Bookbindings

An Illustrated History

Richly illustrated throughout, this book provides a fascinating history of the development of bookbindings from Roman times to the present day.

Bookbinding history has an extensive literature. Some of it comprises catalogues or sets of examples from particular libraries, with an emphasis on associating each binding with particular workshops, and referencing related bindings with the same tooling. Other books in the field focus more on technique, and its historical development. These kinds of books are primarily used by professionals working with historic bindings. More accessible books tend to be small pictorial or coffee-table books, which are little more than a series of images of expensively-decorated bindings. This book will try to bridge that divide; it will be written by an expert who has written books of the former kind, but who is keen to broaden interest in the book as a material object, beyond the walls of the academy. It will be a handsome book, quarto or small quarto format with many full-page colour illustrations of attractive bindings, but its text will stress that the interest of bindings goes beyond the appreciation of beautiful things made by artist-craftsmen. Bindings are an integral, and essential, component of books as a whole; they influence their users, reflect their ideas about books or about themselves, and testify to their individual stories. The ways they have been made and decorated have evolved steadily over time, and many countries have their own distinctive traditions; until mechanisation came to the book trade in the ninteenth century, every binding was a unique handcrafted object, no matter how simple or elaborate it looks from the outside.

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
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International Delivery:

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Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

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