110 Bibliographical Society of America

Transcription

1 Book Reviews 109 decorously made with beautiful, sturdy materials. We can credit Roscoe, Jones, and Thomas William Coke for the generally excellent state of preservation of most of the books today. Suzanne Reynolds provides thorough descriptions of every pre-1500 Italian manuscript with careful attention to script, decoration, annotation, evidence for provenance, and binding. She has made common-sense decisions on terminology that result in clear, easily understood entries. For example, in the contested matter of script names, she follows commonly used British paleographical terms modified when useful by reference to the work of specialists like Andrew Watson, Armando Petrucci, and A. C. de la Mare. The catalog is well designed and both thoughtfully and generously illustrated. Almost all of the manuscripts described are illustrated with one or more quarter-page or larger color images; these are supplemented by fifteen color plates for the introduction and fifty-seven black and white figures at the end of the volume, chiefly concerned with colophons or marks of provenance. Reynolds s discussions of decoration and annotation are thorough and extensively annotated; her indexes are exemplary. The resulting volume is a monument, essential for any research library with holdings on the Italian Renaissance. Garlock, Gayle. Canadian Binders Tickets and Booksellers Labels. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, pp. $ Cloth, Illus. CD (ISBN ). Reviewed by Robert J. Milevski Gayle Garlock s Canadian Binders Tickets and Booksellers Labels is the first in-depth, book-length study of both the binders tickets and booksellers labels of one country in a single work, something not previously done. Because of this it makes a unique contribution to book trade history. Previous booklength studies have focused only on binders tickets of one country or only on booksellers labels from across the world. Garlock explores the use of bookbinders tickets and booksellers labels within the Canadian book trade based on the author s collection of 793 tickets and labels, and covers the period from the 1780s to the early 2000s (dust jacket). Sandwiched between front matter Robert J. Milevski is an independent scholar in Princeton, New Jersey. He studies, lectures and writes about nineteenth-century English and American publishers bindings and signed bookbindings and about Latvian nineteenth century metal-clad peasant bindings. His current research and writing is devoted to an in-depth study of nineteenth-century British bookbinders and their ticketed bindings. He was invited by Oak Knoll Press to read and comment on Garlock s manuscript before publication.

2 110 Bibliographical Society of America of acknowledgements and introduction and back matter of conclusions, appendix, bibliography, and indexes are six meaty chapters: binders signatures; signed bindings; booksellers labels; elements of successful tickets and labels; the printers; and methods of printing. There are five PDF files on the CD. Two are separate descriptive illustrated catalogues of Canadian binders tickets (catalogue A) and Canadian booksellers labels (catalogue B), many of which are mentioned in the text. The remaining three files are digital versions of back matter from the book: bibliography, general index, and index to catalogues A and B. In his Introduction Garlock clearly sets out the scope of his subject, with its potential to inform researchers about the book trade; provenance; job printing, including printing techniques and advertising trends. As advertisements, Garlock notes, they record how binders and booksellers describe themselves and their wares to the public and sometimes reveal the type of customer or kind of business that the firm was trying to attract (11 12). This sums up Garlock s approach: tickets and labels are not inessential and minor objects in the history of the book but rather they are windows on particular and significant aspects of the book trade; they provide essential information about those who manufactured books and those who sold them retail, wholesale, second-hand, and antiquarian. His in-depth study shines a bright light on the tickets and labels of Canada and on the binders and booksellers who used them. In chapter 1, Binders Signatures, Garlock asserts that [a]t the most basic level, a binder s signature provides firm evidence for the attribution of a bookbinding to a specific binder, although a few pages later he gives an example of the opposite, when he shows that a ticket can also give a false attribution (15, 22). He enumerates the different types of signatures binders used (at least eight) and states that almost all Canadian signatures are tickets, rather than stamps of various sorts, embossed covers and flyleaves, or printed or stenciled marks. The earliest Canadian binder s ticket is likely to have been printed in the period Garlock provides brief historical background about the business/binder who printed or commissioned this ticket, gives its size, and mentions the books in which it is found. The ticket carries a rich array of textual and visual information which is examined minutely for language (what the legend states and implies), layout (whether the composition [as well as the legend] draws in the intended audience), and type of printing or production methods and quality of the inked impression (19). This approach, in one form or another, becomes Garlock s modus operandi for describing and commenting upon tickets and labels throughout the book. He goes on to describe the shape, color, size, and production aspects of tickets, as well as their vagaries, the seeming complexities of their legends, including lack of street addresses or the mention of their type of business, i.e. bookbinding, and their overabundance of microscopic text in a small space. Also covered are families of Ca-

