Twelve bindings of Christmas

Happy Holidays!  

This Christmas we'd like to offer you a selection of 12 seasonal bindings from the University of North Carolina Greensboro's American Trade Bindings Collection.  But before presenting them, we'd like to give a nod to our last holiday for Thanksgiving fans.  It's hard to believe that it was a month ago, and it's harder to believe that we're wrapping up 2021 in a week and a half!  But if you're lost in Thanksgiving nostalgia, we hope this helps.  Though we don't know who designed the binding, it's a turkey in the best sense.

Dickinson, Asa Don, ed. The children’s book of Thanksgiving stories. Garden City: Doubleday, Page, 1915.

Now on to our 12 bindings for Christmas.

1. Our first selection is an attractive little children's book, with printed paper over flexible boards and a color paper onlay reproducing a portion of an illustration by Gladys Hall for the lines:

"He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings ..." 

Despite the title, this book is not "all about" anything, but rather is a version of the Clement Clarke Moore poem.

Clement Clarke Moore. All about the Night before Christmas. New York: Cupples & Leon, 1918.  

We're fortunate to also have the dust jacket for this book, which, as was common, reproduces the cover design as well as providing the publisher advertising space. Here you can see the 14 titles "of a high character" that you might want to purchase along with other titles issued by Cupples & Leon.  

2. Our second binding of Christmas features a cover design and illustrations by Amy M. Sacker.  If you're interested in her work you've no doubt visited our former colleague, Mark Schumacher's Amy Sacker Site.

Edith Robinson. A little puritan’s first Christmas. Boston: L.C. Page & Co., 1910, c1900.

This book was first published by L.C. Page in 1900.  Our copy is the sixth impression, Sept. 1910, in dust jacket. Although unsigned, Mark notes that the design is almost certainly Sacker's work, and the people and lettering bear strong resemblances to other Sacker designs.  Once again, the dust jacket front panel and spine reproduce the cover design and the back cover and flaps (not shown) include publisher advertisements.

This book is unusual in that Sacker also provided the illustrations.  Mark's site also provides a checklist and scans of Sacker's work as illustrator, from which the two images are taken.

3. Our third binding of Christmas is a Margaret Armstrong design for one of the three unsigned bindings out of five Henry Van Dyke titles not part of her famous dark blue Van Dyke series.  Our copy features gloss and matte gilt on olive green silk cloth.

Henry Van Dyke. The spirit of Christmas. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905.

Charles Gullens and John Espey note in their checklist of Margaret Armstrong covers that this design also appears in two other states: gold on cream paper, and white on purple paper with a cream cloth spine, and are probably alternate bindings for a Christmas gift book.

4. The fourth binding for Christmas travels back another 50 years to 1848, and features gilt cherubs and a floral wreath with blindstamped ornaments on front and rear covers.

Catherine Grace Frances Gore. The snow storm: a Christmas story. Boston: Charles H. Peirce, 1848.

It is bound in a common cloth grain, very fine diagonal rib, as can be seen in this enlargement. 

What is far less common is the use of striped cloth, which was in vogue for a few years in the mid 19th century.  All of our few bindings with this feature were published between 1847 and 1850.

5. Our fifth binding for Christmas has an unsigned cover design which ticks off all the features one could wish for in a Christmas gift book: red cloth lettered in gilt, a background pattern of pine trees, snowy mountains under a bright blue sky, and to top it all off a border of holly leaves. Add a popular author and several illustrations by Frederick Remington to the pot and it looks like a sure winner.  Publishers' Weekly listed the book as published October 22nd (plenty of time to pick up a copy for the holidays) and, in an advertisement in the November 5th PW for "Harper's new gift books," the publisher notes that "Owen Wister has written nothing about the West more delightful, humorous and pathetic by turns than this Christmas tale."  

Owen Wister. A journey in search of Christmas. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1904.

The book also includes very attractive pictorial endpapers, and each page has border illustrations, all of which are unattributed. 

6.  The sixth binding for Christmas is another Christmas gift book.  The Publishers' Weekly for November 9, 1907 includes an advertisement for "Macmillan books for holiday gifts" and lists F. Marion Crawford's book The Little City of Hope as ready Nov. 20.  

F. Marion Crawford. The little city of hope: a Christmas story. New York: Macmillan, 1907

The striking cover, with a cityscape above and a mass of brilliant green and red holly leaves and berries in a large central panel, is alluded to in the PW description: this "New Christmas story ... is distinctly seasonal, not merely in its decorative dress, its printing in two colors and its illustrations [by Wladyslaw Theodore Benda], but in the deeper spirit of the story itself."

7. The seventh binding for Christmas also features holly as a motif in its design, but to a much different effect.  

Theodore Ledyard Cuyler. Our Christmas tides. New York: Baker & Taylor Co., 1904.

Once again, this title was issued as a holiday book, but rather than a novel it is a non-fiction book by a minister, Dr. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler, discussing the history and meaning of the day throughout the world and in the author's own life. The unidentified cover artist has created a design in gilt and dark red and green resembling stained glass (which numerous artists, including Sarah Whitman and Margaret Armstrong, also worked in).  The dark holly, gothic lettering, stylized red and gilt cross at the center, and the candles topped with rayed stars all contribute to the effect.  The pictorial endpapers make an interesting contrast with the cover and are signed Geo. W. Hood.  George Washington Hood (1869-1949) was an illustrator and painter who also designed bindings, including one of my favorites, the fanciful The Helter Skelters (1)

8. Our eighth binding is quintessential Christmas featuring not only holly but gilt bells and a green and white mistletoe background on a fine diagonal rib cloth.  The binding is also signed with the designer's monogram, which we had identified as that of Florence Pearl England Nosworthy.  But when I rechecked our copy I was taken aback and wondered if we had misidentified the monogram which should be an overlapping F and P.  Instead what we seemed to have was an F and perhaps a stylized E.

