BIBLIOPEGIA; OR, THE ART OF BOOKBINDING, IN ALL ITS BRANCHES ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS Arnett, John Andrews (Pseud. John Hannett) Bookbinding

12mo. original cloth with title stamped in gilt on spine, original salmon-colored endsheets present, preserved in a custom made slipcase. (iv), 212 pages with notice of publication of an historical volume bound in after foreword. First edition (Mejer no.194; Brenni no.38; Pollard & Potter 100). Hinges cracked with damage at spine ends. Ink stamp of old museum on front board and the first page of preface. Plates somewhat darkened. Very scarce in first edition in original binding. With a total of nine plates. A practical guide to the art of bookbinding with chapters on forwarding, sewing, backing, etc. and practical formulas for the making of dyes, marbled paper, instruction in the use of tools, and any other facts necessary for the binding of a book. Middleton (The Binder's Art, no.22) states that this book served as the basis of much of Nicholson's work on binding. John Hannett (1803-93) after being apprenticed to a printer and bookbinder in Sleaford, Lincs., worked for ten years in the publishing house of Simpkin, Marshall & Co., then set up as a printer and bookbinder at Market Rasen, Lincs., in 1837, and in 1844, at Henley-in-Aden. A rare book on bookbinding and itself a significant artifact of early publisher's binding style in embossed branching or coral-like design. The invention of the blocking machine in the 1830s made stamping into the cloth casing possible - the first blocked title appeared in 1832. Sadler shows a similar "ribbon embosser's grain" which he attributes to the "late thirties" in plate 4 of his Evolution of Publisher's Binding Styles (1930). original cloth with title stamped in gilt on spine, original salmon-colored endsheets present, preserved in a custom made slipcase.