Bound to be modern
Subtitle: publishers' cloth bindings and the material culture of the book, 1840-1914
By: Kristina Lundblad ; translated by Alan Crozier
Contributors: Crozier, Alan, 1953- translator
Publisher: Oak Knoll Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: New Castle, DE
Language: eng
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9781584563136
Subjects: Book industries and trade; History; Publishers and publishing; Bookbinding; Publishers' bindings; Book ornamentation; Material culture
Work titles: Om betydelsen av böckers utseende
Description: "An interdisciplinary study on the emergence and function of publishers' cloth bindings in the 19th century"--

"Bound to Be Modern is the most comprehensive study to date on the emergence and function of publishers' cloth bindings. It brings together issues of aesthetics, technique, economy, and social change in order to explain why publishers in the 19th century began to have their books bound, and why decorated clothbindings were so successful as the Western world transitioned into modernity. This study traces the history of publishers' bindings in a Swedish context--giving the first English-language account of the history of the Swedish 19th century book market--but also makes clear that edition binding was an international affair, with machines, designs, and ideas crossing borders as much as the literary works themselves did. Lundblad takes an interdisciplinary approach, referencing art and design theorists as well as social scientists and philosophers to analyze the complex interactions between books, the book market, and society at large, and to show that bindings not only mirror their historical context but also contribute to the making of culture."--Publisher's web site.
Notes: Translated from the Swedish.

"First published in 2010 as Om betydelsen av böckers utseende by Rámus © Kristina Lundblad."--title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Prelude: A hundred years of bookbinding; title: Introduction: The book, modernity, and material culture; title: Part I. Book culture in transformation: Chapter 1. From markets to the market. Binding practices. Publishing. The retail book trade. The retail book trade in Stockholm. Development from the 1870s. Publication output. Conditions in the book market around 1900. Chapter 2. Changing technology. Cloth. Casing. The blocking press and the importance of aesthetics. How the relationship between publisher and edition bookbinder reflects the relationship between economics and aesthetics. From craft to industry: The manufacture of bindings. Folding and gathering the sheets. Rolling. Sawing the back. Sewing. Endpapers and edges. Decorating the edges, rounding, and backing. Case making. Blocking. Casing-in. Blocks for decorating the case in the blocking press.. The growth of Swedish edition binding. Franz Beck. Isak Elkan. Peder Herzog. Herzog's machinery.. Structural changes in Swedish bookbinding. "The true principles of industrial art": Some aspects of the effects of industrial production. What distinguishes industry from craft? Chapter 3. The emergence of modern bookbinding practice: Publishers' binding and their form and use in quantitative terms. Source material on the occurrence of publishers' bindings. Bibliographies. Publishers' caralogues.. Trends in publishers' bindings, 1830-1910. Cloth bindings. Binding cases. "Wrappers". Genres. Prices. Summing up the findings; title: Part II. Modernity and material culture: Chapter 4. Title-specific bindings and the art of mass-producing the unique.  The emergence of title-specific bindings. Chapter 5. Cloth bindings, their design and relationship to modern consumer society. Ornamentation: Tradition and innovation. A new world of pictures. The significance of pictures. Packaged modernity. "Now," novelty, and emotion. Chapter 6. Using books.  The book as furniture, the home as narrative; title: Appendix A: Herzog's technical equipment: Machinery before 1889 and a selection of purchases, 1889-1895 and 1905-1918; title: Appendix B: Material for the study of publishers' catalogues in chapter 3. Categories and binding types that occur in the study and in the table column headings. Genre classifications. Other comments. Catalogues included in the study. Tables.