Seven Roads

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Anyone who handles old books will have come across these small and sometimes beautiful labels pasted discreetly (more or less) into the endpapers. Booksellers, binders, printers, publishers, importers, and distributors of books used to advertise in this way their part in bringing the book to market. Most of the earliest examples shown here belong to binders (e.g., the Marcus Ward ticket, ca.1841); these were a continuation of binders' earlier practice of sewing into the binding a small ticket with their signature.

This collection began with labels found in our own books, but now it is mainly a virtual collection -- each entry is digitally scanned from books found in the excellent research library to which we repair in our spare time. We must admit to having gone from "coming across" the labels in our book-browsing to actually searching for them. Contributors from around the world have added a wonderful diversity to the collection.

User note: Images here (and in the thematic pages) link to the label in the alphabetical catalog. Label images in the alphabetical catalog link to larger images. Higher resolution images may be had by contacting us. We also welcome comments and suggestions, as well as submissions for inclusion in the collection.

Recent Acquisitions:

David Hall was an active partner in several of Benjamin Franklin's business ventures 1748-1766. After serving an apprenticeship with William Strachan, a London printer and part-owner of the London Chronicle, as well as friend and correspondent to Franklin, he was hired by Franklin (1744) to serve in his printshop, eventually becoming foreman. In 1748 Franklin, ready to retire from his commercial ventures, turned his operations over to Hall in a partnership that gave Hall control of a "successful, vertically integrated media conglomerate" (printing, publishing, bookselling, news and postal service), and Franklin a princely share of profits and time to engage in his various scientific and diplomatic vocations. This label is from a volume sold by Hall in 1762 or '63.

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Three interesting labels from new contributor Nicholas Forster:

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Edouard Pinon sent along another example of a "Frontbuchhandlung", this time from occupied Laon:

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A nice set of Canadian labels, sent our way by Brian Busby. Check out his blog The Dusty Bookcase.

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These are my recent finds:

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Bibliography:

"It's the Ticket: Nineteenth-Century Bookbinding in the British Isles and the United States" (Mirabile Dictu #2, April 1998; Mirabile Dictu is the newsletter of the Bryn Mawr College Library.)

Larry Dingman, Booksellers Marks: An Illustrated Book (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Dinkytown Antiquarian Bookstore, 1986).

Harold C. Holmes, Some Random Reminiscences of an Antiquarian Bookseller. (Oakland, Ca.: Holmes Book Co., 1967). See also the Oakland Tribune article "Bookseller saves rare old labels" (4 Jan 1959).

Gary Kurutz, "Pioneer California Booksellers' Labels". Quarterly Newsletter of the Book Club of California, vol.43 (1978) pp.40-45.

Robert W. Mattila, "Booksellers' Labels". Quarterly Newsletter of the Book Club of Washington, vol.10 no.4 (1992) pp.11-13.

Marcus A. McCorison, Book Trade Labels at the American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society, 1973).

William Smith Mitchell, "Bookbinder's Tickets" The Durham University Journal Vol.XLVI.No.1 (New Series Vol.XV.No.1) December 1953, pp.1-4, plate. This article is online.

Reinhard Öhlberger, Wenn am Buch der Händler klebt (Wien: Verlag Löcker, 1999 [or 2000?]).

Piero Piani, Questioni di etichetta (Bologna: Libreria Naturalistica, 2002).

Jim Rainer, "Collecting Bibliophemera: Bookseller's Tickets" (Originally published in the Alcuin Society's journal Amphora.

Maurice Rickards, Collecting Printed Ephemera (New York: Abbeville Press, 1988).

Links:

James Burn & Co.: Signed Bindings, a website devoted to one bindery's labels.

Howard Prouty of ReadInk, an online bookshop, has some very nice bookseller labels, displayed here.

A Museum of Booksellers Labels at Plurabelle Books of Cambridge (UK).

Ephemera Society of America.

And thanks to Coudal Partners for including us in their Museum of Online Museums, where we've whiled away more time than we care to admit.

Our deep appreciation goes to the following individuals for their various contributions to this web project: Robert Behra, Jim Bisso, Ken Bosman, Charlie Breunig, Brian Busby, Benjamin Clark, J.C. & P.C. Dast, Carollyn Dieter, Larry Dingman, Sarah Faragher, Nicholas Forster, Don Francis, Pablo Herrero Hernández, Lewis Jaffe, Leon Koll, Michael Kunze, Stephen Loreck, David Lowrance, Pierre MacKay, Albert Mendez, Mark Mohr, Peter Christian Pehrson, Edouard Pinon, Howard Prouty, Jim Rainer, Pierre Rastoul, Bruce Shyer.

The Catalogue
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