13. Publishers' Bookbindings, 1830-1910

10-14 July 1995

The study of publishers' bookbindings, chiefly in the United States, but with frequent reference to England, and occasional reference to Continental developments. Topics include: the rise of the edition binder; design styles and how they developed; new techniques, machines, and materials introduced in the c19; the identification of rarities; the physical description of bindings; the preservation of publishers' bindings. The course will make extensive use of the Book Arts Press's notable collection of c19 and early c20 binding exemplars.

1 How useful were the pre-course readings?

1: Course readings were relatively easy to get and wonderfully suited to prepare for the course. 2: Useful. 3: Very useful. 4: Very useful and essential context for the lectures. 5: I did not have a chance to read all of the selections; however, I thought those I read to be helpful and well chosen. 6: Useful, but not absolutely required in order to benefit from the course. It would be helpful with this amount of material to put readings in a priority order. 7: Very useful. I completed about 75% of the reading and plan to do more. 8: They were very valuable. 9: Very useful. A large enough list to allow room for variation in the interests of students and access to material. Texts cannot compare in teaching quality with the opportunity to see and handle examples, but these introduced terms and ideas well. 10: Very helpful. Virtually essential to fully benefitting from the course. Wisely selected from an extensive literature.

2. Did your instructor prepare sufficiently to teach THIS course? Were the course syllabus and other materials distributed in class useful?

1: The instructor was perfectly well-prepared and the materials for class are and will continue to be helpful. 2: Perfectly well prepared. 3: Preparation was excellent and materials will be very use-ful in the future. 4: Yes. No one is more of an expert or has more teaching materials. There could have been more handouts, more illustrative materials for us to keep. 5: SA has prepared ample course material andorganized it well. Her knowledge seems to come from genuine love of the material as well as diligent scholarship. 6: The instructor was exceptionally well prepared. Materials handed out in class were and will be useful. 7: More than adequately. The bibliography is just what I need to expand my knowledge of the literature. 8: Absolutely! 9: Yes, yes, yes, yes. SA pre-sented a large, detailed body of material so carefully and vividly that, I think, everyone in the class had the opportunity to gain a sense of commanding new skills and areas of information. 10: Yes, indeed.

3. Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate?

1-5: Yes. 6: Yes -- perfect for our group. 7-8: Yes. 9: Yes. SA presented concrete information but always addressed more complex issues: our relation to objects of the past, how we grow in understanding them and their world by understanding how they were made and articulating a vocabulary of appreciation. 10: Yes.

4. If your course had field trips, were they effective?

1: Yes. 2: The Special Collections staff made it a bit difficult in the beginning, so some amount of time was, indeed, wasted. 3: It al-lowed us to see material in the original that we would not have had access to elsewhere. Yes, well spent. 4: Yes, although I think the need to respect the materials by not handling them was exaggerated in a number of cases. The light was inadequate for the purposes of close inspection. 5: Time spent in the Rotunda looking at the collection housed there was very useful. The opportunity to browse and compare many examples of the issues discussed was important for truly understanding the developments in design for cloth bindings over time. 6: Yes -- well chosen materials for each trip. 7: Yes. It was very well planned, not an instant wasted in the whole week. 8: Yes. Using the chronological collection in the Dome Room was very helpful. 9: Yes. We visited the Dome Room to examine books on display from BAP collections and we visited Special Collections. We understood that tour visits to the Rotunda were carefully scheduled to avoid tours, noise, &c., yet there were many other visits and a photography session. If RBS was charged for exclusive use, that is inappropriate. [We are not charged for the useof the Dome Room during the day for classes; on the other hand, neither RBS nor (almost) any other group can reserve the space exclusively during the day, since people (nearly 150,000 last year) come from all over the world to see the building and it must remain open for them. -- Ed.]. 10: Yes.

5. Did the actual course content correspond to its RBS brochure description and Expanded Course Description? Did the course in general meet your expectations?

