American Decorated Publishers' Bindings 1872-1929

Above: the cover of the Limited Edition
Foil stamped Hahnemuhle Bugra-Butten paper wrapper

As with stamped bindings of the period, changes in the angle of the light cause the stamping to illuminate in different ways.

Above: the same cover with different lighting.

The technique for creating the stamping die was developed by Minsky from study of the bindings in this collection.

Inside this book is gathered an astounding collection of turn-of-the-century bookcovers. Though beautifully produced, it is no mere coffee table book, but comes with full bibliographical descriptions. Grouped together under headings such as 'Automobiles' or 'Trees,' the covers play against each other in a dramatic way. It is as if you were privileged to go into a number of libraries and bookstores and lay one book beside another. In one leap Richard Minsky has put himself in the forefront of collectors and scholars of this period when each cover was a work of art.

—Sue Allen (1918-2011), Author of many books and articles on publishers' bindings

The catalogs of publisher's bookbindings being done by Richard Minsky are a fundamental resource in the field. In my last conversation with Sue Allen, she praised his work and told me Richard was "the one to watch." Richard's research has been invaluable in documenting the extensive holdings of the Book Arts Collection at the University of Washington Libraries and providing correct citations for the digital site we are preparing.

—Sandra Kroupa, Book Arts and Rare Book Curator, University of Washington Libraries

It really is an excellent piece of work–handsomely done, full of wonderful information, good to read!

I'm very glad we have it.

—David E. Schoonover, Curator of Rare Books, University of Iowa Libraries

Above: the cover of the Deluxe Edition. Adapted from one of the designs in the collection, the cover stamping is the same size as the original 19th century book. The spine stamping is enlarged from the original spine to the size of this volume.

Above: the cloth dust wrapper and slipcase of the Deluxe Edition. The same spine design is on the dust wrapper, for a beautiful shelf appearance.

Left: The CD-ROM is mounted in a recess in the back cover of the Deluxe Edition, seen here in a detail photograph. It is set into the Fabriano Roma endpaper

American Decorated Publishers' Bindings
1872-1929
Volume 1

DeluxeEdition:

$1,800.00

Cannot be ordered online. Please inquire.

Limited Edition:

$ 750.00

If you do not yet have the next two volumes in this series, you can see the details about them by clicking

Volume 2 and Volume 3

CD-ROM Edition:

$90.00

Institutional Collections
In many institutions you may have to make an appointment to read it. Call ahead, find the location of the book, and ask about the procedure, as it varies from one place to the next.

Deluxe Edition
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
Yale University, New Haven CT
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Fales Library, New York University, New York City
Amherst College, Amherst, MA
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. MN
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO

Limited Edition
Honnold/Mudd Library, Claremont, CA
University of California, Davis, CA
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Reed College, Portland, OR
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
University of Wisconsin, Madison WI
Pennsylvania State University, University Parrk, PA
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec Canada
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
The Grolier Club, New York City
The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
FSU/John and Mable Ringlng Museum of Art, Sarasota,FL
Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE
California State Library, Sacramento, CA
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta Canada
Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL
University of California, Los Angeles, CA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington, London UK
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH
Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, The Netherlands
Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI
Brown University, Providence, RI
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
The British Library, London, UK
University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, NY
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Smith College, Northampton, MA
Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR
University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
Trinity College, Hartford, CT
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

CD-ROM Edition
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence RI
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario Canada
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Duke University, Durham, NC
Harvard College, Cambridge, MA
California State University, Fullerton, CA
Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin
Ohio University Library, Athens, OH
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Jackson Library, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ
Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC
University of San Diego, CA
University of Maine, Orono, ME