Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library's
Victoria College Material Culture Internship Project by Sophia Arts
Book Binding
19th Century - Early 20th Century
The Psychical Research Collection contains some of the most beautiful book bindings from the 19th and early 20th century. As the literacy rate increased in Europe and North America, books became more commercially available to the middle and lower classes. Technology was also streamlined to mass print books at a lower cost. Publishers competed for book sales in part by the cover materials and designs. In addition to buying books to read, the middle class also owned books to convey their education and wealth to others. Elaborately decorated books were common as gifts and were intended to put on display like an art piece. Companies began to experiment with new materials and methods to create visual gimmicks. Some covers were even designed by notable artists and architects at the time. Unfortunately, many of the books from this period in libraries have had their covers removed for conservation purposes. However the binding is an integral part of a book as a material artifact, and it reflects aesthetic sensibilities of the time, documents technological advances, and reveals who the book was marketed too.
Since the books in this collection range centuries and countries, it cannot be said that they were all produced and marketed to a single audience. Rather some would have been novelty gifts while others were bought by avid practitioners of mesmerism or spiritualism. The intention readers had when they bought the book is something that is beyond current observation, we can’t tell if they were truly invested in the ideas or just wanted entertainment from a passing trend. Rather studying the covers reveals what people perceived about the topic written about in the book. Many of the covers in this collection reflect the whimsical and magical nature of spiritualism while others have a plain exterior and present as a serious scholarly book.
The binding on these books feature many innovations from the first half of the 19th century. When looking closely at Spiritualism: Its Facts and Phases, the brown cloth has a subtle horizontal zig-zag pattern across the entire cover. In the 1840s, binders began to machine stamp cloth with a grain or ripple pattern to make it appear less flat and more distinctive. They also began to blind stamp impressions of decorative borders and vignettes to create depth without having to add more colors, as seen in both examples. Embellishing books with gold accents became more common in the 1850s as books became popular gifts. Gold tooling is done by hand and made the production more expensive, so many books only contained small center designs. The blind stamped designs on these covers frame the title in the center, which contains multiple different fonts embossed with gold.
Charles Beecher. A Review of the "Spiritual Manifestations": Read Before the Congregational Association of New York and Brooklyn. New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., 1853. PRC 00291.
J. H. Powell. Spiritualism: Its Facts and Phases. Illustrated with Personal Experiences. London: F. Pitman, 1864. PRC 00290
By the 1880s, stamping and lettering became more elaborate and abstract along with the invention of black stamping. Design trends shifted towards asymmetry and overlapping elements, as seen in the intricate black designs on both examples. Custom design stamps also became more common based on the content of the book. The cover of Natural Law in the Spiritual World depicts a shining torch in the upper left hand corner surrounded by grape vines. Brightly colored cloths created with synthetic dyes were also popular as they grabbed the viewer’s attention. These covers are examples of typical late-Victorian maximalist style.
Henry Drummond. Natural Law in the Spiritual World. Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry & Co., [between 1880 and 1889?]. PRC 00277.
John W. Truesdell. The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism: Derived from Careful Investigations Covering a Period of Twenty-Five Years. New York : G. W. Carleton & Co., 1884. PRC 00227.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, dust jackets became more common as a way to protect books. As a result, binding became more simplistic and designs meant to attract customers ended up on the jacket. The covers of these books still have a very different tone from the elaborate books of the 18th century. Their minimalism and dull colors imply these books are serious research and not meant for entertainment. This coincides with the decline of spiritualism in popular culture at the end of the century.
W. M. Lockwood. Continuity of Life: A Cosmic Truth: Based Upon Principles of Natural Philosophy and the Co-relations of Nature's Elements, Energies and Forces. [Chicago, Ill.: s.n.], 1902. PRC 00223.
James H. Hyslop. Life After Death: Problems of the Future Life and it's Nature. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1919. PRC 00184
Joseph Rodes Buchanan. Manual of Psychometry: The Dawn of a New Civilization. Boston: Joseph Rodes Buchanan, 1885. PRC 00271
Through a Welsh woman and Dr. T. D'Aute-Hooper. Spirit-Psychometry: And Trance Communications by Unseen Agencies. London: William Rider & Son, Ltd., 1914. PRC 00239.
These two books published in 1885 and 1914, are both about psychometry, the ability to understand an object's history by touching it, however they have very different covers. The Manual of Psychometry features a blind-stamped meander border on the top and bottom, with a center design of a sun rising over the mountains in gold. The title is displayed around the center design with multiple decorative fonts. On the other hand Spirit-Psychometry has a very plain cover, with only the title written at the top in gold and border consisting of two simple gold lines. The difference is even seen in the tiles, as the Manual of Psychometry calls for “the dawn of the new civilization” while Spirit-Psychometry is a pragmatic review of “trance communications by unseen agencies”. During the 1880s, spiritualism was at its height as a fashionable trend among the public and books aimed to convince the reader of the existence of the spirit world. By the 1910s, anyone who was still writing and reading about spiritualism would be a committed believer. The covers and titles of the books changed to reflect these audiences.