[Rarebooks] FS - Vintage blank book, folio, 3/4 leather, raised bands, fantastic blank book for the scrapbooker

[Michael Watson]

FS - Vintage blank book, folio, 3/4 leather, raised bands, fantastic
blank book for the scrapbooker

Blank book, folio,cloth  15" h. x 11" w., 3/4 red leather with raised
bands, sewn binding, rounded corners, medium dark green on very heavy
boards. Gilt blind stamped trim on edges of leather and raised bands.
"Letters" in gilt to spine. Text block trimmed all edges.

Begins with a single page containing a blank ruled Subject Index, Place
Index, and Ready Reference Index. Followed by an edge-tabbed alphabetic
index, pages have ruled lines, blue blotter paper bound before each
alphabetic page so that ink entries will not offset onto adjacent page.
Index is followed by 1000 blank pages of thin onion-skin paper, each
numbered in blue numerals in the head corner of verso.

Intended to record and contain letters and other correspondence,
recorded in the tabbed index and likely either laid into the numbered
pages or held with adhesive photograph corners.

The manufacturer A.R. Barnes & Co., Chicago, called this the "Perfect
Impression Book" for reasons better known to them than I, and noted "Do
not confound our books with imitations cheap or otherwise." I can
understand that. Albert Rice Barnes began a printing business in Chicago
IL USA in 1872 and incorporated as A.R. Barnes & Co. in 1902. This book
appears to be turn-of-the-century.

A.R. Barnes & Co. listed themselves as letterpress printers, and this
book states "letter press," but it appears to be printed from plates and
not hand-composed.

Corners rubbed, but no wear-through. Wear to spine tail, tiny chip to
corner of spine head, one raised band slightly scuffed. Very light scuff
to spine at head. Light discoloration at tail of front cover. A few
short wrinkles to cloth at fore edge of back cover, appears to be
puckered from imperfect gluing of cloth. Creasing to approximately 6
blank pages.

Camera flash exaggerates all flaws and color variations, damn it, but
here are seven views:

http://www.20ants.com/auc/blank1.jpg
http://www.20ants.com/auc/blank2.jpg
http://www.20ants.com/auc/blank3.jpg
http://www.20ants.com/auc/blank4.jpg
http://www.20ants.com/auc/blank5.jpg
http://www.20ants.com/auc/blank6.jpg
http://www.20ants.com/auc/blank7.jpg

Unused, blank, and hinges and joints are basically as-new. Shows minute
nicks and wear from hanging around since the early 1900s. I'd call it VG
condition and it's quite clean in and out.

Perfect for the scrapbooker looking for a vintage alternative to the
mass-produced same old thing, or the postcard collector.

$95.00 USD plus $4.50 additional for USPS Media Rate shipping in the US.
Others please inquire.

Prices are net USD, payment by PayPal to archetype at 20ants.com,
or international money order/check with order. Indiana pays 6% tax.
Institutions invoiced. Books returnable in 10 days: contact us first.
International, Priority Mail, or other carrier by quotation.

-- 

=====================================================================
  Michael Watson, bookman                        Indianapolis IN USA
  archetype at 20ants.com      http://www.20ants.com      (317)514-3829
     20th Century & Antiquarian Books for the Reader & Collector
  Literature,  compilations of letters & correspondence,  non-fiction
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[Books of great authors] are regarded as part of the necessary
furniture of the house -- not of the mind; and having been duly and
dutifully bought they are taught to know their place on the appointed
shelf. They are taken as read. There are few men now who, when a new
book is published, read an old one. - An anonymous 19th century cynic