Binding for Gertrude of Wyoming. John Sliegh, designer. 1857. Gilt design, produced using a brass die, on coarse-grained crimson cloth. 8 x 6 inches [Click on image to enlarge it.]
Sliegh’s cloth bindings, like those of other designers, appeared in a variety of festive colours. These variants were purely intended to generate choice and interest; one can imagine buyers deciding in the bookshop which colour would most please the intended recipient. No doubt, booksellers of the period made cheerful displays in their shop windows, just as in the present. The brightness of the palette is a testament to the quality of the inks used to colour the cloth, and it was customary to wrap the books in brown paper - so accentuating their visual impact, resplendent in gilt livery, when they were unwrapped on Christmas morning or (in imitation of the German model) on Christmas Eve. Like all bright trinkets, these (supposedly) ephemeral publications injected light and vitality into the family circle at the coldest and darkest time of the year, providing a focus at the fireside.
Photograph by Edmund King and text by Simon Cooke.Reproduced with permission © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.]
References
Campbell, Thomas. Gertrude of Wyoming. London: Routledge, 1857.
Last modified 23 October 2013