Tim Barrett talks about how a fingerprint in paper inspired him to be a historical papermaker in the conclusion to European Hand Papermaking. I also wonder (tangentially) if there are instances in bibliomysteries?
I think the only great light sheet I've used was the NoUVIR Transilluminator, but I don't think they're in production anymore. I've tried a lot of different conservation-grade light sheets which blast the light of the sun into your irises, so I just use my own basic A4 sheet from an art supply shop.
'Ideally, time in bibliography is no object, and if a certain task of large dimensions needs doing, it is worth a lifetime.'
I'm going to start citing Bowers whenever I'm asked to produce a timeline for a grant application.
The survey is live until 12 February; please take a moment to comment.
filled out the horrible settlement consultation and I’m sorry, the question that is framed as a negative so that you have to ‘strongly disagree’ with something not happening?? This has enraged me
Poster for a public lecture in early modern studies. Two talks are listed: Down and Out in Late-Tudor London: Elizabethan Authorship and a history of the hustle (Matt Ryan) & Slop: Writing as excrement from Gutemberg to Chat GPT (Sam Bailey). The evemt is 5-7pm 19 February.
A reminder that next week I'll be speaking alongside @heggledepeg.bsky.social at @keelrowbooks.bsky.social. There will be wine and hand-press era books in ample supply.
RSVP: www.tixtree.com/e/seminar-in...
A printed alphabet of Roman letters, with their proportions in geometric charts.
Gawking at this 1611 alphabet
Assembling my first catalogue has made me realise I have a type: obscure 17th-18thc novels in questionable bindings.
Thanks! It's s.bailey4@ncl.ac.uk
Are there any Leverhulme/BA postdocs on here that would be willing to share their successful application with me? All disciplines welcome!
Thanks Liam, your article on Arc was very helpful for chapter 4!
Thanks Dylan!!
Fspiece cleanly offset to facing title.
Some very clean offsetting in a Huguenot Utopian novel.
Thanks Alice! I ended up looking at Sloane's erotic books in the last chapter and your book helped a lot!
Thanks Deidre! Our conversation some time ago in Stirling about it-narratives ended up framing the thesis...
Thanks Sarah! It's been a long time since I talked about hot noblemen at QB1...
Thanks Sarah, your article on the private case helped the last chapter a lot!
Title page of Erotic Books in Eighteenth-Century England (by me)
Table of contents
Thesis submitted! 🍾🍾🍾
If you'd like to read something that contains both bibliographical formulae and discussions of rimming, then it may be for you!
Grey Paper wraps of 'The Phantom Rickshaw' illustrated with a skeletral ghost.
I wouldn't normally go to bat for Kipling but the pictorial paper wraps on this 1st British ed of 'The Phantom Rickshaw' are just tremendous.
Link: keelrowbooks.com/item/14704/t...
Title page of The Dog Owner's Handbook by Fredson Thayer Bowers
@elizaaudacis.bsky.social has returned from the US with perhaps the best belated Christmas gift I could ask for: a crisp first edition of Fredson Bowers' 'Dog Owner's Handbook'.
Hitting the road for the first book fair of 2026...
Join us this weekend for the January York book fair, a bite sized version of the well loved September fair 👇🏽
Sat 10th Jan 10am - 4.30pm Knavesmire Suite, York Racecourse, YO23 1EX. For free tickets & more, visit yorkbookfair.com
Poster reads: Public lecture in early modern studies. (Title 1) 'Down and out in late-Tudor London: Elizabethan authorship and a history of the hustle' - Matt Ryan. (Title 2) 'Slop: writing as excrement from Gutenberg to ChatGPT' Free drinks reception and showcase of antiquarian books. 5-7pm 19 Feb.
On February 19 I'll be speaking alongside the excellent @heggledepeg.bsky.social at @keelrowbooks.bsky.social about aspects of early modern book history.
I'm truly hoping to supply quality slop for the hogs.
If you're in the area, you can sign-up here: www.tixtree.com/e/seminar-in...
Applications due January 16th!
Apply for research fellowships at Houghton Library! Work with collections including Printing & Graphic Arts! Bother me irl with your ideas, questions, and quandaries! (It’s not a bother.)
Green library rexine binding.
Title page of Loimologia
Preface of Loimologia
A 1720 copy of one of Defoe's major sources for his Journal of the Plague Year (1722), formerly owned by a local sailor's asylum with a very sweet cymbiform book stamp. Perhaps someone thought this would be cheery reading for the afflicted?
Pictorial dust jacket of Scouts in Bondage, depicting scouts playing by a river.
'Scouts in Bondage', a wholesome novel about the values of scouting from the author of 'Trawler Boy Dick'. The title features prominently in Michael Bell's compilation of 'Titles that Might Cause Vulgar Minds to Misapprehend their Content'.
Elaborate embroidered bindinh. Cream cloth with orange, pink, green, blue, and white thread.
Two c. 1900 photos of Il Duomo.
Two c. 1900 photos of Venice.
Two 19thc photos of a country house.
It's not often that the outside of a photo album is more attractive than the contents, but this embroidered binding might be the exception...
As far as we can determine, the photographer was a talented amateur (likely an American woman) who travelled extensively in Europe at the fin de siècle.
