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Detail of a painted inset from a 1772 white leather and gold-tooled book binding, depicting a woman in a long brown dress in a flowering garden, and a man wearing a red coat in the distant landscape.

Fine Bindings

In recent years, thanks to funds donated by the Friends of Thomas J. Watson Library and a gift of forty-six books from Jayne Wrightsman, Watson Library has greatly expanded its collection of fine bindings, particularly from Europe and America. Browse the different collections below to view photographs of the bindings (and in the case of the Wrightsman collection, the endpapers too).

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American Decorated Publishers Bindings

Bindings published in the United States between 1830 and 1930.

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Czech Publishers Bindings

Bindings published between 1887 and 1927 in what is now the Czech Republic.

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William Loring Andrews: Book Collecting and Bookbinding

Books authored by Andrews, The Met's first librarian, on the topics of book collecting and bookbinding.

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International Publishers Bindings

Bindings published in Europe (primarily England and France) from the eighteenth through early twentieth centuries.

Wrightsman Fine Bindings

L'eschole de Salerne en vers burlesques & duo poemata macaronica: de bello huguenotico: et De gestis magnanimi & prudentissimi Baldi
Calendrier belgique, curieux et utile, contenant les evenemens historiques sur les jours de l'an, et les travaux à faire dans les jardins en chaque mois de l'année, la description des tableaux remarquables, que l'on trouve dans la ville de Gand, avec les noms des peintres pour l'annėe MDCCLXXII
Le calendrier de la cour : tiré des ephémérides, pour l'année bissextile mil sept-cent quatre-vingt-quatre : contenant le lieu du soleil, son lever, son coucher, sa déclinaison: le lever de la lune & son coucher, &c. : avec la naissance des rois, reines, princes & princesses de l'Europe imprimé pour la famille royale et maison de sa Majesté
Almanach impérial, pour l'année M. DCCC. XIII présente a S. M. l'Empereur et Roi, par Testu
Browse All Wrightsman Bindings

At top: Calendrier belgique, curieux et utile, contenant les evenemens historiques sur les jours de l'an, ..., 1772.