Sylvestre, Joshua [i.e. John Camden Hotten]. Christmas carols, ancient and modern. New York: A. Wessels, 1902.

Fortunately, I went back to the scan and by zooming in on the monogram found that there was what seems to be a raised portion of the cloth where the missing part of the bowl of the P should be, which reassured me that our attribution was correct.  A scan of the copy held by the University of Wisconsin-Madison clearly showed how the monogram should appear.  Whether the monogram was improperly stamped or a portion of the monogram had flaked off at some time is a puzzle I can't answer, although the latter seems most likely considering the age of the book and the damage at the foot of the shared F/P stem.

UNCG copy

U Wisc Madison copy

Wessels reissued this title in 1905 with a new cover design by Theodore Brown Hapgood.(2)

9. The ninth binding for Christmas is a fine design by Amy Richards for William Locke's A Christmas Mystery: the Story of Three Wise Men. Her conjoined monogram can be seen on the left below "Christmas.'

William J. Locke. A Christmas mystery: the story of three wise men. New York: John Lane, 1910. 

Publishers' weekly (Oct. 22, 1910, p. 1636) describes the book as “… a real Christmas tale, which tells how three learned men, all crusty and averse to the Christmas spirit … find themselves forced to give help to a poor woman and a new-born baby, discover that they really have hearts, and are grateful for the discovery.” 

Frontispiece illustration of the three crusty gentlemen

In a John Lane advertisement from the same issue, "A State Commissioner of Education,” whose Christmas gift seems to have been overstatement, describes it as “[t]he most powerful Christmas story yet written. Deserves a place beside the ‘Christmas Carol’ by Dickens and ‘The Story of the Other Wise Man’ by [Henry] Van Dyke.”

There is a bit of a Christmas mystery about the cover of this book, as it was issued with two designs.  The publication information on both is identical, but the second seems to be for a less elegant presentation, perhaps a reprinting.   

Illustration from page 54

New York: John Lane, 1910.  From internet archive. 

From an advertisement in Publishers' Weekly for Nov. 26, 1910, we learn that the Amy Richards version was issued as a special gift book edition, and indicates it was the first version released to the public:

Gullans and Espey note that they have recorded around 85 designs by Amy Richards, and, other than her monogram and design work, we know only that she was active from 1896 to 1918 (3).

10. The tenth binding has another Amy Sacker design, this one a paper onlay on decorated cloth.

Frances Bent Dillingham. A Christmas tree scholar: and other stories. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1900.

It is uncertain whether Sacker's contribution to this cover extends to the decorative frame and spine, which might be a series design.  Mark Schumacher gives this presentation as a variant to a quarter cloth version with the Sacker illustration on both the front and rear covers:

Scan from Amy Sacker Site by Mark Schumacher

An intriguing side-note on the glossy paper used on the cover:  although the binding cloth is a calico texture, the paper appears to have an unexpected sand grain that can be seen in this closeup of Sacker's monogram.  Another Christmas mystery?  

11. The eleventh binding for Christmas is a pleasing signed design from the Decorative Designers, in dust jacket.  The gloss and matte gold, gold tipped candlesticks, tiny Christmas tree perched on the top banner on the front cover and spine, and background of dark green and red holly leaves and berries on a dark yellowish-green open weave cloth make this a favorite.

Elva S. Smith and Alice I. Hazeltine. Christmas in legend and story: a book for boys and girls. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1915

As befits a Christmas gift title, the book also has a decorated title page, which, though unsigned, may also be the work of the Decorative Designers.

12. Our twelfth and final binding for Christmas-- Christmas stories by Aunt Laura, aka Aunt Fanny.

Aunt Fanny [i.e. Frances Elizabeth Barrow]. Christmas stories. Buffalo, N.Y.: Breed, Butler & Co., 1862.

When I first looked at our scan of this title, what immediately struck me was what seemed to be a very large hexagon grain cloth.  I wondered why this was used, as it caused difficulties with the lettering, leaves and other parts of the gilt stamping; but then I realized that it wasn't that the hexagons were overly large, it was that the book was overly small-- 2 1/8 inches (5.4 cm) to be exact!  Hexagon grained cloth was one of a number of grains that were popular in the middle of the 19th century, although they fell out of favor later in a similar manner to ribbon-embossed cloth and striped cloth earlier in the century.  Andrea Krupp found 17 examples between 1852 and 1865 (4), and in our own collection we have 3 examples, all from 1862 or 1863.

Rear cover with design in blind; without title

This miniature children's book by "Aunt Laura", (a pseudonym of  Frances Elizabeth (Mease) Barrow, 1822-1894) includes two stories, The old man of the mountain, and Christmas merry-making.

With its eye-catching cover and gilt edges, perfect for tiny hands, then and now this book would make an excellent stocking stuffer.  

And now with our tale of twelve bindings complete, we will end this post and this year.

Happy holidays from your friends Paul and Callie at American Trade Bindings and Beyond.

Wishing you a safe and joyous Christmas and a much improved New Year!

(And, of course, a turkey in a pear tree ...)

If you haven't visited recently, we've moved our digital collections to a new platform--Islandora.  Please take a look here and let us know what you think.

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(1)  

(2)

(3)  Charles Gullans and John Espey. "American trade bindings and their designers, 1880-1915." 

In Jean Peters, ed. Collectible books, some new paths. New York: Bowker, 1979, p. 58.

(4)  Andrea Krupp. Bookcloth in England and America, 1823-50. New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press, 2008.