxford Warehouse, 7 Paternoster Row, secured Hayday's services for the Oxford books exclusively. William Pickering, bookseller, of 57 Chancery Lane, gave him the benefit of his long experience, and introduced him to many wealthy patrons. After entering into a brief partnership with Mr. Boyce, ‘a finisher,’ he again started on his own account at 31 Little Queen Street. Unable to compete with other and cheaper binders, he was adjudicated a bankrupt on 10 June 1861. He sold the use of his name to William Mansell, who succeeded to the bookbinding establishment. Retiring to St. Leonard's-on-Sea, Hayday died there on 19 March 1872, aged 76. -
Heffe und Beder
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Henry Joseph Pierson
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Isidro Morales
A bookbinder who worked in the Quiapo district of the city of Manila, in the Philippines. -
J. Carss & Co
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J. Clarke
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J. Prinzing
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J Raso
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J.R. Cordova
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J.S. Wilson & Son
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Jacques Delannez
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James MacDonald
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John and Edward Bumpus Ltd.
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John Bumpus
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Jose V. del Castillo
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Julius Hager
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Legatoria Torriani
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Librairie Bonneau
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Litton
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Livraria Castro e Silva
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Louis Pouillet
Established in Paris around 1870 at n ° 5 rue du Pont-de-Lodi then 3 cours du Commerce-Saint-André. Practiced his profession until his death at the age of seventy. His daughter succeeded him and practiced until around 1950" (from BNF entry) -
M.L. Collins
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Mansell
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Martin Kausche
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Max Weil & Co.
A bookbinding firm in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the early 20th century. Also advertised as "Booksellers & Blank Book Dealers, Stationers, Printers & Envelope Makers" on company stationery. -
Mudie
" These books were bound in the bookbinding division, the fourth branch of the company, found on the upper floors of the New Oxford Street building, where the repairing of worn library volumesand the stitching of the numnerous catalogues also was done. The style of calf binding developed here became famous as "Mudie calf"." Griest, Guinevere. “A Victorian Leviathan: Mudie’s Select Library.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 20, no. 2, University of California Press, Sept. 1965, pp. 103–26, doi:10.2307/2932540. -
Muller and Woeflin
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N.A. Ornells
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Nicolas
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Oberti and Pesci
A bindery located in Genoa, Italy. -
Offizin W. Drugulin
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P. A. Norstedt
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Pedro Pastor
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Peter A. Demeter
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Ramón de San Nicolás Araluce
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Ringer and Hertzberg
A bookbinding firm located in Chicago, owned by Ernst Hertzberg and Philip Ringer. The name changed to the Ernst Hertzberg & Sons Monastery HIll Bindery in 1907 when Ernst bought out Ringer's share of the firm. -
Riviere
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Rodolfo Picardo
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Ruiz
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S.B. Howell
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Colegio Salesiano Santa Julia
A Salesian school located in the Anáhuac neighborhood of Mexico City, which had a trade school component, which provided training in bookbinding, printing, carpentry, and other crafts. -
Sangorski and Sutcliffe
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St. Austin and Sons
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Henry Stikeman
Henry Stikeman founded the "Stikeman & Co." bindery in 1887. -
Talleres de la Penitenciaria
A prison bindery in the Mexican state of Nayarit. -
Thomas Mullen
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Samuel Tout
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William Stewart
William Stewart was a 19th century bookbinder originally from Hagerstown, Maryland. He later moved to Indianapolis and formed the Stewart and Bowen firm with Silas Bowen. -
Wardley
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Wells
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William Thomas Jennings Worsfold
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Zaehnsdorf
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Atanasio Quijano
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Julio Rico
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Imperial Series
HEF -
The Metcalf-Call Readers
JCC -
The Magazine of art
LFD -
A book of the poster
WSR -
Prentice Hugh
AC -
The dream of Gerontius
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Dunvegan Castle, a poem
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Quarrels of authors
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Avventure e osservazioni de Filippo Pananti sopra le coste di Barberia
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Valerius
Half style calf with marbled paper sides. -
Reminiscences of Charles Butler
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Some passages in the life of Mr
Half style with leather and marbled paper sides. -
Sketches from Venetian history
Half style with goat and marbled paper. Head edge gilt. -
Storia d'Ancona dalla sua fondazione all'anno MDXXXII
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Tales and sketches
Half style calf with marbled paper sides. -
Madame Tussaud's memoirs and reminiscences of France
Half style with goat and navy cloth. -
Forest scenes and incidents
Half style with leather and printed decorative paper on boards. -
The works of Beaumont & Fletcher
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Poems original and translated
Full calf, raised bands, gold tooling on spine and squares. -
History of the later Roman commonwealth
Full leather binding with gold tooling along perimeter of boards, and on turn-ins. It has been previously repaired with book repair tape, and the original spine is no longer present under the tape. -
Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de España y sus posesiones de ultramar
Cathedral style stamping on spine. Half style with green leather spine and corners, and marbled paper sides. -
Die Entdeckung von Amerika
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Oeụvres de Condorcet
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Paddiana
Half style with marbled boards. -
Decimi Junii Juvenalis et Auli Persii Flacci Satirae expurgatae
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Diary and notes of Horace Templeton
Half leather with marbled paper sides. -
Diary and notes of Horace Templeton, esq., late secretary of legation at ------.
