George Bayntun

John -
Great comments, and helpful, but I'm getting a connection refused when
attempting the photo links. I've also tried with "www" in the prefix.
Normally I can just click and view links - anything up on your end?

Best,
John

John Yamamoto-Wilson wrote:

John F. Kuenzig wrote:



Interesting comment about the "feel" for bindings of various periods
- have you seen any good books or websites which document what
style bindings are contemporary with what periods? I have a few
titles that need rebound in a period style (like a copy of Hutton's
Theory of the Earth 1795), but don't have this "feel" yet having
not handled much in pre-19th century material. In your experience
can you trust a good binder to know these things and just tell them
to put it in a period binding?



Jerry's already answered your first question. As for the second, I think you
need to choose your binder with care. To my mind, the keyword when it comes
to rebindings is "appropriate". A binding may belong to the right period but
still not be appropriate for that type of book, but this is largely a matter
of personal taste and judgement, not something a binder could just trot out
to order.

For example, I have a copy of Gray's Odes (1759), the first book issued
(unbound) by the Strawberry Hill press. As one ABE seller puts it,
"Strawberry Hill books have become sought after for their historical
importance and modest, elegant, and unique design". In my view, what really
matters here is that the binding should be equally elegant and modest. My
copy falls somewhat short of that requirement. It is in a late 19th century
binding with a slipcase. I find the binding - although leather - a little
*too* plain; the brown spine leather, with its gilt title, is fine, but the
red boards and plain vellum corners give it the look of a textbook, or a
ledger, or something like that. Still, I vastly prefer it to a copy being
offered on ABE (by the exorbitantly-priced Kitazawa bookshop in Tokyo) in a
binding of "Full maroon crushed levant morocco" with a "richly gilt floral
design at corners of both covers" and all edges gilt. I would consider this
incongruously gorgeous, and not at all in keeping with the "modest, elegant"
style of the contents.

My copy of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads (3rd edition, 1802), which is also
in a late 19th century binding, is equally modestly bound, again with brown
leather and gilt lettering (the title on a black backing) on the spine and
plain vellum corners, but with marbled boards. To my mind, this works better
than the Gray binding and is quite appropriate for this set.

Follow this link to see both the above bindings:
http://rarebooksinjapan.com/scans/19...rybindings.JPG

The two plain vellum bindings in the following scan are early 15th century
Latin editions of the works of Homer. When I acquired them they, too, were
in marbled boards. Now, what worked for the Wordsworth set seemed quite
inappropriate to works dating from the 15th century. The rebinding of the
boards was my first attempt at doing such work, and I consider the binding
to be much more appropriate to the contents now. The other other book shown
here (Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government, 1698) was
respined, with as much of the leather of the original boards retained as
possible, before I got it. The book had obviously reached the stage where
this kind of repair work was necessary.

Here's the link: http://rarebooksinjapan.com/scans/bindings.JPG

I don't claim to have any special sixth sense as far as the "feel" for
bindings is concerned, but I spent years in research libraries handling
books like this (at that time I was purely interested in the contents and
had no interest whatsoever in book collecting), with the result that, when I
ordered and received my first antiquarian book (James Mabbe's translation of
Mateo Aleman, The Rogue, 1623, bought from Bernard Shapero via ABE), the
sense of recognition when I received it was totally kinetic, a matter of
smell, look and feel. It took me straight back to the days when I was a
research student. It may be that there is another way to gain that sense of
recognition, apart from simply spending a lot of time handling such
material, but if there is I don't know it!

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com




--
Sincerely,

John Kuenzig, Bookseller

Kuenzig Books
PO Box 452, Topsfield, MA 01983
978-887-4053 9am-7pm Eastern Standard Time
(orders or inquiries)

Important Books in Science, Technology and Speculative Fiction

Secure, direct ordering at http://www.kuenzigbooks.com
Save time, money and earn other exclusive benefits.

We are proud members of:
MARIAB http://www.mariab.org
IOBA http://www.ioba.org

and graduates of the Book Seminars International Programs:
http://www.bookseminarsinternational.com

Buying 18th-21st century books, manuscripts, ephemera,
scientific instruments, artifacts, and related material in
our fields of interest

John F. Kuenzig wrote:

I'm getting a connection refused when attempting the photo links.

They're working fine at my end. Anyone else having difficulties?


--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com

A couple of points on Bayntun and the rebinding of modern books.

I believe that Bayntun buy in scruffy copies of modern classics which are
lacking dust jackets and rebind them to sell.

Also, a number of major worldwide dealers also have major firsts rebound in
fine bindings. I personally have sold some modern firsts where the dealer was
gathering sets of a particular authors works to have them finely rebound. They
even told me I could keep the dust jackets!!

If you want examples just do an addall search on Harry Potter and you will find
rebound copies for sale at substantial prices.

