Volume 6, Number 3
Jul 1982

Queries

• There were two responses to the query in the April issue (p. 24) about the origin of the "How to Open a Book" passage that Susan Swartzburg sent in. The first was from Phil Block of Syracuse, New York, who reported that it was from p. 45-50 of Modern Bookbinding Practically Considered, by William Matthews, 1899. The second was from Margaret Lecky, who sent in a photocopy of a pink slip found in a book by an antiquarian bookdealer she knows. It was apparently lifted from the same book, because it is identified as being from "Modern Bookbinding Practically Considered, by Win. Matthews." However, it is headed "How to Open a New Book " and it includes a short paragraph right after the first that is missing in the original quotation:

  "Never force the back. If it does not yield to gently opening, rely upon it the back is too tightly or strongly lined."

  And the last paragraph has no quotation marks around it.

• I suspect that the oiling of leather books is a fairly recent practice, originating around the turn of the century as a reaction to deterioration caused by gas lighting and central heating--but I welcome all evidence to the contrary. Please send any evidence of oiling or dressing leather books before 1900 to me at the Abbey Newsletter office. --Ellen McCrady
• Eugene Cain said at the AIC meeting that they had not seen evidence of foxing in any book published before 1701. If anyone finds an earlier foxed book, and wants to communicate the find, they can write to Dr. C. Eugene Cain, Millsaps College, Department of Chemistry, Jackson, MS 39210.