Half leather with marbled paper sides. -
Histoire du comté de Hainaut
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The poetical works of Reginald Heber
Full calf with gold tooling on spine and board edges. -
Lord George Bentinck
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The poetical remains of William Sidney Walker
Full calf with simple gold borders on boards, gold tooling on spine. -
Die Sachsen in England
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Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores; or, Chronicles and memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages. [and] The repressor of over much blaming of the clergy. By Reginald Pecock. Ed. by Churchill Babington.
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History of civilization in England
Marble paper on boards match endsheets. Gold tooling on spine. Raised cords. -
Dutch pictures
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Accepted addresses
Half style with green goat and marbled paper sides -
The journal and letters of Samuel Curwen
Half style leather with marbled paper sides. -
After breakfast
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My recollections of Lord Byron
Half style with marbled paper on boards. Extensively tooled spine. -
Diary
Two volumes out of three in half bindings by the binder "Tout", with gold tooling on spine and marbled paper on the boards. The middle volume (#2) differs in that it was previously sent to the library bindery and rebound in a black buckram case binding. -
Goethe-Gallerie
Buchbinderei Note -
Piccadilly
Half style with red calf and marbled paper sides -
Blụheriade
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History of the world from the earliest period to the present time
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Tancred
Half binding with brown calf and nonpareil pattern marbled paper on boards. Blind tooling along edges of leather. Gold tooling on spine. Textblock edges marbled with nonpareil pattern. Marbled paper endpapers match paper used on front of boards. -
Under the sun
Half style with green goat and marbled paper sides -
Bacon's essays
Full leather prize binding with gold stamped crest of the Harrow School on front board. -
Meyers konversations-lexikon
Previously rebacked. -
A select collection of old English plays
Half style with maroon goat and marbled paper sides. Stamped in gold with "Western Club Glasgow" on front board of each volume in set. Only Volumes 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 13 are still in contemporary bindings. Other volumes in this set were previously library bound in buckram bindings. -
Autobiography and other memorials of Mrs
Half goat with marbled paper sides , raised bands and gold tooling on spine. Marbled edges that match the pattern on the boards. Endsheets are also the same pattern as the boards. Matchy matchy! -
Sketches of Anglo-Jewish history
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The works and life of Walter Savage Landor
Half style calf with marbled paper sides. -
El porvenir de España en America
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Charles Kingsley
Full calf with gold tooling, raised bands, full edge gilt, gold tooling on squares. Marbled endpapers. "Hatchards by Piccadilly" is stamped in gold on bottom square of front board. -
The adventures of Philip on his way through the world
Half style with red goat and marbled boards. -
The life and writings of Henry Thomas Buckle
Binders note. Marble paper on boards "continued" as endsheets. Gold tooling on spine. Raised cords. -
Disturbed Ireland
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The poems of Lord Herbert of Cherbury
Vellum over boards. Red and Black printed lines on spine and boards. Untrimmed edges on textblock. -
Works by Ouida
Set sold (and/or bound) by Hatchards. Half vellum with contrasting leather spine labels in red and green. The spine compartments are stamped with a simple floral device. -
Some Principles Of Every-Day Art: Introductory Chapters on the Arts Not Fine
LFD -
Echoes of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three
James Bond or James Pond? Marbled paper. Raised cords. Binder's note. -
En viaje
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The Raven
DW -
Short studies on great subjects
Marble endsheets. Binder's note. -
The manx witch and other poems
Full blue calf with gold tooling on spine, and red leather title label. Gold tooling on turn-ins. -
Nuevas cartas americanas
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Lothair
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Ornamental design
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Obras históricas de don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl
Quarter style with marbled leather spine and corners, and brown moire cloth sides. Title label is red leather with gold stamping, and volume # is black leather label with gold stamping. -
Endymion
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The life
Half style with cloth sides. -
Entertaining Reader for Standards V, VI, and VII
HS -
Memoirs of the Verney family
Half style goat with marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers. Marbled edges. Gold tooled spine with raised bands. -
Manuel de bibliographie biographique et d'iconographie des femmes célèbres
Binder's note. Raised cords. Part of a set. Marble paper on leather. -
The world of music : the great virtuosi
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The little minister
MT -
The Peer and the Woman
AF -
Nature in ornament; an enquiry into the natural element in ornamental design & a survey of the ornamental treatment of natural forms
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Estadismo de las islas Filipinas
Full marbled leather binding with gold tooling on spine. Bright pink patterned paper endpapers. -
Cast Ashore
AC -
Prose fancies
