The Art of Book Covers (1820–1914)
Inspired by rising literacy rates and advancing technologies, the nineteenth century saw the book transform from a largely hand-made object to a mass-produced product. In this new context a book's cover took on added importance: it was no longer merely a functional protection for the pages but instead a key platform through which to communicate and sell the book. Prior to this covers had — bar a smattering of highly bespoke one-off creations (e.g. embroidered covers for personal libraries) — mostly been plain leather bound affairs. From the 1820s, with the rise of mechanical bookbinding, these leather covers of old gave way to new cloth coverings — known as publisher's bindings — which, in addition to being inexpensive, were now also printable. A wide variety of cover printing techniques were employed over the decades: from embossing to gilt to multi-colour lithography. An entirely new artistic space was opened up. It was one in which illustrators and designers thrived, producing a range of covers as eclectic in aesthetic approach as the myriad contents they fronted. From around the 1920s, the paper dust jacket — previously there to simply protect the publisher's binding — began to sport designs (and, of course, then paperbacks), but it was in the hundred years preceding, on these printed cloths, that book cover design first truly flourished.
In our selection below we've concentrated on publisher's bindings from this first century of the book cover (as we commonly understand it today, i.e. mass-produced designs). And we couldn't resist including also a few one-off / bespoke cover designs too. Enjoy!
 | Source | Internet Archive |
 | Underlying Work Rights | Various |
| Digital Copy Rights |
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 | Download | Right click on image or see source for higher res versions. |
Felix Schloemp. Das unheimliche Buch. Munich: Georg Mueller, 1914 — Source.
John Lord Peck. Dress and Care of the Feet. New York: Fowler & Wells, 1871 — Source.
Charles Lamb. A Masque of Days. London: Cassell and Co., 1901 — Source. Cover design by Walter Crane.
Ignatius Donnelly. Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel. New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1883 — Source.
Lord Dunsany. The Book of Wonder. London: William Heinemann, 1912 — Source.
Montague Browne. Practical Taxidermy. London: 'The Bazaar' Office, 1878 — Source.
Evelyn Sharp. Wymps. New York & London: John Lane, 1897 — Source.
Friedrich Christian Accum. A Treatise on Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poisons. London, Longman, 1822 — Source.
Edward J. Goodman. Too Curious. London; Guildford: Bentley & Son, 1888 — Source.
Max Wolf. Die Milchstrasse. Leipzig : Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1908 — Source.
Walter Crane. A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden. London: Harper, 1899 — Source.
Richard Bowdler Sharpe. Sketch-Book of British Birds. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,1898 — Source.
Frederic Ingham. Ten Time One is Ten. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1871 — Source.
Mr. Sweet Potatoes and Other Stories. New York: Werner, 1899 — Source.
Charles Kingsley. The Water Babies. London: Macmillan and Co., 1886 — Source.
Thomas Smith and J.H. Osborne. Successful Advertising: It’s Secrets Explained. London: Smith’s Printing, Publishing and Advertising Agency, 1897 — Source.
W. T. Horton. A Book of Images. London: The Unicorn Press, 1898 — Source.
E. A. Bowles. My Garden in Spring. London: T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1914 — Source. Cover design by Katherine Cameron
Moses Wolcott Redding. Standard Ahiman Rezon and Blue Lodge Guide. New York : Redding & Co., 1889 — Source.
Cordelia Harris Turner. The Floral Kingdom. Chicago: M. Warren,1877 — Source.
Andrew Lang. The Book of Dreams and Ghosts. London ; New York ; Bombay : Longmans, Green, 1897 — Source.
Antal Radó. Költők Albuma. Budapest: Robert Lampel, 1904 — Source.
Frances Trego Montgomery. On a Lark to the Planets. Akron: The Saalfield Publishing Co., 1904 — Source.
Captain Davis Dalton. How to Swim. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1899 — Source.
Jules Verne. From the Earth to the Moon. London, Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, 1873 — Source.
George Eliot. Scenes of Clerical Life. William Blackwood & Sons, 1857 — Source.
The Yellow Book. Volume III. October, 1894. London: John Lane. — Source. One of the many covers for the journal executed by Aubrey Beardsley
Edward Lear. A Book of Nonsense. New York: James Miller, ca. 1875 — Source.
Neil Munro. Gilian the Dreamer, His Fancy, His Love and Adventure. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1899. Cover by Thomas Watson Ball — Source.
A. FrederickCollins. The Magic of Science: A Book of Scientific Amusements. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1917 — Source.
Robert Montesquiou-Fézensac. Les chauves-souris, clairs-obscurs. Paris: Georges Richard, 1892 — Source.
William Wesley Cook. Practical Lessons in Hypnotism. Chicago: Charles Thompson, 1901 — Source.
Prince Michael Trubetzkoi. Out of Chaos: A Personal Story of the Revolution in Russia. New York: Longmans, Green, 1907 — Source.
Guillaume Sicard. Histoire naturelle des champignons comestibles et vénéneux. Paris: C. Delagrave, 1883 — Source.
Martin Anderson. The Satires of Cynicus. London: Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co, 1892 — Source.
Joseph Henry Wythe. Curiosities of the Microscope. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1852 — Source.
The Visible To Be: A Story of Hand Reading. London: The Leadenhall Press Ltd., 1893 — Source.
Edmund Gosse. In Russet and Silver. Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1894 — Source.
Franklin Titus Ive. The Hollow Earth. New York: Broadway Publishing Co., 1904 — Source.
G.F. Monkshood (ed). Woman and Her Wits. New York: H.M Caldwell Co, 1899 — Source.
Jacques Futrelle. The Thinking Machine. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1907 — Source.
Arthur Stringer. The Loom of Destiny. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1899 — Source.
Jonathan Swift. Voyages de Gulliver dans des contrées lointaines. Paris: Delarue, 1855 — Source.
Sir Robert Ball. The Story of the Sun. London: Cassell and Co., 1910 — Source.
Henry. E. Roscoe. Spectrum Analysis. London: MacMillan and Co, 1869 — Source.
Clifton Johnson. Among English Hedgerows. New York, Macmillan Co.; London, Macmillan and Co., 1912 — Source.
F.A Pouchet. The Universe: The Infinitely Great and the Infinitely Little. 13th edition. London: Blackie & Son, ca. 1896 — Source.
C. Lockhart-Gordon. To the End. London: John F. Shaw and Co., 1898[?] — Source.
Feb 12, 2019
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