Bindings
Another collection that is accorded special housing is that of books
bound by American bookbinders. These volumes come from four
principal sources, Isaiah Thomas, Michael Papantonio, Kenneth
G. Leach, and George T. Goodspeed. Thomas had the books in his
library beautifully bound up for his own pleasure. Michael Papantonio,
150 years later, began to collect books bound in America during the
seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries for his own pleasure.
Not
only are the books handsome to look at, but many are of outstanding
importance as historical or literary works. The greatest binding in the
collection is that done by John Ratcliff for the Boston merchant Thomas
Deane. It appears on Nathaniel Morton's New Englands
Memoriall (Cambridge, Mass., 1669) and came from the Papantonio
Collection.
But bindings on books have more than aesthetic importance. They,
like other examples of the decorative arts, have a good deal
to tell us about the taste and world views of original owners and the
milieu from which they sprang. This aspect is particularly evident in
the collection of bookbindings made by Kenneth Leach. His
collection of some 1,000 volumes, purchased by the Society in 1989, is
focused on books in edition bindings as issued by their publishers. Thus
the Leach Collection demonstrates the commercial side of the
presentation of books to the public rather than, as in the Papantonio
Collection,
bindings executed according to the tastes of many collectors, or, in
the case of Isaiah Thomas's books, books bound to suit the wishes of a
single individual.
Such is also the case of the small collection (just over 150 titles)
of publishers' bindings created by George T. Goodspeed and
given to the Society by his daughter, Carol Goodspeed Smith, upon his
death
in 1997. The Goodspeed Collection is especially strong in the Ticknor
and Fields editions "Books in Blue and Gold" (first issued in 1856 and
so called for their characteristic bindings of gold stamped decoration
on bright blue cloth), and the imitations of this extremely popular
binding style marketed by other publishers. Anyone interested in
publishers'
bindings will also find notable examples in the Society's collections
of Albums and Annuals.
Guides to the bindings at the Society are found in Early American
Bookbindings from the Collection of Michael Papantonio, 2nd
ed. (Worcester, 1985) and in Hannah D. French, Bookbinding in
Early America: Seven Essays on Masters and Methods (Worcester,
1986). The Society has published a series of illustrated articles on
bindings in its collections in issues of the Proceedings. Current
cataloging practice calls for the inclusion of physical characteristics
terms to describe the various elements of bindings on pre-1877
imprints. These terms, some taken from an approved thesaurus and others
established locally, allow interested persons to search the online catalog
for such charateristics as "Aniline dyed cloth," "Binders' tickets,"
"Gilt edges," "Gold stamped cloth," and "Gold tooled leather." The
Bindings
Collection, when combined with the holdings of "ordinary" bookbindings on
the shelves in other collections, presents unparalleled opportunities to
students of the American book arts.
- Marcus A. McCorison, President
Emeritus; updated by Doris O'Keefe, Senior Cataloger
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Nathaniel Morton's New-Englands Memoriall (Cambridge, Mass.,
1669) was
bound by John Ratcliff for the Boston merchant Thomas Deane. The binding
originally included clasps but only the catches remain. The center panel
of each cover is stamped "Thomas Deane." It came from the Michael
Papantonio Collection.
Catalog
record
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From the Kenneth G. Leach Collection. Written by John Frost and published
by B.B. Hussey in New York in 1836. The boards of this pristine volume
are printed in shades of blue, brown, and yellow.
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For current information on the cataloging status of this and
other AAS collections, choose "Collection Access" below.
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