'BOUND IN THE VELLUM MANNER'
Paterson, Daniel: A new and accurate description of all the direct and principal cross roads in Great Britain […]. London: Printed for T. Carnan, at Number 65, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1772. [Bound with]: Paterson, Daniel: A travelling dictionary, or alphabetical tables of the distance of all the principal cities, borough market, and sea-port towns in Great Britain from each other […]. London: Printed for T. Carnan, at Number 65, in St Paul’s Church Yard, 1773.
Second edition of this well-regarded reference book on roads in Great Britain—and the first edition to contain a map—bound with a companion volume entitled A travelling dictionary (second edition), which contains distance tables. Our volume has an enthusiastic printed notice drawing attention to the innovative use of vellum for the spine.
Bindings in quarter-vellum were introduced in England by Edward Newbery in 1760, and have been described as ‘the first commercially succesfull [sic] adhesive-case bindings made in the United Kingdom’ (Pickwoad 2012, p. 127).
The printed notice attached to the front pastedown (dated 22 September 1774) promotes the diverse benefits of ‘Books bound in the Vellum manner’: they are cheaper than their leather counterparts and ‘open easier at the Back, and are not so liable to warp in being read’. They are also more sustainable, as the covers can be replaced if necessary.
Details
Printed, two publications in one volume, 17.5 x 11.5 cms in binding, octavo. Publication 1: pp. viii xx, 184 columns; publication 2: pp. [8] 179 [1]. Folding map tipped in at front of publication 1 (‘A General View of the Roads of England and Wales 1772’, ‘J. Ellis sculpt’). Publication 2 has a half title.
Contemporary case binding, quarter bound in black paper boards with green vellum spine. Pastedowns at front and rear, two free endpapers at rear. Remnants of a printed(?) spine label.
Condition (textblock): browning and occasional staining to paper, loosening to text block, tear to centre fold of map in first work, sigs. E1 and E4 loose in second (the latter trimmed at blank margins and affixed to sig. F1 with a pin). Condition (binding): Wear to paper. Approximately 1.5–2 cms of vellum missing at base of spine. Stain on rear cover seeping through to rear pastedown and rear endpapers.
Provenance:
- Signature on front pastedown (Wm[?] Taylor).
- Pencil notes on versos of rear free endpapers (sums, notes on the Battle of Agincourt).
Bibliography:
Publication 1: ESTC T93559; Publication 2: ESTC T93567
British Library Database of Bookbindings entry for RB23a31061, last accessed 6 October 2022 via
https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/bookbindings/LargeImage.aspx?RecordId=020-000013588&ImageId=ImageId=46433&Copyright=BL
Baigent, Elizabeth, ‘Paterson, Daniel (1738-1825)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (this entry published online in 2004).
Ferguson, Stephen, ‘14,000 and counting: “Bound in the Vellum manner”’, blog post on Notabilia: A Blog about Rare Books (Princeton University Library – Special Collections – The Scheide Library), posted 28 July 2012, last accessed 6 October 2022 via https://blogs.princeton.edu/notabilia/2012/07/28/14000-and-counting-bound-in-the-vellum-manner/
Pickwoad, Nicholas, ‘The origins and development of adhesive case bindings’, Jaarboek voor Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis 19 (2012): 117–30. Last accessed 6 October 2022 via https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_jaa008201201_01/_jaa008201201_01_0008.php