The ‘Baskerville Bindings’

This chapter analyses the bindings found on books printed by John Baskerville and presumably produced in his own bindery. John Baskerville dedicated most of his life to many aspects of the book production and probably extended this dedication to the binding of his books. Although known for primarily selling his books in sheets, i.e. unbound, Baskerville appears to have been closely related to a bindery, a theory mainly based on a group of bindings sharing similar features (e.g. a specific marbled paper and a series of finishing tools used to decorate the covers). This chapter therefore includes images of most of these decorative tools, never reproduced in the literature so far, as well as other features that could allow this group of bindings to be clearly identified. In addition to the decorative features, this chapter also focuses on the description and interpretation of the structural details associated to these bindings, which reinforce the theory of a single bindery at work and the potential personal involvement of the printer in the binding of his printed work.