Posts
A milestone among publishers' bindings is the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward FitzGerald and illustrated by Elihu Vedder [Houghton, Mifflin, 1884]. This book brought Pre-Raphaelite aesthetics and modern Symbolism into the American home. Vedder (1836-1923) also designed the cover, which was dramatically of its time and beyond. he included notes within the book about the creation of his illustrations. Regarding the cover, he wrote:
The swirl which appears here, and is an ever-recurring feature in the work, represents the gradual concentration of the elements that combine to form life; the sudden pause through the reverse of the movement which marks the instant of life, and then the gradual, ever-widening dispersion again of these elements into space.
Elihu Vedder
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Translated by Edward FitzGerald
Illustrations and notes by Elihu Vedder
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1884
44.5 x 38.5 cm
Spine
This is a very large book (17.5 x 15.25 inches), bound at Riverside Press in brown goatskin, stamped in gold and black. It was issued in an edition of 100 copies and instantly recognized as a masterwork. It sold out in less than a week, despite the then enormous price of $100.00. Houghton simultaneously issued a smaller cloth-bound "trade" edition for $25. At that time an ordinary illustrated book with a stamped decorative cover using genuine gold was $1.00 to $1.50.
You can read all about the book and see the original art for every page, including all Vedder's notes, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum website.
The insides of the covers are elaborate as well, with gold tooled dentelles creating a border for carded satin doublures printed with Vedder's design:
The title page:
Each spread is on a tabbed guard, with the images, printed by the albertype process, mounted on one side of each sheet. This edition is from "remarque" plates, which include a small image in the corner of each illustration. This is the only edition with remarque proofs.
I've been looking closely at our copy of this book. You have confirmed my conclusion that this was a stamped cover design, not tooled. How did they prepare the leather and generate enough pressure over so large an area?
ReplyDeleteHi Ed,
ReplyDeleteGreat questions. Although there were several types of stamping press that could accommodate a stamping area this size, the leather edition may have been hand tooled.
The Imperial Arming Press and similar machines were in wide use. Here's a video of how one in use that has a stamping area of 12" x 17", which is bigger than the image area on this cover. Note that in the 19th c. gold leaf would have been used rather than the foil shown in this video, with glaire or blocking powder applied to the cover before the gold was laid on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_7NDVmSTZM
There also were huge mechanized machines:
https://www.alamy.com/engraving-depicting-a-patent-rotary-arming-press-for-producing-devices-on-book-covers-and-spines-for-bookbinders-dated-19th-century-image186327342.html
And Fly Embossing presses were still in use, though likely not at the Riverside Press bindery:
https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=5581
To get a sense of how the Riverside Press facility looked and worked, download this PDF. Note that they wrote that their leather bindings were still done the traditional way by hand, and hand tooled, though we can't say for sure if that's how they did this edition. Likely all the cloth editions were die-blocked.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiE3cik4KL3AhXbpIkEHW7kAd0QFnoECAQQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Ff%2Ff8%2FThe_Riverside_Press_-_Cambridge%252C_Massachusetts_%2528IA_riversidepressca00riverich%2529.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2G76-4STk-f_5huN6ibaY5
Note that the links above are not clickable, a characteristic of the Blogger comments, but you can copy and paste them into the address bar of a new tab or window on your browser. As of today they are all working.
ReplyDelete