Folks who collect older books, fine press books and the like often encounter acronyms and terms with which they may be unfamiliar. This is especially true of acronyms and terms that concern the edges of books. With the help of ILAB's excellent glossary, we thought we might examine a few of these in today's post.
An acronym frequently encountered in catalogs of such books is a.e.g., which stands for all edges gilt. This refers to a book that has had gilt applied to the top edge, bottom edge & fore-edge of the volume. If gilt has been applied only to the top edge of the volume, the usual acronym is g.t. (gilt top). If a publisher uses a decorative stain for the top edge of a book, the appropriate acronym is t.s. (top stained):
Gilt is a thin layer of gold leaf or other gold-colored mixture that is applied to the edges of a book not only for decoration, but to keep out dust. A more purely decorative application of color to the edges of a book is found in the acronym a.e.m. (all edges marbled):
Marbling is a very old decorative technique that also is used for the covers of books. We hope to explore marbling in more detail in a future post.
Books sometimes are manufactured with bevelled edges (also known as bevelled boards). This is a bookbinding technique in which the edges of the boards of the book have been cut at a slanted angle, these edges then being covered with cloth, leather or other material that is different from the material which covers the majority of the book's surface:
Most modern books have cut edges (i.e., edges that have been trimmed even with a large binders' knife prior to finishing the binding process). However, one occasionally (on modern books) also may encounter books that have uncut edges (pages that are uneven because they have not been trimmed with a binders' knife). This also is sometimes referred to as deckled edges (which may or may not be true of all three exposed edges of the book):
Collectors, and (regrettably) some booksellers often confuse uncut edges with unopened edges. The two terms refer to entirely different things. As the ILAB glossary notes, "unopened books retain the folds of the original gathering and contain many pages which cannot be read without first opening the pages with a knife. Some collectors prefer an unopened book because it indicates that the book has never been read; other collectors who read their books would rather not have the task of cutting open pages and risking tears and jagged leaf edges:"
Notice in the above photograph that the book's signatures (groups of pages) are still connected along the top edges....
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