Monday, July 27, 2015

Printers, Printmakers,
And
Other Book Workers
In My Library




When Mark Samuels Lasner visited my library in March 2010, he went straight to my Mary Hyde Collection.  And he spent more than a few minutes admiring the books by, about, or formerly owned by Mary Hyde. Then he sauntered over to my Books About Books Collection, pulled down book after book, and pored over their contents.  Mark remarked that I seemed to have books covering practically every facet of Books About Books.

I've added several hundred Books About Books since Mark's visit—a collection now totaling over 1100 books. And in that time, I've written blog posts telling you more than a little bit about my books about book publishers, booksellers, and book collectors. Today, I will tell you a little bit about the book workers in my library: books by and about the men and women who either helped make or repair books.


From An Alphabet For Printers




                                                                    Journal of the Guild of Book Workers



Don't let the "VOL 1 NO 1" on the cover of this pamphlet fool you; the Guild of Book Workers has been around since 1906.  It printed year books for the first forty years or so, then went to mimeographed sheets, which were distributed to the members.  Finally, in 1962, it printed its first quarterly journal.

         




The Graphic Arts And Crafts Year Book 
              For the Year 1907

This year book is not one of the early year books of the Guild of Book Workers.  Nor is it an early year book of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, which wasn't founded until 1914.  It was published by The Republican Publishing Company of Hamilton, Ohio, and it is what the subtitle of the book says it is:  The First American Annual Review of the Engraving, Printing and Allied Industries.  Here are some photos from the 1907 Year Book.


                           



                                                                                                              To Be A Printer





The autobiography of Brooke Crutchley, Assistant University Printer of Cambridge University from 1930 to 1945, and then University Printer from 1946 to 1974.








The First Century of Printing: 1400-1500.  An Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Jan 30-Mar 2, 1941.
The Lakeside Press.




                                      The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe





An abridgment of Elizabeth L. Eisenstein's mammoth two-volume work, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change:  Communications and Cultural Transformation in Early-Modern Europe.

                                                                   



         Journal of the Printing Historical Society





I have this particular issue (Summer, 2001) because it contains Paul W. Nash's article, "The abandoning of the long s in Britain in 1800."







                                                                     




The History of Printing in America






Isaiah Thomas's book on printing will never grow old.






                                
                                                 






                                         The Story of An Old Press                                 


An Account of the Hand Press Known as the Stephan Daye Press, Upon Which Was Begun in 1638 the First Printing in British North America.






                                                                               Printing in Delaware 1761-1800




A checklist of eighteenth century Delaware imprints.





        Books On the Printing Crafts 
        In the Toronto Public Libraries





One of a vast number of pamphlets about the printing crafts that were included in The Last Book Sale Care Package.





  And two more:

The Legibility of Type

A Book of Lettering

                       



                          Weltz Type Faces





The type faces of the Weltz Ad Agency, circa 1960s.





       The Little Manual of Calligraphy





Calligraphy anyone?







                                             
                                              The Printmaker 1450 to 1950

                
                                                   An Essay On Prints







                                                                                                                                                  This copy of An Essay On Prints was formerly owned by Barratt's Library, Bond Street, Bath.  Joseph Barratt was a bookseller and a bookbinder as well as the proprietor of Barratt's Lending Library in the late 1700s and early 1800s.





                              Thomas Bewick:  The Complete Illustrative Work



              The Catnach Press








A Collection of the Books and Woodcuts of James Catnach







                                         Max Beerbohm








Books, Manuscripts, and Caricatures From the Library of Mark Samuels Lasner







                                                                       The Grolier Club Creates                                            




    Book Arts 

Club Members




                                

                                     

                                                     




                    Printmaking




                                                                                                  





                                                                                               On Paper


The Everything of Its Two Thousand Year History















Papermaking:  The History and
 Technique  of an Ancient Craft





Dard Hunter's book about papermaking should be in every bibliophile's library.















