The Art of Book Covers (1820–1914)
Inspired by rising literacy rates and advancing technologies, the nineteenth century saw the book transform from a largely hand-made object to a mass-produced product. In this new context a book's cover took on added importance: it was no longer merely a functional protection for the pages but instead a key platform through which to communicate and sell the book. Prior to this covers had — bar a smattering of highly bespoke one-off creations (e.g. embroidered covers for personal libraries) — mostly been plain leather bound affairs. From the 1820s, with the rise of mechanical bookbinding, these leather covers of old gave way to new cloth coverings — known as publisher's bindings — which, in addition to being inexpensive, were now also printable. A wide variety of cover printing techniques were employed over the decades: from embossing to gilt to multi-colour lithography. An entirely new artistic space was opened up. It was one in which illustrators and designers thrived, producing a range of covers as eclectic in aesthetic approach as the myriad contents they fronted. From around the 1920s, the paper dust jacket — previously there to simply protect the publisher's binding — began to sport designs (and, of course, then paperbacks), but it was in the hundred years preceding, on these printed cloths, that book cover design first truly flourished.
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Felix Schloemp. Das unheimliche Buch. Munich: Georg Mueller, 1914 — Source.
John Lord Peck. Dress and Care of the Feet. New York: Fowler & Wells, 1871 — Source.
Charles Lamb. A Masque of Days. London: Cassell and Co., 1901 — Source. Cover design by Walter Crane.
Ignatius Donnelly. Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel. New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1883 — Source.
Lord Dunsany. The Book of Wonder. London: William Heinemann, 1912 — Source.
Montague Browne. Practical Taxidermy. London: 'The Bazaar' Office, 1878 — Source.
Evelyn Sharp. Wymps. New York & London: John Lane, 1897 — Source.
Friedrich Christian Accum. A Treatise on Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poisons. London, Longman, 1822 — Source.
Edward J. Goodman. Too Curious. London; Guildford: Bentley & Son, 1888 — Source.
Max Wolf. Die Milchstrasse. Leipzig : Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1908 — Source.
Walter Crane. A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden. London: Harper, 1899 — Source.
Richard Bowdler Sharpe. Sketch-Book of British Birds. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,1898 — Source.
Frederic Ingham. Ten Time One is Ten. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1871 — Source.
Mr. Sweet Potatoes and Other Stories. New York: Werner, 1899 — Source.
Charles Kingsley. The Water Babies. London: Macmillan and Co., 1886 — Source.
Thomas Smith and J.H. Osborne. Successful Advertising: It’s Secrets Explained. London: Smith’s Printing, Publishing and Advertising Agency, 1897 — Source.
W. T. Horton. A Book of Images. London: The Unicorn Press, 1898 — Source.
E. A. Bowles. My Garden in Spring. London: T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1914 — Source. Cover design by Katherine Cameron
Moses Wolcott Redding. Standard Ahiman Rezon and Blue Lodge Guide. New York : Redding & Co., 1889 — Source.
Cordelia Harris Turner. The Floral Kingdom. Chicago: M. Warren,1877 — Source.
Andrew Lang. The Book of Dreams and Ghosts. London ; New York ; Bombay : Longmans, Green, 1897 — Source.
Antal Radó. Költők Albuma. Budapest: Robert Lampel, 1904 — Source.
Frances Trego Montgomery. On a Lark to the Planets. Akron: The Saalfield Publishing Co., 1904 — Source.
Captain Davis Dalton. How to Swim. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1899 — Source.
Jules Verne. From the Earth to the Moon. London, Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, 1873 — Source.
George Eliot. Scenes of Clerical Life. William Blackwood & Sons, 1857 — Source.
The Yellow Book. Volume III. October, 1894. London: John Lane. — Source. One of the many covers for the journal executed by Aubrey Beardsley
Edward Lear. A Book of Nonsense. New York: James Miller, ca. 1875 — Source.
Neil Munro. Gilian the Dreamer, His Fancy, His Love and Adventure. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1899. Cover by Thomas Watson Ball — Source.
A. FrederickCollins. The Magic of Science: A Book of Scientific Amusements. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1917 — Source.
Robert Montesquiou-Fézensac. Les chauves-souris, clairs-obscurs. Paris: Georges Richard, 1892 — Source.
William Wesley Cook. Practical Lessons in Hypnotism. Chicago: Charles Thompson, 1901 — Source.
Prince Michael Trubetzkoi. Out of Chaos: A Personal Story of the Revolution in Russia. New York: Longmans, Green, 1907 — Source.
Guillaume Sicard. Histoire naturelle des champignons comestibles et vénéneux. Paris: C. Delagrave, 1883 — Source.
Martin Anderson. The Satires of Cynicus. London: Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co, 1892 — Source.
Joseph Henry Wythe. Curiosities of the Microscope. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1852 — Source.
The Visible To Be: A Story of Hand Reading. London: The Leadenhall Press Ltd., 1893 — Source.
Edmund Gosse. In Russet and Silver. Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1894 — Source.
Franklin Titus Ive. The Hollow Earth. New York: Broadway Publishing Co., 1904 — Source.
G.F. Monkshood (ed). Woman and Her Wits. New York: H.M Caldwell Co, 1899 — Source.
Jacques Futrelle. The Thinking Machine. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1907 — Source.
Arthur Stringer. The Loom of Destiny. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1899 — Source.
Jonathan Swift. Voyages de Gulliver dans des contrées lointaines. Paris: Delarue, 1855 — Source.
Sir Robert Ball. The Story of the Sun. London: Cassell and Co., 1910 — Source.
Henry. E. Roscoe. Spectrum Analysis. London: MacMillan and Co, 1869 — Source.
Clifton Johnson. Among English Hedgerows. New York, Macmillan Co.; London, Macmillan and Co., 1912 — Source.
F.A Pouchet. The Universe: The Infinitely Great and the Infinitely Little. 13th edition. London: Blackie & Son, ca. 1896 — Source.
C. Lockhart-Gordon. To the End. London: John F. Shaw and Co., 1898[?] — Source.
Feb 12, 2019