3 Book Reviews 111 nadian binders and tickets of allied trades, such as stationers and blank book manufacturers. This chapter (as well as the others) includes high quality color reproductions of tickets (and in following chapters, labels) referred to in the text, either directly or obliquely. However, throughout the book, the vast majority of tickets and labels are not illustrated in the text, and one must go to the CD catalogues to find them. In chapter 2, Signed Bindings, Garlock discusses aspects of the ninety-two mostly nineteenth century Canadian bespoke bindings in his collection. These are hand bound, extra bound, and fine bindings, with the remainder being machine stamped and bound. Rebinding is also mentioned, e.g. original cloth publishers bindings being rebound into leather. Topics covered include where binders signatures are located within the volumes (the majority were affixed to the inner front board pastedown); covering materials, i.e. leather, cloth, paper, or some combination (full bound, half bound, quarter bound); and textblock edge decoration, such as sprinkling, gilding, and gauffering. Tables dissect two aspects of the collection: bookcloth grains, and patterned marbled papers used for covers and endpapers. The breakdown of cloth grains is based on descriptions and codes developed by American book conservator Andrea Krupp in her Bookcloth in England and America, (Oak Knoll Press, 2008). The marbled paper patterns are based on the work and descriptions of Richard J. Wolfe in his Marbled Paper: Its History, Techniques, and Patterns (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990). Garlock admits in the introduction that the study is limited because it focuses only on his own collection of signed bindings and disembodied tickets and labels, making it representative of only a part of the entire and rich history of Canadian bookbinding and bookselling. Any conclusions Garlock draws from his limited collection can only be inferred to this wider history, and may not reflect the true nature of it. The chapter ends with an interesting statement: After the nineteenth century fewer binders tickets appear in English Canada (44). On this point Garlock discusses the general decline in hand and fine binding across Canada, particularly Toronto, and ends with his conclusion that there was no similar decline in French Canada, but rather increased interest, culminating in the establishment of a school of commercial and fine binding in Montreal in However, he does not inform us whether the use of binders tickets in French Canada also slowly disappeared. We are left to wonder, without an answer. Chapter 3, Booksellers Labels, begins: The bookseller s label, as an advertisement for the sale of books, naturally reflects the changing patterns of sales and distribution of books (47). In addition to books, many labels also advertised an array of other products and services. Garlock states in the introduction that [t]he earliest Canadian [booksellers ] labels appeared in the first quarter of the nineteenth century and were most popular in the latter half of

4 112 Bibliographical Society of America the nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth (12). Books were sold in general stores, hardware stores, department stores, apothecaries, and other specialized shops, as well as bookstores. Other than general retail booksellers, Garlock addresses booksellers of antiquarian and second-hand books and shops that specialized in religious, medical, law, music, and art books, as well as newspapers and periodicals. Additionally, he discusses labels for traveling subscription book agents, lending libraries, and wholesale distributors of textbooks. Garlock combines the history of individual booksellers and other providers of books e.g. stationers, printers, publishers, druggists, librarians, store managers, etc with close examination of the texts of and images on their labels. He provides several examples of texts ranging from appealing to preposterous, but also texts that assure quality or provide moral approbation. Some texts are simply ambiguous, overly optimistic, incredulous, or naive, such as one that reads We Have It - / Can Get It - / Or It Isn t / Printed (66). Given the small size of labels there was an inherent limitation on combining an image with text. Although a discreet and appropriate image, albeit a small one, could be included, there were other ways for the viewer to see and understand the message. One way was to cut the label into a shape that would attract attention, such as an arrow or open book. Another was to provide a fancy border or frame (other than a single or double line) to convey the idea, such as a Gothic arch surrounding the store s name, or a binder s name, trade, and location within the frame of the front cover of a book. The overall goal was integration of text and image: The successful use of images enriched the message of well designed labels and, no doubt, contributed to the enhancement of a firm s business (70). Chapter 4, Elements of Successful Tickets and Labels, expands upon the integration of text and image: A noteworthy ticket must be striking to the eye in order to catch the attention of the prospective customer and, once that attention is gained, must convey the services, products, and the name or address where they are offered (71). There are three elements for success or failure. First, the visual: the shape, image, color, typography or lettering, and layout of the ticket or label. Typography and lettering include type size, italics, calligraphy, Gothic, and small caps. Second, the textual: message content, word choice, and number of words. Third, production method and print quality: letterpress, lithographed, embossed, and stamped. Garlock provides numerous illustrations of successful and unsuccessful tickets and labels as he sees it, but the successful one is well-planned, well-designed, and well-produced (79). In chapter 5, The Printers, Garlock considers those who printed Canadian tickets and labels: Through 1850, businesses with a press printed their own [labels]; others went to their local printers (81). Searching through nineteenth-century Toronto and other city directories Garlock discovered an 1846 advertisement by a printer for druggists and other labels. Further searches

