Going out

We have a few beautiful bindings that came in over the last few weeks.  After cataloging they're making their way to their future home in Special Collections. We can identify binding designers for some of them, and some, as usual, are still a mystery.

 This copy of A Rose of a Hundred Leaves by Amelia E. Barr was published by Dodd, Mead and Company sometime in the early 1900s. We know it wasn't after 1905 because it's inscribed "Xmas 1905" and it was copyrighted in 1891. We know that Alice Cordelia Morse created  this particular binding thanks to Mindell Dubansky's book, The Proper Decoration of Book Covers. There is another version of this binding for this title, also by Alice Morse, that keeps the same concept but has a more elaborate spine and lacks the author's name at the foot of the front cover. It's also a different shade of green and the title decoration seems to be a little bit smaller, although the book itself is bigger so the decoration might be the same size. This edition was deemed the "pocket" edition according to Dubansky.

Marse Chan by Thomas Nelson Page was also designed by Alice Cordelia Morse. Once again, we know this thanks to the work of Mindell Dubansky. As you can see just from these two examples, Alice Morse was a very talented binding designer. The styles on these two bindings are very different, even down to the lettering. This book will be in the Charles M. Adams American Trade Bindings Collection.

Nathalie's Sister by Anna Chapin Ray will go to the Girls Books in Series Collection. It was published by Little, Brown, and Company of Boston in 1909. It's part of The Teddy Books series which, as you can see, appears on the cover. Even though this binding is not signed, it has been attributed to Amy Sacker by our own Mark Schumacher (see his Amy Sacker website ). This title was first published by Little, Brown in 1904 and which has the same cover design but with Amy Sacker's monogram in the lower left corner of the top panel. As we have said in earlier posts, as books go through successive printings, the publisher often would start stripping off the fancier, more attractive parts of the bindings so they could produce them more cheaply (they even stripped away designers' monograms!). The first printing not only had Amy Sacker's monogram but the lettering and ruled borders of the panels were in gilt rather than in ink (as on this copy).
                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                           

We don't know who designed the rest of the bindings, but the research is always ongoing.

Persis Putnam's treasure by Myra Sawyer Hamlin; illustrated by R.C. Hallowell. Nan series.  Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1908.. 

Sometimes we transfer books from the Library's general stacks into Special Collections. The People of our Neighborhood by Mary E. Wilkins seems to have been first published serially by the Curtis Publishing Company of Philadelphia.  It was issued in book form in 1898 as part of the Ladies' Home Journal Library of Fiction, jointly published by Curtis and Doubleday & McClure of New York. It has a completely different cover (we hold this edition in our Woman's Collection). The copy pictured has the imprint: New York: Melville Publishing Company, 1903. It also includes The Jamesons, by the same author, bound in at the end of the volume, with the imprint: New York: International Association of Newspapers & Authors, 1901. Even though the title page for this copy of the book has the "Melville Publishing Company" as the imprint, it retains the International Association of Newspapers & Authors binding design (note the "I.A.N.A." at the foot of the spine). This will be part of the Woman's Collection

Mabel's mishap by Amy E. Blanchard. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1900. Illustrations by Ida Waugh. Part of the Lad and Lassie series in the Girls Books in Series Collection.

Dorothy Brooke at Ridgemore by Frances Campbell Sparhawk.  New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1912. Part of the Dorothy Brooke books series, this title will be added to the Girls Books in Series Collection. 
It is in its dust jacket (not pictured).

*All books, unless otherwise noted, were donated by Mark Schumacher in memory of his mother, Dorothy Schumacher.

**Note on series: UNCG has created our own series for some of these books. Just because we have a series listed, does not mean that that book necessarily has a series statement present or was issued in a publisher's series.