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American Decorated Publishers Bindings

Image of the cover of a book titled "Common Sense in the Household"; pea green cloth with title and author stamped in black in center surrounded by intertwined leafy branches with round blossoms stamped in black, green, and red, with gold foil accents on spine

This collection features photographs of Watson Library's American trade bindings published between 1804 and 1930. Our ever-growing study collection includes early nineteenth-century paper bindings and color stamped cloth covers from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Major art movements of the period are represented, including Aesthetic, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco. Also featured are major and lesser-known artists, technical approaches, and binding variants.

Among the prominent artist/designers included in the collection are Edwin Austin Abbey, Margaret Armstrong, Thomas Watson Ball, Decorative Designers, Frank Hazenplug, Rockwell Kent, Alice C. Morse, Bertha Stuart, Elihu Vedder, and Sarah Wyman Whitman.

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Read more about Watson Library's collection of American publishers bindings in the following posts from our blog, In Circulation:

At top: Common sense in the household : a manual of practical housewifery, 1896.