"This second printing of David Pearson's English Bookbinding Styles 1450-1800 includes a new introduction and a number of additional references and relevant points that have come to light since the book was first published in 2005."--Publisher's web site.

This new book provides guidance on recognising and dating English bindings of the handpress period. It deals not only with the luxury end of the market (where so many binding studies have concentrated) but rather with the whole spectrum of binding options - the plain and middling as well as the fine. In addition to providing practical help in placing particular bindings within their time and place, the book encourages a new approach to historic bindings, concentrating not so much on binders and workshop attributions as on what a binding can tell us about previous owners and their approach to books. Well illustrated with over 200 photographs, it will be valued by librarians, book historians, booksellers, collectors and anyone who deals with early books.

This new book provides guidance on recognising and dating English bindings of the handpress period. It deals not only with the luxury end of the market (where so many binding studies have concentrated) but rather with the whole spectrum of binding options - the plain and middling as well as the fine. In addition to providing practical help in placing particular bindings within their time and place, the book encourages a new approach to historic bindings, concentrating not so much on binders and workshop attributions as on what a binding can tell us about previous owners and their approach to books. Well illustrated with over 200 photographs, it will be valued by librarians, book historians, booksellers, collectors and anyone who deals with early books.

Each project in this book combines bookbinding with a specific craft such as quilting, jewelry making, or polymer clay, and offer levels of expertise: basic, novice, and expert. Illustrated step-by-step instructions and photographs demonstrate how to construct the cover pages, and a unique binding technique, easy enough for a beginner to master. Each project also features two other versions with the same binding geared to those with more or less experience. The novice version is for those who have no knowledge of the craft and want shortcuts, but love the look. For the quilter's book, for example, vintage quilt pieces become the covers so all that's needing in the binding. Or if you're interested in wool felting use an old sweater. This offers great opportunities for upcycling. The expert version is for those who have a great deal of knowledge and proficiency of a certain craft - the master art quilter, for example. For this version, an expert guest artist has created the cover and the author has created the binding. This offers yet another creative opportunity - the collaborative project. Since crafters often get involved with round-robins and other shared endeavors, this will show them yet another way to combine their skills. No other craft book offers the possibilities and challenges that Adventures in Bookbinding does. Readers will return to it again and again to find inspiration and ideas.

"Stuart Bennett's landmark study is the first illustrated guide to a complex and controversial subject. In 1930, in The Evolution of Publishers' Binding Styles, Michael Sadleir declared that "the bookseller-publisher of the decades from 1730 to 1770 issued his books either in loose quires, or stitched, or at most in a plain paper wrapper." This view is still generally accepted. Bennett, however, presents new documentary and visual evidence that books were predominantly sold ready-bound in sheep, calf, and goat as well as boards and wrappers. Over two hundred color illustrations show what these bindings looked like, and how their styles evolved."--BOOK JACKET.