As the staff of the McLean Conservation Department worked on the Library Company’s collection of 19th-century books, they discovered a vast array of beautiful bookcloth patterns. In all they recorded an astounding 248 different “grains.” The results of this decade-long research project have recently culminated in the publication of Bookcloth in England and America, 1823-1850. The book opens with a historical outline of bookcloth manufacturing and new hypotheses about its origins. The book continues with three information-packed appendices which together make up the “Catalogue of 19th-century Bookcloth Grains,” or CBG. The CBG organizes the 248 grain patterns into 14 categories. Each individual grain is illustrated with a high resolution digital image printed in color and accompanied by a millimeter scale to allow for counting and comparing measurements of similar patterns. Bookcloth in England and America, 1823-1850 is co-published by Oak Knoll Press, the British Library, and the Bibliographical Society of America. The book can be ordered through Oak Knoll Press and will begin shipping by the end of May 2008.

To celebrate and preview its new book, the Conservation Department of Library Company has mounted a new “mini” exhibition entitled “Close Up: Highlights from the Catalogue of 19th-century Bookcloth Grains.”

The exhibition highlights the fascinating and often overlooked subtleties of difference among some of the more common grain patterns such as Rib grain and Wave grain. Twenty-eight books are exhibited, along with extreme close-up views that reproduce the fine textured surfaces. For the first time details of the grain patterns are revealed at a glance, even the minuscule marks made by the engraver’s tool. This small exhibition, and the book it is drawn from, provide a new perspective on these humble, seemingly plain bookcloth grains, and inspire us to look closer, observe the smallest details, and make new discoveries along the way.

 

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