One Hundred Twenty-Five Years  in the Paper Business        
1819-1944





A History of America's first paper merchant, the Alling and Cory Company, together with an essay by Joseph T. Alling, "Paper, A Brief Account of How It Is Made."



                         Sample Book





A Sample Book of cover papers produced by Alling and Cory, circa 1930s










Cover papers were used as book covers for pamphlets.



     





Doeskin Cover Papers: Sample Book









The Cleveland Paper Company advertised and sold the cover papers.  But the Chemical Paper Manufacturing Company made them.



                         









Decorative Endpapers




I like marbled endpapers.





                         Here's a sample book of endpapers from TALAS



Here are some sample books of patterns I acquired while visiting the world-renowned Cockerell Bindery in Grantchester in 1988, along with remnants of marbled paper dated 1988, making the sheet one of the last sheets of marbled paper produced at the Cockerell Bindery.  Sydney Morris Cockerell, known as "Sandy Cockerell," died in November 1987, and the contents of the Cockerell Bindery were sold in March 1989.


                                  
   Bookbinding and the Care of Books


Sandy Cockerell's specialty was marbled endpapers.  And his father's specialty was bookbinding.

                                                      

                                                 The Vanishing Breed:
                                                  A History of Bookbinding
                                               By my late friend Don Brady


Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books



A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology by Etherington & Roberts.  Another book that should be in every bibliophile's library.



                                                                           
                                                                                     
                                                                                The Binding of Books







An Essay on the History of Gold-Tooled Bindings  by Herbert P. Horne



                               


                                  An Historical Sketch of Bookbinding



       The Uses of Bookbinding Literature








A lecture given by B. H. Breslauer at Columbia University on July 23, 1984.




   

                                                            Bookbindings, Old And New







Notes of a Book-Lover, With an Account of the Grolier Club  by Brander Matthews.



     






Book Repair And Restoration
  by Mitchell S. Buck











A Manual of Practical Suggestions For the Bibliophile


                                               
                                                   





                                                 The American Bookbinder












The Bookbinder in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg:  An Account of his Life & Times & of his Craft



  Bookbinding:  Its Background and Technique







Edith Diehl was an early member of The Guild of Book Workers.





Binding and Repairing Books by Hand







My very first book on bookbinding.  And I still follow David Muir's techniques of bookbinding.







Victorian Publishers' Bindings




               Bibliopegia Fantastica







If a bookbinder ever says to you, "Give me some skin,"  RUN!!! Just Run!!!





Japanese Bookbinding:
Instructions from a Master Craftsman



                                                                             
                                                                  Bookbinding History & Technique





Oak Knoll Catalogue 246 (2003)
1400 books about bookbinding
Mostly from the collections of  Phiroze Randeria and Alfred Brazier.  





                           The Restoration of Leather Bindings                  





                         




                   



                 Phiroze Randeria's copy, which I acquired from Oak Knoll




               Hand Bookbinding





This copy belonged to the bookbinder Harold W. Tribolet.



                       Cleaning And Preserving Bindings & And Related Materials








Harold Tribolet was the former owner of this bookbinding book as well.  Herbert L. Hanna, Technical Editor of the ALA Library Technology Program, gave him this copy in 1973.








                      Fine Binding in America:  The Story of the Club Bindery



This book also belonged to Harold Tribolet.  I acquired it with the other two books from his library.  But E. A. Thompson's inscription does not mention Tribolet's name.



Here are some bookbinding books for beginners:

            Bookbinding Basics





                                            Bookbinding for Beginners




                         Bookbinding


A Keepsake printed for the Friends of Mt. Tam Press by the Haunted C & P Press, which contains an article on Bookbinding by A. Hushmark that was printed in the Inland Printer in July 1911.







                                                         







                                                                    Book Repairs







                                                                                                              Book Mending







Advice to librarians on repairing inexpensive books.






      Bookbinding BSA Style





And finally . . .




Early American Bookbindings
 From the Collection of Michael Papantonio