Paper

This week's blog will attempt to focus on the types of paper found in The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves, by Thomas Willis, published in 1978. This book was published by The Meriden Gravure Company for the The Classics of Medicine Library. Unfortunately, this information was not helpful and letting me find what type of paper the book was printed on, but this does not mean that the book lacks special paper qualities.

To start, one of the most notable qualities of its paper can be located at the endpapers; these pages are made of marbled paper. Marbled paper is paper with an added aqueous surface design that gives the paper a texture similar to that of marble.

     

Examples of Marbled Paper

There are many different patterns of marbled paper, each one with its own unique colors and designs. One of the best things about marbled paper is that you can actually make it on your own:

As you can see, this is a very simple way to make marbled paper and it allows for one to be very creative in coming up with his or her own design and style. However, making marbled paper is not for everyone, so if you are one of those people who wants to select from a large variety of marbled paper, there are now websites that dedicated to the selling of all types of paper, including marbled.

The paper in this book also contains gilt-edging. Gilt-edged paper is paper that is gilded, or covered with something gold, along its edges. This is a little tougher to do on your own, unlike paper marbling, but like marbled paper, it adds to the importance of the book beautiful. Marbling paper, when done right and by a professional, will have some of the most appealing colors and designs. It can be difficult to make very amazing marbled paper, so when a book contains this type of paper, it adds to its value. Gilt-edging give the pages of the book a special shine; the human eye is attracted to what shines. So although gilt-edging may not be made of real gold, it still appeals to us, and thus results in increasing the value of the book. 

Gilt-Edged Paper

Printing

This week's blog will be discussing the style of printing found in my book of study. Now, if you do not remember my book of study, allow me to refresh your memory. The book of study is The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves, published in 1978, by Thomas Willis, a prosperous London physician.

Really pretty looking cover and binding, right? But our focus is not on this. Instead, it will be on this:

The Meriden Gravure Company, the publishing company responsible for printing this book, was founded in 1888 by Charles Parker and James F. Allen. This company, which specialized in reproduction, became well-known for printing high quality images, first by perfecting the use of full-tone collotype printing, allowing for the production of highly detailed images. This type of printing was improved for years, but by 1967 it was stopped. However, the Meriden Gravure Company had already started offering colored printing since 1940, using countless linoleum cuts to help produce the colored print (for more on the history of the Meriden Gravure Company, click here). 

An example of an image reproduced by the Meriden Gravure Company

This book was originally published in 1664, but it was not published under the same title. It was originally published in Latin, under the title Cerebri anatome, and although I was able to find the publisher , (Typis J. Londini), I was unable to find the printing method for it. The book is being sold at AbeBooks for thousands, and a description of the book can be found there, as well.

Provenance

Provenance, according to L. D. Mitchell of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, is a way "to confirm or gather evidence as to the time, place, and if appropriate, the person responsible, for the creation, production or discovery of an object." Now that is a more complicated and sophisticated way of saying it allows us to know who has previously owned the object. It is important to point out that the object we are looking at in this blog will be the book because this is a book blog, but I feel that it is also important to mention that provenance is not just limited to books. Provenance can be found in any piece of art or historical object. In books, provenance can take multiple forms: documentation of the original purchase, a note between two friends or lovers, even commentary in the margins of the pages.

So why does provenance matter when we are looking at art, in particular books? Well, let's think for a minute. Most rare books are older, but just because a book is old, does not mean that it is rare. At the time all these impressively bound and produced books were being made, many other copies were made, leading to an array of duplicate copies. These copies, however, were not the same as the original. They may not be bound the same or perhaps have different paper and typography, but this is difficult to identify for most people. Even if these duplicate books are made identical to the original book, it is still not the original. So again, what is important about provenance?

Once again, let's think. If we know who owned the book previously, then we are able to establish a timeline for the book. This ownership timeline will allow us to learn about the history of the book, the journey it has taken from the time it was produced and published to its first owners and libraries where it was stored. By knowing the history of the book, we are able to determine the authenticity of the book, as well as, the influential people who once owned them. To sum this all up, provenance is an identification method; it can authenticate a book and show its true value, both historically and literally. It historically shows its value by revealing the life of the book to its owner; it can show its owner a single place or multiple places the book as visited, the hands it has been touched by, and the shelves it has been placed in. Of course, once you can authenticate a book with its provenance, then its real price also shows. Provenance can increase a books value tremendously, the more well-known the person was who owned the book the more expensive it will become. So for those of you who find a book with some writing in it, do not think of it as someone's useless scribbles because you may never know what path that book as traveled.

Provenance Type: Documentation of ownership

Provenance Type: Note; Written "This book of Arcadia was given me by my Dearest Ant ^dam Ann Ker^ Lady Balmerino in Anno 1647 Jedbrugh

Provenance Type: Commentary; Located at the top and mid right margin.

The Unusual Book

Sir Edwin Landseer by J. A. Manson

In this week's blog, I will be discussing a book that I find unusual. While researching for a book, I came across one that really caught my eye. Sir Edwin Landseer, by James Alexander Manson, is a book with a very unique cover and binding.

                                               

This book's unique binding uses a Cosway (named after Richard Cosway) style. This style of binding uses leather, a common binding used through the Middle Ages up until the 19th century, while incorporating paintings that are inserted into the cover of the book. Sir Edwin Landseer was an English painter who mostly painted animals, most commonly of stags and dogs. These can be seen on the front cover (picture on the left), while the back cover (picture on the right) most closely resembles Sir Edwin Landseer himself.

Sir Edwin Landseer