Vanity bindings? Special order, or what?

Sorry about the lack of info. Two examples should do:

Complete Works of Shakspere [sic]. No date. Edited by Halliwell. London
Printing and Publishing Co. Leather bound with raised ribs and gilt on spine.
Beveled marbled boards. Four volumes.

Popular History of France by Guizot. No date. Estes and Lauriot pubs.
Leather bound with tooled, gilt spine. Six volumes

Both sets are stamped with the previous owners name in gilt.
 >> Stay informed about: Vanity bindings? Special order, or what? 

Down through the ages. book owners have put their marks of ownership in
books in various ways: signatures, mottoes, bookplates, bookstamps,
book labels, armorial binding stamps, as well as names, initials,
monographs and ciphers stamped directly on the bindings.

In Rodins Balzac's books, the previous owner had his name stamped in
gilt on the bottom of the spines sometime in the late 1800s The names
could have been added either during the binding process, or afterwards. =


In the 1530s, Jean Grolier, the French collector, had his name added to
the bindings of his books. Around 1540, Thomas Wotton. the "English
Grolier," had "Thomas Wottoni et amicorum" added to his books.

In his book, Provenance Research in Book History, New Castle, De., 1998
(1994), David Pearson provides such histories and references on how to
research the provenance of a book. Tracking down a name can be easy.
Tracking down iintials, monograghs, or ciphers is not. I highly
recommend Pearson's book.

Jerry Morris





rodinsbalzac.RemoveThis@aol.com (Rodins=A0Balzac)
I have several sets of books bound in leather with the original owner's
name stamped in gilt in the ruling of the spine at the bottom.
Was this done "aftermarket" or was it likely an option when ordering a
set of books from the publisher.


Welcome to Moi's Books About Books: http://www.tinyurl.com/hib7
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 >> Stay informed about: Vanity bindings? Special order, or what? 

Rodins Balzac wrote:

 > Complete Works of Shakspere [sic]. No date. Edited by Halliwell.
London
 > Printing and Publishing Co. Leather bound with raised ribs and gilt on
spine.
 > Beveled marbled boards. Four volumes.

All the copies on ABE are leather bound, but none appear to mention the
owner's name being giltstamped on the cover, so it is probably something
that applies just to your copy, and was not in general a feature of this
publication.

 > Popular History of France by Guizot. No date. Estes and Lauriot pubs.
 > Leather bound with tooled, gilt spine. Six volumes

Ditto.

 > Both sets are stamped with the previous owners name in gilt.

If it is done in the same way in books from different publishers I think you
can safely assume that it was something the owner had done specially when
having these books rebound.

Also, the second, at least, was, I think, issued in a cloth binding. It is
hard to be sure, since it is undated, and just *might* have been issued in a
fine binding as a de luxe edition, but it is unlikely.

--
John
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://rarebooksinjapan.com" target="_blank">http://rarebooksinjapan.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Vanity bindings? Special order, or what? 

"John Yamamoto-Wilson" wrote...
 > Rodins Balzac wrote:
 >
  > > Both sets are stamped with the previous owners name in gilt.
 >
 > If it is done in the same way in books from different publishers I think
you
 > can safely assume that it was something the owner had done specially when
 > having these books rebound.

Exposing my ignorance of leather bookbinding tchnique: Is this something
that could have been done in situ--added to the original binding already in
place?


--
Jon Meyers
[To reply,
lose your way.]<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Vanity bindings? Special order, or what? 

Jon Meyers wrote:

 > Exposing my ignorance of leather bookbinding tchnique: Is
 > this something that could have been done in situ--added
 > to the original binding already in place?

It certainly could have been. Fine bindings aren't really my thing, but I
think there were cases where a publisher would offer the option of a
personalised stamp on the binding, though I don't know enough to be able to
cite any examples. Normally, though, one would expect the owner to have
bought the books cloth-bound and taken them to a bindery, where they would
have been rebound, and all the giltstamping, etc., would have been done at
that time. It would also be possible to buy something that was already
leather-bound and take it to the bindery for extra giltstamping (especially
if it was a place the customer frequented on other occasions, and could
perhaps add such a cosmetic request to another order).

All of which is more or less my speculations based on the bits and pieces
I've picked up about fine bindings and the way binderies operated in the
Victorian age. I don't have any clear evidence, and I can't cite other
examples, basically because, as I say, fine bindings aren't really my field
either.

--
John
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://rarebooksinjapan.com" target="_blank">http://rarebooksinjapan.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Vanity bindings? Special order, or what? 

Thank you for the input. Seems there is no end to what is unclear in process
of bindings. As if the process of writing was not mysterious enough.

Previous owner was a relative. As for provenance, that I know. But why or how
or when such personalization of fine bindings took place is the unknown.

So it would seem that points within the textblock are more important/stable
when trying to determine production dates.

At least the ownership is set at the mid 1800s.
 >> Stay informed about: Vanity bindings? Special order, or what?