Library Company of Philadelphia
We’re bringing a little divination to this Publishers’ Binding Thursday. The Ladies’ Diadem, or, Starry Oracles (1847) measures just 4.5 inches tall and contains the name of a star for each day of the year, accompanied by a “poetical prophecy”. The star for today, February 16, is Mebusta, from the constellation of Gemini, and the accompanying prophecy reads “There lives more life in one of thy fair eyes, / Than all the poets can in praise devise.”
This little books features a lovely gold-stamped crown surrounded by gold stars and blind-stamped decoration on faded red cloth.
Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more!
Purple bookcloth is notorious for fading, as evidenced by our copy of John Smith Dye’s History of the Plots and Crimes of the Great Conspiracy to Overthrow Liberty in America, published in 1866. Exposure to light faded much of this bookcloth to its original ecru, but a shorter shelf-mate protected a portion of the front cover.
Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more!