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Upcoming Lecture at Rare Book School, University of Virginia

Reconstructing Diderot: Eighteenth Century French Bookbinding

Monday, June 4, 5:30

 Auditorium of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Rare Book School

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

This is an image driven (150+), fast-paced, terse overview of the research I have been doing on eighteenth century French bookbinding. The extensive documentation concerning eighteenth century French bookbinding, as found in Diderot, Dudin, and other sources, form a unique starting point in the examination of the larger questions associated with the history of craft and material culture, the transmission of textual information, and, of course, the history of bookbinding. Book structures of the late eighteenth century stand at the cusp of one of the most radical transformations since the invention of the multi-section codex: by the mid nineteenth century, the machine made cloth case binding begins to dominate book structures. In this talk, I will illustrate the historical context of how these books were made and compare this with physical evidence of books from this time. Particular attention will be given to the tools and techniques used to produce these bindings.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

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Checklist of Writings by Thomas Harrison

Tom Conroy has sent me this checklist of Thomas Harrison writings. Tom Conroy is a book restorer, fine binder, binding historian, and toolmaker living in Berkeley, California. He occasionally comments on this blog; they are always worth reading, and I would like to publicly thank him for his generosity in sharing his expertise.

CHECKLIST OF WRITINGS BY THOMAS HARRISON

Tom Conroy

The following list includes all of Thomas Harrison’s writings which are known to me. Some years ago I took an opportunity to run through most of a file of PAPER AND PRINT looking for more articles by Harrison, but found only the non-instructional articles listed here.

“On Planning A Geometrical Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.I No.23 (1909) p. 354-356.

“On Planning A Geometrical Design. The Back.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.I No.24 (1909) p. 371-373.

[Note: I have no access to BBTJ  Vol.II Nos.1-5, for 1910, but presume that Harrison’s series continued in them.]

“The Principals of Design as applied to book decoration.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.6 (1911) p. 88-90.

“The Principals of Design as applied to book decoration.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.7 (1911) p. 104-105.

“The Geometrical Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.9 (1912) p. 133-135.

“The Organic Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.10 (1912) p. 154-156.

“The Organic Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.11 (1912) p. 163-165.

“Artistic Tendancies of Modern Book Decoration.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.12 (1912) p. 180-182. [A report of a slide lecture by Harrison, and taking the place of his usual contribution to BBTJ, though written in the third person and apparently not by Harrison himself.]

“The Organic Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No.13 (1912) p. 196-198.

“The Organic Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No. 14 (1912) p.213-215.

“The Historic Element In Design.” BOOKBINDING TRADES JOURNAL Vol.II No. 15 (1912) p.235-237.

THE BOOKBINDING CRAFT AND INDUSTRY. “Pitman’s Common Commodities and Industries Series.” London: Pitman, n.d. [1926.]. 2nd ed. n.d. [1930]. [Some years ago I collated my copy of the second edition against a copy of the first, and found no substantial changes except one changed plate and the addition of a ten-page Appendix on “Fire Hazards of Prnting and Binding Wroks” by Robert Taylor, F.C.I.I.]

“Modern Book Decoration.” CRAFT LECTURES OF THE STATIONERS’ COMPANY, “Second Lecture of the Seventh Session, delivered 1928, p. 41-61. [Important. Known to me only in a photocopy.]

“The Care of Books.” THE BOOK-COLLECTORS’ QUARTERLY No. III (June-August 1931) p. 1-14.

“What to Look for in a Modern Binding.” THE BOOK-COLLECTORS’ QUARTERLY No. XIII (January-March 1934) p. 31-41.

“Book Review: The Art of the French Book from early manuscript to the present time. Edited by Andre Lejard.” PAPER & PRINT (Summer 1947) p. 104,106,108.

“A method of Binding A Book in one section.” PAPER & PRINT (Summer 1947) p. 122, 124, 126. [Reprinted in “Fragments of Bookbinding Technique.”]

“A Case for the Single-Section Book.” BOOKBINDING AND BOOK PRODUCTION (October 1947) p. 50-51. [Reprinted from the above item in PAPER & PRINT.]

“Vellum for Letterpress Printing.” PAPER & PRINT (Autumn 1947) p. 182, 184, 186. [Reprinted in “Fragments of Bookbinding Technique.”]

“Making a Moulded, Fire Resisting, Pull-Off Case for very valuable books.” PAPER & PRINT (Winter, 1947) p. 266, 268, 270. [Reprinted in “Fragments of Bookbinding Technique.”]

“The Solander Book Box Portfolio and its affinities.” PAPER & PRINT (Spring 1948) p. 26, 30. [Reprinted in “Fragments of Bookbinding Technique.”]

FRAGMENTS OF BOOKBINDING TECHNIQUE. London?: n.p., n.d. [Pamphlet of [6], 7-31, [32] p. containing the four Paper & Print instructional articles. I have seen what are clearly several different printings. Mine has blue thick paper covers and says “Printed by Walter Pearce & Co., London & Brentford” on p. [32].]

“Early European and Persian Bindings: An Analytical Comparison.” PAPER & PRINT (Summer 1948) p. 130, 132, 134.

“French Mass Production Case Bindings.” Exhibition review. PAPER & PRINT (Autumn 1948) p. 246, 248.

BOOKBINDING FOR PRINTERS. “A*T*P*A*S Handbooks for Teachers No. 2.” London: Association of Teachers of Printing and Allied Subjects, 1949. [Pamphlet of ii, 16, iii-[iv] p.]

CONSTRUCTION IN BOOKBINDING. London: London School of Printing, n.d. [Disappointing pamphlet of [2], 7, [3] p., mostly about sewing. The London School of Printing had that name from 1922 to 1949.]

“Contemporary Bindings: a commentary.” PENROSE ANNUAL 44 (1950) p. 71-74 & 4 plates.

Added 23 Feb. 2013

I found another one, Tom.

“A Persian Binding of the Fifteenth Century” in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 44, No. 250 (Jan., 1924), pp. 31-32+34-35.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/862065 .

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Maurice Sendak on ebooks

“I hate them. It’s like making believe there’s another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of book! A book is a book is a book.” Maurice Sendak  (June 10, 1928-May 8, 2012)