We’ve got a serious soft spot for ribbon embossed cloth.  

Ribbon embossed cloth can be found on publishers’s bindings starting around the mid-1830s.  It was produced by passing the cloth through a hot rolling machine which impressed the design into the cloth. It was a more expensive, and harder to produce and work with, so wasn’t used much after the early 1840s.

The multi-volume set pictured here is The Family Library, published by Harper & Brothers ca. 1839.

We were challenged by the American Antiquarian Society to post seven days of #bookcovers without explanation or review. 

Day 3:

Beecher, Lyman. Views in theology. Cincinnati : Truman and Smith. 1836.

Aristotle’s Masterpiece was the most popular book about women’s bodies, sex, pregnancy, and childbirth in Britain and America from its first appearance in 1684 up to at least the 1870s. More than 250 editions are known, but all are very rare, and the Library Company’s 55 editions amount to perhaps the largest collection in America.  

Aristotle’s Masterpiece was not written by Aristotle the ancient Greek philosopher; it was assembled from a number of popular medical works by an unknown writer. It is a bizarre assortment of superstition, folklore, and sex facts and fancies, all mixed in with the sort of common-sense medical advice that had been passed down by midwives for centuries. The text changed very little over the years, but it was often rearranged, as historian Mary Fissell has noted, like a reshuffled deck of cards. 

We love the ribbon-embossed cloth binding and simple gold-blocked title on our copy of this 1830 edition of Aristotle’s Masterpiece. #PublishersBindingThursday

Read more about Aristotle’s Masterpiece here.

Aristotle’s Master-piece. [United States?] G. Davis. 1830.

We love the subtle floral ribbon-embossed cloth on our copy of Hamilton’s Practical Catechism on Singing (New York, 1839). 

Ribbon-embossed grain got its name from its original intention: as decoration for cloth ribbons. However, the rising popularity of grained and decorated book-cloth in the 1830s and 1840s led to the production of ribbon-embossed cloth for use as a book covering.

Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more!

Hamilton, James Alexander. Hamilton’s practical catechism on singing. New York : Hewitt & Jaques. 1839. 10 cm x 15 cm x 1.5 cm

We present this gorgeous and well-defined ribbon-embossed cloth for #PublishersBindingThursday, found on our copy of Samuel Knapp’s Life of Timothy Dexter (1838).

Ribbon-embossed grain got its name from its original intention: as decoration for cloth ribbons. However, the rising popularity of grained and decorated book-cloth in the 1830s and 1840s led to the production of ribbon-embossed cloth for use as a book covering.

Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more! 

Knapp, Samuel L. 1838, Life of Timothy Dexter Boston : G. N. Thomson 1838 9 cm x 16 cm x 1 cm

For Publishers’ Binding Thursday, we present this ribbon-embossed cloth bound book from 1840. This style of decorative cloth typically featured a floral or botanical pattern, though more abstract designs have been documented. Ribbon-embossed grain got its name from its original intention: as decoration for cloth ribbons. However, the rising popularity of grained and decorated book-cloth in the 1830s and 1840s led to the production of ribbon-embossed cloth for use as a book covering.

Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more! 

Stephens, John Lloyd.  1840, Incidents of travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland.  New York : Harper & Brothers. 1840

As evidenced by this publishers’ binding, purple bookcloth is notorious for fading. Notice the distinct line where the fading begins. The portion of the cloth that did not fade was protected from the sun, probably by another book on the shelf. 

Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more!

1836 [i. e. 1834 -1858], The works of Mrs. Sherwood. : Being the only uniform edition ever published in the United States.  Sherwood, Mrs. Mary Martha.  New York : Harper & Brothers. 12 cm x 19 cm x 4 cm.

For Publishers’ Binding Thursday, we present this ribbon-embossed cloth-bound book from 1836. 

Ribbon-embossed grain got its name from its original intention: as decoration for cloth ribbons. However, the rising popularity of grained and decorated book-cloth in the 1830s and 1840s led to the production of ribbon-embossed cloth for use as a book covering.

We love the simplicity of this binding, and the choice to let the cloth speak for itself with no additional decoration beyond the gold spine title.

Browse the Library Company’s database of 19th-Century Cloth Bindings to see more! 

1836, Phrenology known by its fruits. Reese, David Meredith. New York : Howe & Bates.