There must be a very good market out there for these rebound copies otherwise
the dealers wouldnt go to the effort? Any ideas who the buyers might be? Maybe
Hollywood stars who want nice looking books on their library shelves but who
arent concerned about dust jackets?

Stan

In article ,
(Jerry Morris) wrote:

Douglas Ball, in Victorian Publishers' Bindings, Williamsbrug,1985,

thanks for the reference - now ordered!

In article ,
(John Yamamoto-Wilson) wrote:

the fashion grew up in the 19th century of using endpapers
which
were different from the paper used in the rest of the book.

wasn't this fairly common pre-c19 in continental europe (france at least)?

very interesting post, btw, thanks.

John -
Links are working fine for me now - perhaps was on my end. Sorry. Thanks
for the photos and thoughts!
Best,
John

John Yamamoto-Wilson wrote:

John F. Kuenzig wrote:



Interesting comment about the "feel" for bindings of various periods
- have you seen any good books or websites which document what
style bindings are contemporary with what periods? I have a few
titles that need rebound in a period style (like a copy of Hutton's
Theory of the Earth 1795), but don't have this "feel" yet having
not handled much in pre-19th century material. In your experience
can you trust a good binder to know these things and just tell them
to put it in a period binding?



Jerry's already answered your first question. As for the second, I think you
need to choose your binder with care. To my mind, the keyword when it comes
to rebindings is "appropriate". A binding may belong to the right period but
still not be appropriate for that type of book, but this is largely a matter
of personal taste and judgement, not something a binder could just trot out
to order.

For example, I have a copy of Gray's Odes (1759), the first book issued
(unbound) by the Strawberry Hill press. As one ABE seller puts it,
"Strawberry Hill books have become sought after for their historical
importance and modest, elegant, and unique design". In my view, what really
matters here is that the binding should be equally elegant and modest. My
copy falls somewhat short of that requirement. It is in a late 19th century
binding with a slipcase. I find the binding - although leather - a little
*too* plain; the brown spine leather, with its gilt title, is fine, but the
red boards and plain vellum corners give it the look of a textbook, or a
ledger, or something like that. Still, I vastly prefer it to a copy being
offered on ABE (by the exorbitantly-priced Kitazawa bookshop in Tokyo) in a
binding of "Full maroon crushed levant morocco" with a "richly gilt floral
design at corners of both covers" and all edges gilt. I would consider this
incongruously gorgeous, and not at all in keeping with the "modest, elegant"
style of the contents.

My copy of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads (3rd edition, 1802), which is also
in a late 19th century binding, is equally modestly bound, again with brown
leather and gilt lettering (the title on a black backing) on the spine and
plain vellum corners, but with marbled boards. To my mind, this works better
than the Gray binding and is quite appropriate for this set.

Follow this link to see both the above bindings:
http://rarebooksinjapan.com/scans/19...rybindings.JPG

The two plain vellum bindings in the following scan are early 15th century
Latin editions of the works of Homer. When I acquired them they, too, were
in marbled boards. Now, what worked for the Wordsworth set seemed quite
inappropriate to works dating from the 15th century. The rebinding of the
boards was my first attempt at doing such work, and I consider the binding
to be much more appropriate to the contents now. The other other book shown
here (Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government, 1698) was
respined, with as much of the leather of the original boards retained as
possible, before I got it. The book had obviously reached the stage where
this kind of repair work was necessary.

Here's the link: http://rarebooksinjapan.com/scans/bindings.JPG

I don't claim to have any special sixth sense as far as the "feel" for
bindings is concerned, but I spent years in research libraries handling
books like this (at that time I was purely interested in the contents and
had no interest whatsoever in book collecting), with the result that, when I
ordered and received my first antiquarian book (James Mabbe's translation of
Mateo Aleman, The Rogue, 1623, bought from Bernard Shapero via ABE), the
sense of recognition when I received it was totally kinetic, a matter of
smell, look and feel. It took me straight back to the days when I was a
research student. It may be that there is another way to gain that sense of
recognition, apart from simply spending a lot of time handling such
material, but if there is I don't know it!

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com




--
Sincerely,

John Kuenzig, Bookseller

Kuenzig Books
PO Box 452, Topsfield, MA 01983
978-887-4053 9am-7pm Eastern Standard Time
(orders or inquiries)

Important Books in Science, Technology and Speculative Fiction

Secure, direct ordering at http://www.kuenzigbooks.com
Save time, money and earn other exclusive benefits.

We are proud members of:
MARIAB http://www.mariab.org
IOBA http://www.ioba.org

and graduates of the Book Seminars International Programs:
http://www.bookseminarsinternational.com

Buying 18th-21st century books, manuscripts, ephemera,
scientific instruments, artifacts, and related material in
our fields of interest