the 1820s, most books were purchased in paper covers for the
owner to have bound according to his own taste and pocket.
These books would have been bound by hand in small workshops.
During the nineteenth century, this practice was increasingly
superseded by the mass production of publishers' bindings.
In hand-bound books, the sewn text-block was laced into boards
and then covered with leather or cloth. In publishers' bindings,
the covers were made separately and in quantity, and were
not an integral part of the structure.
bindings became more sophisticated as the century progressed,
reflecting both technological developments and artistic trends.
Initially cloth was the favoured medium because it was cheaper
and easier to work than leather, but a wide range of covering
materials was used, including paper, papier-mâché, wood and
even porcelain (as claimed by publisher Paul Jerrard). The
number of patents relating to bookbinding increased throughout
the century, although not all of them were implemented and
many took decades to be adopted by the trade.
became increasingly important when publishers' names began
to appear on the covers, and they encouraged bold or innovative
designs which would distinguish their books from those of
their rivals. Series such as Murray's Family Library and Bentley's
Standard Novels, intended for the prospering middle classes,
were fashionably yet inexpensively bound. Further impetus
came from the strong demand, both at home and abroad, for
cheap but decorative bindings for gift books, such as literary
annuals or school prizes. Gradually bindings design became
a recognised art in itself, although painters and artists
like Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris and Charles Ricketts
worked in the field too. The dominant figure within the trade
was John Leighton (1822-1912), a nephew of the pioneer publishers'
binder Archibald Leighton. Other practitioners included Albert
Henry Warren (1830-1911), Henry Noel Humphreys (1810-1879)
and William Harry Rogers (1825-1873).