Library Company of Philadelphia
This week’s #BookBouquets feature is ready for festival season! This delicate flower crown adorns our copy of Robert Buist’s American Flower Garden Directory (Philadelphia, 1845).
Browse our database of 19th-century cloth bindings to see more!
Our copy of Juliana Berners’ The Gentlemans Academie (London, 1595) is decked out in gorgeous marbled endpapers and fancy decorated turn-ins featuring gilt-stamped tulips, making this a #MarbledMonday #BookBouquets double feature!
Originally published in 1486 with the title The Booke of St. Albans, The Gentlemans Academie covers a broad range of topics, including falconry, hunting, and heraldy.
We’re excited to join @loynosca and #IGLibraries for this month’s social media challenge: #BookBouquets! Watch for a floral book cover each Wednesday in April.
Our copy of The Bouquet (Boston, 1844) features a gorgeous gilt-stamped floral bouquet against a faded-purple cloth. We think this binding is stunning as is, and bet it was even more striking when the purple cloth was new.
Browse our database of 19th-century cloth bindings to see more!
The Bouquet.
Boston : Oliver L. Perkins. 1844. 11 cm x 7 cm x cm.
We love the decorated paper and scaleboard binding on our copy of John Witherspoon’s A Series of Letters on Education (New York, 1797).
Witherspoon, who was the president of Princeton College in 1797, was an avowed and determined disciplinarian. In a Series of Letters, he recommends parents “begin the establishment of authority” at the age of eight of nine months, and goes on to say “Do not imagine I mean to bid you use the rod at that age; on the contrary, I mean to prevent the use of it in a great measure, and to point out a way by which children of sweet and easy tempers may be brought to such a habit of compliance, as never to need correction at all.”
We find it interesting that the work was issued in such a tiny format, as though it were meant for the children themselves and not their parents. #MiniatureMonday
We’re excited to join @loynosca and #IGLibraries for this month’s social media challenge: #BookBouquets! Watch for a floral book cover each Wednesday in April.
Our copy of Lydia H. Sigourney’s The Voice of the Flowers (Hartford, 1848) is a stunner with its gilt-stamped bouquet, blind-stamped floral decoration, and black and red printed striped cloth.
Browse our database of 19th-century cloth bindings to see more!
Sigourney, Mrs. L. H.
The voice of flowers.
Hartford : H. S. Parsons and co.
1848
It’s time for some #EndoftheWeekEndpapers! We love how these decorated endpapers shimmer in the light. Found in our copy of Charles Hodge’s The Way of Life (Philadelphia, 1841).
We don’t know anything about Charles Heim, the previous owner of our copy of True Politeness (New York, 1854), but based on the condition of this binding we imagine he was an exceedingly polite gentleman. #WellLovedBooks #PublishersBindingThursday
Browse our database of 19th-century cloth bindings to see more!
True politeness. New York : Leavitt & Allen.
1854.
12 cm x 8.5 cm x .5 cm.
Has there ever been a more appropriate facial expression for #FinisFriday? This tailpiece that #JustCant was found while cataloging our copy of Thomas Baylie’s De merito mortis Christi (Oxford, 1626).
We’re digging out after another snow storm here in Philadelphia and feeling ready for some warmer weather and the appearance of the first spring flowers. Until then, we’re getting our floral-fix with these simple gold stamped flowers on our copy of Mary Botham Howitt’s Floral Gems (New York, 1849). #PublishersBindingThursday
Browse our database of 19th-century cloth bindings to see more!
Howitt, Mary Botham.
Floral gems. New York : C.P. Huestis.
1849
We love the intricate blind-stamped design on our copy of George Weaver’s Aims and Aids for Girls and Young Women (New York, 1856). #PublishersBindingThursday
Weaver’s preface states that “Society does little else than to teach its girls to be dolls and drudges.” As was the case with other conduct of life texts from this time period, Aims and Aids was intended as a resource for young women to encourage self-education in all areas of life, including moral and intellectual education as well as promoting physical exercise.
Browse our database of 19th-century cloth bindings to see more!
Weaver, George S.
Aims and aids for girls and young women.
New York : Fowler and Wells, 1856.