Links

Libraries and other institutions

Guide to bookbindings in the British Library
(Introduction to bookbinding collections held by the British Library)

British Library Integrated Catalogue
(Information on books and other documents held by the British Library)

British Library, International Dunhuang Project
(Descriptions of Chinese bookbinding styles as part of the International Dunhuang Project)

Art Institute of Chicago Ryerson and Burnham Libraries
(Bookbindings by Mary Reynolds: A selection)

Bibliothèque Mazarine Library, Paris
(Includes images and descriptions of bindings treasures)

Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève
(12th- to 18th-century blind tooled bookbindings from the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève)

Brera Library, Milan
(Includes online bindings exhibition)

Bridwell Library
(Highlights of the exhibition: Six centuries of master bookbinding at Bridwell Library)

Clark University Library
(Fore-edge paintings at Clark University Library)

Columbia University Library, New York
(An exhibition of gold stamped 19th-century publishers’ bindings)

Devon Libraries Local Studies Service
(Exeter working papers in British book trade history)

Georgetown University Library
(Exhibition of German publishers bookbindings 1811-1925)

Einbanddatenbank
(Access to database of digitised images of rubbings collections held in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, the Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich, a work in progress)

Indiana University Libraries, Lilly Library
(Online exhibition of The Fine Art of British Bookbinding)

Institut de France
(An exhibition of French 17th-century bindings)

Istituto Centrale de Patologia del Libro
(Branch of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities which carries out independent research and technical co-ordination in the field of book conservation and restoration)

John Rylands University Library of Manchester
(Anthony Dowd Collection of Modern Bookbindings)

Mestieri d’Arte
(Pages on “Leatherwork in centuries”, “Wrought iron and precious metals”, “Textiles, tailoring and dressmaking” and “Papermaking and engraving” contain information on and images of bindings)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(Illustrations of bookbindings in the Timeline of Art History: follow the index of subjects, then the links under books)

Monash University Library
(Online bindings exhibition including Australian 19th-century cloth bindings and Yellowbacks)

National Art Library
(Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London)

National Diet Library, Japan
(Dawn of Western Printing: Incunabula – Chapter 4: Bookbinding and Decoration)

The National Library of the Netherlands
(Includes bindings highlights on Gallery page)
http://www.bl.uk/gabriel/en/countries/netherlands.html

The National Library of Scotland
(Scottish Decorative Bookbinding)

The National Library of Scotland
(The National Library of Scotland’s Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Competition 2003)

The National Library of Scotland
(The National Library of Scotland’s Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Competition 2004)

New York Public Library
(Includes several pages on bookbindings, e.g. http://www.nypl.org/press/2002/renaissancebindings.cfm on 16th-century bindings from the Royal Libraries of France featured in Renaissance Bindings for Henri II or http://www.nypl.org/press/2004/artdecobindings.cfm on forty-five Art Deco bindings, designed by Pierre Legrain and Rose Adler)

Ohio State University
(Binding terms: A thesaurus for use in rare books and special collections cataloging)

Princeton University Library
(Hand bookbindings from special collections at Princeton University Library)

Princeton University Library
(Exhibition of work by women printers, binders and book designers)

Queen's University Libraries (Kingston, Canada)
(Leather and vellum bookbindings 1500 to 1920)

Rare Book School at the University of Virginia
(Courses on bookbinding and other topics relevant for the study of manuscripts and printed books)

Spanish Royal Library
(The Spanish Royal Library databases of bookbindings)

St John’s College, Cambridge
(Examples of types of provenance, e.g. customised bindings, armorial bookplates or owners’ signatures)

Stanford University Library Conservation Online
(Resources for conservation professionals)

TEL
(The European Library)

University of Alabama
(Publishers' Bindings Online 1815-1930)

University of Florida
(Glossary of binding terms)

University of Florida
(Fore-edge paintings)

University of Glasgow Library
(British Bookbindings, 16th-19th century)

University of Iowa Library & Centre for the Book
(Includes details of construction of various styles of bindings)

University of Michigan Library
(Online exhibition of decorated bookbindings)

University of North Texas Library
(Online exhibition of Victorian Bookbindings)

University of Rochester
(Beauty for Commerce: Publishers’ Bindings 1830-1910)

University of Texas, Holly Robertson, Conservation Studies, School of Information
(Spanish archival bindings, 1300-1800)

W.D. Jordan Special Collections & Music Library
(Past exhibitions of bookbindings in the W.D. Jordan Special Collections & Music Library in Kingston, Canada)

University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries
(German decorative trade bindings from the collections of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries)

Organisations

The American Institute for Conservation

Amis de la reliure d’art du Canada
(Friends of the art of bookbinding, Canada)

Amis de la reliure d'art
(Friends of the art of bookbinding, Switzerland)

AEB
(Arbeitskreis für die Erfassung, Erschließung und Erhaltung Historischer Bucheinbände = Study group dealing with the recording, the making accessible and the preservation of historic bookbindings)

Bibliographical Society, UK
(The Bibliographical Society’s lecture programme and publications list include titles on topics relating to the history of bookbinding)

Bibliographical Society, USA
(The American Bibliographical Society’s programme and publications list include titles on topics relating to the history of bookbinding)

The Book Arts Web
(Links relating to book arts and book history)

Center for Book Arts (U.S.)
(Centre dedicated to the preservation of traditional crafts of book making)

Colophon (U.S.)
(Contemporary Illustrated and Fine Press Books. Includes artists' books, contemporary bindings, and French 20th-century binders)

Designer Bookbinders (U.K.)
(Official website of Designer Bookbinders, U.K.)