5 Book Reviews 113 turn up additional ads, including one for gummed labels in Dennison Manufacturing Company, a US-based firm discussed throughout the book, became the largest manufacturer of booksellers labels in North America, which were distributed through stationers and job printers. Some labels it produced carried the legend Dennison U.S.A as a small and discreet part of the design. This made Garlock s attributions of similar-looking unbranded labels a somewhat easier task. He spends much time dissecting Dennison s history in the Canadian label market. He also discusses the engraving of tickets and labels and the individual engravers and companies involved in their manufacture. An in-depth discussion of Methods of Printing is undertaken in chapter 6 in chronological order, beginning with letterpress: Established as the original technique [in the 1790s], letterpress printing continued as the dominant medium for producing Canadian tickets and labels into the latter half of the twentieth century (94). Copperplate engraving and printing was practiced from at least 1779, and was active between the 1820s and 1870s (94). Wood engraving freed designers from the restraint of printing in straight lines. Wood engravers advertised their services in the 1840s... and the trade grew until the mid-1880s, when it began to lose ground to lithography and photographic means of making relief blocks (95). Dennison Manufacturing Company was a major provider of relief printing blocks. It advertised in 1910 that its labels were noted for excellence of the printing, perfect engraving of the wood cuts used and superior quality of ink (95). As printing technology developed and became more sophisticated in the latter half of the nineteenth century, tickets and labels could be produced in multiples, often in sheets, rather than one at a time. The introduction of stereotyping and electrotyping (1860s), transfer lithography (1850s), photoengraving on zinc (1890s), and reverse printing (1880s 1930s) all facilitated this advancement. The twentieth century saw the rise of embossed printing (1910s 1930s), hot foil stamping (1930s 1960s; printed on aluminum foil), offset lithography (from 1909), and electrostatic and inkjet printing (early 1960s and early 1980s, respectively). All these methods were used to produce tickets and labels. While being neither ticket nor label, blind embossing and ink stamps produced binders and booksellers marks as well. Embossing (by hand, one at a time) was popular during the 1850s and 1860s, then declined in use and disappeared for the most part because of advances in printing technology that allowed the printing of multiples of the same image. Ink stamps, a category that included rubber stamps and pallet and name stamps, were popular from the 1860s. Garlock believes that [r]ubber stamps gained popularity in the twentieth century, and their lower cost probably contributed to the declining use of labels, despite poor inking and rushed stamping that often produced unsatisfactory results with texts frequently faint or blurred and often partially illegible (97 98).

6 114 Bibliographical Society of America In the remaining sections of the chapter Garlock addresses some special topics: gummed paper; color ink and paper; and ticket and label finishing. Gummed paper was used for British postage stamps from the 1840s. Garlock discusses problems printers had with this medium, including the gum blocking from humidity and heat. After a slow decline in the use of gummed paper early in the twentieth century (because of blocking and other issues), Dennison Manufacturing Company finally solved the problems in 1922, and sales of gummed labels increased. Prior to 1825 tickets and labels were printed black on white paper. By the 1850s colored paper and inks were in use. Later, paper was painted with high-gloss paint or coated with clay, with or without color, to form a very smooth printing surface: The gold bronze ink technique became very popular in the late nineteenth century and lasted well into the twentieth... Usually the gold bronze was printed on paper that had been painted with a dark, high-gloss paint (107). Finishing involved varnishing, cutting, and attaching. Varnishing, presumably a protective coating, once applied became transparent, reflective, and flexible. Cutting the tickets and labels, whether a singleton or from a sheet of multiples, became, to a printer, one of the most frustrating, time consuming and therefore expensive aspects of the job. Even with printed trim lines and corner register marks to guide the cutting, it could be inaccurate and sloppy when rushed. Unparallel and non-perpendicular cuts and visible trim lines are evidence of this. Attaching tickets and labels was the final step. They could be applied in a haphazard manner, the most egregious example being placed upside down ( ). In the brief final chapter Conclusions Garlock reiterates that the primary function of tickets and labels is advertising, with tickets denoting binding quality and labels denoting a retail operation following manufacture. He muses that Canada s more than two hundred year history of ticket and label use is little in evidence in the twenty-first century, something he appears to wish was not quite the case. The back matter of the book includes an appendix (Printers of Tickets /Labels Listing the Tickets/Labels They Printed ), bibliography (of online sources, digital collections of labels and tickets, print sources, and Canadian directories consulted), and two indexes (general index and index to the two CD catalogues of tickets and labels). The bibliography of print sources is necessarily Canada-centric but also lists non-canadian sources as well, including those mentioned above. Catalogue A on the CD, binders signatures, contains 178 entries. Catalogue B, booksellers labels, has 615. Each entry describes the ticket, label or other signature in detail, following, for the most part, the regime set out by William Spawn and Tom Kinsella in their Ticketed Bookbindings from Nineteenth- Century Britain (Oak Knoll Press, 1990) and American Signed Bindings through 1876 (Oak Knoll Press, 2007): binding description and imprint and provenance

