End Papers

One of the things I do in my day job is curate our collection of paintings and artifacts, including a stacks library of more than 50,000 books, ranging in age from the early 1600’s to the mid-1980’s. Sadly, there is no longer the need for a librarian, because so much of what we have has either been digitized, or it’s hopelessly out of date. However, I probably get a request every other week to hunt up some esoteric piece of information, like the application to our organization for the doctor who treated Edgar Allen Poe before he died, or some long-forgotten book, like an early 1800’s medical school anatomy text.

In looking through these books, I’ve found that they’re a treasure trove of gorgeous end papers! This is a Spanish moiré patterned end paper. I think it’s one of my favourites!

This week, while I was looking for an original patent that is somewhere in our files, I grabbed my camera to capture some of the different end papers I saw in my search. Who knew that each of the patterns had names?

French Curl

Bouquet or Peacock pattern

Turkish pattern

Schroëtel pattern

Shell pattern

In addition to the marbleized patterns, there were also some lovely printed end papers.

And then there are the book covers!

It’s always such fun to see what I discover when I explore the stacks!  For more information and explanations of the marbling techniques, check out this collection from the University of Washington’s library. Here.