Vellum over boards. Gold tooling on squares. blind-tooled borders on boards and spine that were painted in. -
A daughter of music
Half style with red goat and marbled boards. -
Lullabies of many lands, collected and rendered into English verse
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Round the red lamp
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The Disagreeable Duke: A Christmas Whimsicality for Holiday Boys and Girls
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The Mayfair Set (series binding)
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Casa Braccio
Unsigned -
Chapman's Story Series
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A London Garland
AP -
Notes et souvenirs
Half style with calf and marbled paper sides. -
Obras de d
Full tree calf with colored leather labels on spine and raised bands. -
Lyrical verse from Elizabeth to Victoria
Half style with vellum sides. Gold tooling on boards and spine. Armorial stamp of with Marquess/Marchioness crown with "E.O." underneath it is stamped in top right corner of front board. From John Hatchard and Son. Maybe Morrell? Or Bayntun? This has pictures of bindings that look similar: http://www.georgebayntun.com/pdf/pdf_16082013_095411.pdf -
My Lady Nicotine: a study in smoke
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Muriella, or, Le selve
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Lyric Poets Series
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The Novels of Alphonse Daudet
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Lady Levallion
AW -
When Arnold Comes Home
WA -
The Thousand and One Arabian Nights Entertainments
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Old country idylls
EBA -
There was once a prince
Unsigned -
Nautilus Series
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Famous Scots Series
B in Rhombus -
Sunbeam stories and others
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Devil's Dice
sea horse -
Thirty Strange Stories
FRK -
The great hymn "Altus" of S. Columba, Abbot of Iona : as written by him in Latin words and Gaelic letters about the year 587 for a penance because he had caused war
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Through Finland in Carts
WBM -
Fairy stories and wonder tales
AR -
The road to Paris; a story of adventure
ED -
Lupton Gilt Top Series
GAT -
The Daisy Series (1898)
GAT -
Windsor Series (1898)
C -
The Alkahest, November 1898
FRK -
All the way to fairyland
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Kronstadt; a novel
CSM -
Letter and spirit, dramatic sonnets of inward life
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God’s Gentlemen
h -
A French Volunteer of the War of Independence
AR -
The king's jackal
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National Series (1898-1901)
GAT -
Le plus beau royaume sous le ciel
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Geschichte des sozialismus und kommunismus
Half style red cloth with marbled paper sides. -
Hours in a library
Half style with gold-tooled red calf leather and marbled paper on boards. -
The Valiant Runaways
FRK -
The Lion and the Unicorn
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The judgment of Helen
RR -
A Daughter of the Vine
FRK -
Dr. Berkeley's discovery
FD -
The Knight of King's Guard
AMS -
Both Great and Small
PEM -
Le Tribunal révolutionnaire
Quarter style with red calf and marbled boards. Marbled edges. -
Gold!
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The rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
ED -
Wild animals I have known, and 200 drawings
EST -
Bird-life : a guide to the study of our common birds
EST -
A woman tenderfoot
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All about dogs : a book for doggy people
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The adventures of John Johns
WSR -
The realization of Justin Moran
AW -
A Traitor in London
AW -
Ada Vernham, actress
Reginald Rigby -
A difficult problem : the staircase at the Heart's Delight
WF -
Songs of American destiny; a vision of new Hellas
LHM -
Folklore stories and proverbs, gathered and paraphrased for little children
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Carried Off, A Story of Pirate Times
AC -
Ernest Bracebridge
DW -
Shadowings
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The Bennett twins
C-box-X -
The Boers in war; the story of the British-Boer war of 1899-1900
BB back to back -
Poverty Knob
K in circle -
Way down East : a romance of New England life
AF -
Lives of the Hunted
ESTG -
Dismal England
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The story of an ocean tramp
FTW -
The god seeker; a tale of old Styria
M -
The forest schoolmaster
M -
Among hostile hordes : a story of the Tai-Ping rebellion
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A Son of Satsuma
BS in box -
A Japanese miscellany
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Keepers of England
GDH -
At Sunwich port
CMW -
The investigators
Charles E. Dawson
About the author
As the Conservator at ASU Library, Suzy Morgan leads the Preservation unit, which includes preservation, conservation, and reformatting services for the library’s physical collections. She holds a Master of Science degree in Information Studies from the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, with an advanced certificate in conservation earned from the Kilgarlin Center for the Preservation of the Cultural Record. Prior to joining the ASU Library, Morgan worked as the web manager for the Newberry Library in Chicago and completed intensive conservation internships at the Northwestern University Library and the Syracuse University Library. Suzy is enthusiastic about engaging with a wide variety of audiences about conservation, books, and the art of bookbinding. Some of her favorite past engagements include giving tours of the lab for girl scout troops earning their book arts badge and teaching library preservation and book repair in Myanmar.