Guild of Book Workers (U.S.)
(Official website of the Guild of Book Workers, U.S.)

Kommission für Schrift- und Buchwesen des Mittelalters der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
(Pictures from Austrian manuscripts, also containing images of bindings and rubbings, in German)

Muzeum Historyczne M. St. Warszawy
(Article on the craft of bookbinding in Warsaw)

The Society of Bookbinders (U.K.)
(Official website of the Society of Bookbinders, U.K.)

Victorian Bookbinders’ Guild
(For all interested in the art,craft and practice of bookbinding)

Bookbinders

George Bayntun
(George Bayntun, Fine Bindings and Rare Books, Bath, incorporates the Riviere Bindery)

Bookbinding for Beginners
(Includes information on hand bookbinding and ordering facility for bookbinding supplies and materials)

Brockman Bindery
(Information about the Brockman Bindery in Oxford)

Elizabeth Greenhill, Obituary
(Obituary of the bookbinder Elizabeth Greenhill (1907-2006))

Hewit (U.K.)
(Hewit & Son Ltd., tanners and leather dressers)

Jalex books
(Information on sculptural book work, handmade paper and artists' books)

Joanne B Kaar
(Artist who uses coastal landscape as inspiration for paper making and bookbinding)

Monique Lallier
(Design bookbindings site, includes tutorials)

Mosher Press Fine Bindings
(Images of 19th- and early 20th-century bindings U.S & U.K.)

Mucros Conservation Bookbinding
(Conservation bookbinding, includes a history of Irish bookbinding)

Richard Minsky
(Bindings by contemporary U.S. binder)

Shepherds
(U.K. binders incorporating Zaehnsdorf and Sangorski & Sutcliffe)

Trevor Lloyd
(Hand bookbinder and book restorer, includes retrospective bindings)

Weitz, Weitz & Coleman
(American hand-bound leather bindings; includes a description of the development of leather hand bookbinding design at http://www.weitzcoleman.com/history.html)

Miscellaneous

About Bookbinding
(Text of Joseph W. Zaehnsdorf, The Art of Bookbinding, 3rd ed., London, George Bell and Sons, 1897)

Amy Sacker
(Website dedicated to artistry of the Boston book designer Amy Sacker (1872?-1965))

Armenian Bookbinding
('Armenian Bookbinding from Manuscript to Printed Book (sixteenth to nineteenth century)’ by Dickran Kouymjian, published in the Gazette du livre médiéval), autumn 2006)

Book Trade Labels
(Gallery of Book Trade Labels)

Bookworkers in Ghent
(Paper presented by Josée Van Loon at the Library of Congress and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. in July 1992)

British Book Trade Index (BBTI)
(British Book Trade Index for biographical information on members of the English and Welsh book trade until 1851)

Collections Link
(New free national advisory service for collection management led by MDA together with the Institute of Conservation (ICON) and the National Preservation Office (NPO))

Fore-edge paintings
(Fore-edge paintings produced by Martin Frost since 1970)

The Bonefolder Ejournal

Lost Crafts
(“Preserving the crafts and trades of yesterday one book at a time”)

LoveToKnow – Classic Encyclopedia
(Entry for “Bookbinding” in the “Classic Encyclopedia”, based on the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Phillip J. Pirages, Fine Books and Manuscripts
(Images and descriptions of various bindings, including Cosway Bindings)

Practical Bookbinding
(An American text written in 1907-1908 introducing bookbinding to non specialists)

Provenance Marks in Manuscripts
(Images and descriptions of ownership marks in manuscripts)

The Schøyen Collection
(The largest private manuscripts collection formed in the 20th century, also containing images of manuscript bindings)

Schwenke-Sammlung
(Unofficial index to Ilse Schunke’s Die Schwenke-Sammlung, compiled by Michael Laird and Paul Needham)

Scottish Book Trade Index (SBTI)
(Scottish Book Trade Index for biographical information on members of the Scottish book trade until c.1850)

Terminology
(Online version of Matt T. Roberts and Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, Washington, D.C., Library of Congress, 1982)

Victorian Decorated Trade Bindings
(Description of Edmund M.B. King, Victorian Decorated Trade Bindings, Newcastle, DE and London, Oak Knoll and British Library, 2002. Site also includes descriptions of other publications on bookbinding)

Virtual Bookbinding
(Comparative on-screen French & Dutch tool studies by collector Lawrence A Miller)