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"amateur" bindings

From: <MARGOT~at~vnet.ibm.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 98 13:33:04 EST
To: JVF~at~math.technion.ac.il
cc: sommer~at~smrn.com

Bonjour, Good Morning or Evening, Guten Tag...

BW wrote today (as answer on my last message) :

I don't understand why the "amateur" bindings would be more numerous
than the publisher's printing. These were popular books and surely
Hetzel took advantage of their popularity. This is a beautiful book,
with a leather spine, gold inlay, marbled endpapers. It is more probable
that "reliures d'amateur" were few in number. Hetzel's paper was not of
the highest quality, so it seems unlikely that a discriminating
collector would have spent money binding these books together. The
binding looks more than a century old. In fact, inside the pages I found
a silk ribbon with U.S. Grant's portrait on it and WELCOME 1879
CALIFORNIA printed below it. It was either used as a bookmark or the
owner put it in the book as a souvenir. If these books were put together
by a reader, it was someone who loved them and had the money to spend on
a higher quality binding than the paper. deserved.

Thanks for your help. BW

Let's go in deeper details. There are several items to consider :
- These "amateur" bindings can be beautiful,
- These "amateur" bindings can be one century old,
- These "amateur" bindings are more numerous than the publisher's
  bindings.

"Cinq semaines en ballon" was published in 1862/1863 and every year until
JV's death (1905), Hetzel published JV's novels in mainly three ways :
1. In the "Magasin d'Education et de Recreation" which was a magazine
   for the french family, published every two weeks. For example, "Vingt
   mille lieues sous les mers" came out that way, almost a new chapter
   or a half chapter every two weeks and the novel was also available in
   the in-8 format in separate issues of the same magazine many months
   before the book was published (either in the small in-18 or in the
   large in-8 format). Semesters and years of the "Magasin" are
   known in publisher's editions (soft and hard cover volumes) as well
   as in "amateur" bindings.
   Usually the illustrations were the same as in the bound edition
   published at the end of the year, but sometimes there are engravings
   you don't have in in the bound edition and vice-versa. The best
   example is the Mount Franklin summit with an ice cascade which was
   only published in the "Magasin" and not in the in-8 bound volume of
   "L'Ile mysterieuse".

2. End of June and end of November, Hetzel published the small in-18
   edition, in a soft and in a hard cover edition. These small volumes
   are always the ORIGINAL EDITION and are usually without
   illustrations.

3. Just before Christmas, Hetzel published the in-8 book, in soft and
   in hard cover volumes. For the details, go to the "Complete
   Bibliography" in Zvi's site or to Fabien Raynaud's site in France.

The soft cover in-8 volumes were cheaper as the today's well-known nice
Hetzel "Cartonnages". And after a couple of readings, they felt apart.
These soft cover volumes were probably more numerous than the
more expensive "cartonnages" (Fabien Raynaud's site has nice
photographs of these "cartonnages"). Today these soft cover volumes
are very hard to find in a good shape. These volume are the first source
of the so-called "amateur" bindings.

You're right : if somebody likes a book enough to let it bind, it will
probably be a nice and beautiful binding. Such bindings can be one
century old, because the soft cover volumes ARE as old as the 1860s.

Now to the hard cover bound in-8 volumes. Being read by the whole family
and read several times, these volumes could'nt keep a "new" and fresh
shape. Depending on the state of the damage, such volumes are refreshed
or even new bound with another cover. The storage part of used
bookstores in France (mentioned recently in this forum) are full of
such damaged volumes.

And now the last element : some bound in-8 volumes are unique. It means
that such volume has a unique binding. Sometimes a french binder came to
Hetzel suggesting him a new binding and Hetzel gave him just the book
(or books) without any cover, asking the binder to do the sample of his
new binding. Such bindings were sold in Paris in JV auctions at the
"Hotel Drouot" since 1978 (when the JV binding market became to be
organized) and their description can be found in the auctions'
catalogs.

If you need more information and details, please contact me
directly. Hope these informations help. I would like to see your
volume !!!

        Regards, Freundliche Gruesse, meilleures salutations,

        Jean-Michel Margot
                             Internet : MARGOT~at~VNET.IBM.COM
                                        MARGOT~at~IBM.NET
Received on Tue 17 Mar 1998 - 21:29:00 IST

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