7 Book Reviews 115 information (if the ticket or label is not disembodied); ticket description (location, transcription, size, printing method); and working dates and addresses of the binder or bookseller. Images of signatures in both catalogues are oversize so that details are readily seen. Images of covers and spines in catalogue A are reduced in size. Catalogue A has images of 160 tickets (seventy-one disembodied), two rubber stamps, five name stamps, seven gilt stamps, one cover stamp, one inscription, and two embossed endpapers. One signature is from the eighteenth century, 146 from the nineteenth, twenty-nine from the twentieth, and two of unknown dates. Catalogue B has images of 537 labels (231 disembodied), sixty-two rubber stamps, four name stamps, one gilt stamp, one cover stamp, five embossed endpapers, and five cellophane tape. One signature is from the eighteenth century, 233 from the nineteenth, 352 from the twentieth, eight from the twenty-first, and twenty-one of unknown dates. While this volume s substantive chapters have undoubted value and detail, the technical aspects of this publication display significant shortcomings in two areas: the indexes and layout, where descriptions of tickets or labels with no adjacent illustrations complicate reader access to content. The general index is more an index of names than of subjects. It has glaring shortcomings, one of them the need to look up a subject or topic under a general heading rather than the more specific one. For instance, hot foil stamping is listed as the subheading on foil under printing of labels. There aren t any see references from foil or stamping to direct the reader to the correct heading, although useful see and see also references are used throughout the index for various topics and names. Another example is rubber stamps. There is no listing or see reference in the general index for rubber stamps under rubber or stamping. The subheading rubber stamped is found only under binders signatures. Why only under this topic, or under this topic at all? There is nothing equivalent under booksellers labels, although booksellers used rubber stamps at a ratio greater than 30:1 over bookbinders, per the CD catalogues. Also, this subheading lists only two page references while rubber stamps are mentioned in the text on an additional twelve pages. Other such omissions may be the case throughout the index. One further example is stenciled signature. Page 16 mentions stenciling as a means to produce a binders signature (on an inner front board pastedown). Stenciling does not appear as either a heading or subheading in the index. Finally, the print index to the CD catalogues lists only names; one cannot look up any information furnished in the ticket and label descriptions, such as rubber stamps. One must go to the CD s PDF files of the catalogues and perform a find search to locate all references to rubber stamps and their accompanying images. The book is illustrated and laid out with sixty numbered figures. Thirty-three figures are described directly, i.e. named, usually with text adjacent to or near

8 116 Bibliographical Society of America the figure. Twenty-seven figures have no direct textual references in adjacent or nearby text; sometimes the text describing a figure is in another chapter altogether. The reader can only assume the text that is adjacent to these figures is describing it, which is not always the case. On the other hand, many descriptions of tickets and labels in the book do not include an accompanying image. The reader who wants to see what is being described must go to the index of the CD catalogues at the back of the book to look up the binder or bookseller and get the appropriate catalogue code(s), and then access the CD catalogue PDF on a computer to look it up. This process would have been one step shorter had every specific description of a binders or booksellers signature without an illustration also included its code, e.g. A 20. (Codes do occasionally accompany descriptions intermittently throughout the text but without apparent rhyme or reason.) The lack of codes is also prevalent in the CD PDF catalogue descriptions. There are see and see also references to named binders and booksellers in both catalogues, but these references do not include the needed catalogue code to the specific entry. Also useful would have been embedded links in these see and see also references to jump to these entries in one or the other PDF catalogue. (Most of these references are for the thirteen books that have two signatures, e.g. both a ticket and a label.) Better editorial and indexing oversight would have caught and corrected these faults. Ultimately, for a publication of this nature, with text heavily dependent upon images to support its many descriptions, publication as a totally digital book may have been more appropriate. In this way each description in the digital text could be linked to an image or to several images for a binder or bookseller with more than one, for immediate access and reference. Gayle Garlock s approach is pioneering and truly impressive, and his work joins other important books that document, describe, and reproduce tickets and labels of bookbinders and booksellers. It is the first study to expand upon and extend the usual treatment of the subject; to fit binders and booksellers into the historical context of Canada; to provide (sometimes extensive) biographical and background information about people, firms, processes, and methods; to discuss venues for the sale of books beyond the bookshop; to evaluate the effectiveness of tickets, labels, and other signatures as advertising media; and to outline production methods and the companies printing and supplying tickets and labels. In summing up he stated that [a] noteworthy ticket or label must be striking to the eye in order to catch the attention of the prospective customer and, once that attention is gained, must convey the services, products, and the name or address where they are offered (71). This book is striking, has gained our attention, and is highly recommended for those interested in this fascinating, important and little-studied aspect of book trade history.