1: Yes. 2: For the first part of the question: I'm not sure; second part: Yes, it did. 3: It was exactly what I had hoped and planned it would be and it exceeded expectations. 4: Yes. SA's knowledge is unique and it is a privilege to see a master in action. At times I felt that the content could have been enhanced had there been more comparison with continental practices, but she is incomparable. 5: Yes. 6: Yes, it corresponded. It exceeded my expectations -- an excellent learning experience. 7: Yes. It exceeded my ex-pectations. 8: Yes. 9: This course is well known. It was just the marvelous experience I had been frequently told that it would be. 10: Yes.

6. What did you like best about the course?

1: Getting to see and handle many examples from the periods we studied, along with many slides to illustrate the material. 2: The amount of actual material and slides shown, as well as the hands-on exercises for each (chronological) period. 3: The hands-on ma-terial. 4: The visual material and the range of examples was unique. Exchange and interaction with SA was especially rewarding -- she is generous with her time and knowledge to a fault. 5: The instructor was not only knowledgeable but also a friendly and engaging person. Her manner always drew out constructive participation from the class and never intimidated or belittled. Following her lead, the class progressed with a high level of interaction and camaraderie. 6: I learned a great deal in a very short time, thanks to the skill and preparation of SA in presenting material about which she is exceptionally knowledgeable. A great feature of the course is her effort to prepare her students to talk about the bindings and present information we have learned to others. I will!7: What I liked best was the methodical way SA presented the material -- by decades,with little sign posts along the way. The concept of expanding design and then a contraction. The tales of who de-cided what the binding would look like -- binder, engraver, publisher, artist. Many facts, but they were always related to a bigger framework. Our little recitations were fun and not scary -- very good training to examine bindings correctly and efficiently. Also, our TA, Brian Mikesell, was very nice and helpful. 8: I have gained a solid basic understanding of c19 American publishers' bindings. 9: 1) The presence of the instructor and her combination of curiosity, rigor, engagement, gentleness, and affection for her materials and students. 2) The mixture of people -- curators, catalogers, rare books librarians, interested others -- who addressed the topic from varied points of view. 3) And our TA, Brian Mikesell, was great. 10: The combination of the instructor's deep understanding of and care for the subject and her care for her students.

7. How could the course have been improved?

1: I hardly think it could have been improved. 2: Did not have time to contemplate -- much to do/learn. 3: Don't know. Maybe include more material on book structures and fabrication, but I don't know what I would drop to include that. 4: More handouts and more organized presentation of the content might have been useful. 5: I would have enjoyed more time to discuss how cloth publishers' bindings are a part of library collections, what is appropri-ate treatment for individual books and whole collections, &c. 6: The course is excellent in structure and content. Continuing to add to samples and examples in the BAP Collection will help. (A com-ment on what is already being done -- not a new suggestion.) 7: It could not be improved. 8: Perhaps a slightly longer presentation on European publishers' bindings (besides English). 9: Ask SA! No suggestions here. 10: Only by devoting more time to it.

8. Any final thoughts?

1: SA's knowledge of and interest in these books is spectacular. She makes it a real joy to be in her class. 2: I am pleased with this course, SA, and her TA, BM. As for advice: a) Forget about doing anything elsebut seeing (and in your dreams), touching, and describing bindings; b) Do read some of the titles in preparation for this course. Have fun -- I did! 3: Go to a lot of bookshops that have c19 material and try to see as much as possible. 6: I urge more rare book curators to take this course. I was disappointed that I was the only person currently working as a curator in the class (although taking the course with conservators was great!). More curators need this knowledge. Librarians with collection development/management responsibilities for circulating general collections should also take this course. 7: In addition to learning a great deal, SA's personal charm and tremendous concern for her students has made this a wonderful week. Her encouragement to study and learn and her compliments when one has correctly done things are so tremendously helpful to those at the beginning of a career. Teachers have a great deal of power to affect people's lives. SA is a very inspiring person. Her husband is very lovely as well. I would highly recommend this course. 8: SA provided a wonderful first-time experience. I would encourage anyone in my position (collections conservator) to take this course. I see many such books and now feel more able to care for them. 9: Rest up ahead of time. It won't happen here.

Number of respondents: 10

Percentages

There were five conservation/binder/preservation librarians (50%), two rare book librarians (20%), and an antiquarian bookseller, an exhibition curator, and a retiree (10% each).