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Po Box 410963
San Francisco, CA 94141
USA

A close-knit group of hand bookbinders, with shared interests in creating and collecting fine bindings, joined together to promote hand bookbinding and related book arts and to exchange information and ideas. 

Collector’s Tour Led by ABM Donor Kathleen Roberts

Bookish Events

Information about bookish events happening in the Bay Area and beyond. If you would like to add events to this calendar, please email the editor!

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Collector’s Tour Led by ABM Donor Kathleen Roberts

  • American Bookbinders Museum 355 Clementina Street San Francisco, CA, 94103 United States (map)

Bound for Beauty

Highlights of the Kathleen V. Roberts Collection of Decorated Publishers’ Bindings

The American Bookbinders Museum proudly presents the Bound for Beauty Collector’s Tour. Collector Kathleen V. Roberts, will lead two 60-minute tours of the Bound for Beauty Exhibit, featuring Decorated Publishers’ Bindings from 1840-1920. The Collectors Tours are Saturday, Feb. 22 and Saturday, April 4th at 1pm.

For the first time, technology of the Industrial Revolution made mass production of books possible. To sell those books, publishers produced beautifully decorated covers reflecting the tastes of the age. Known as Decorated Publishers’ Bindings, they were bound in colorful fabric and elaborately decorated in silver and gold.

Find out how the Civil War, Victorian opulence, the opening of Japan to the West, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the simplicity and elegance of the Arts and Crafts movement influenced cover designs.  Witness the rise of artists, most notably women, such as Margaret Armstrong and Sarah Wyman Whitman, to icon designer status. Learn how World War I and the less expensive dust jacket foreshadow the end of these   works of art.

Drawing from the books on display in the Bound for Beauty exhibit, Kathy will highlight notable pieces from her 20 years of collecting. See the original bindings for Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women series, the artistry of Maxfield Parrish, and Vanessa Bell’s woodcut designs for Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press titles.

BOOK ONLINE at American Bookbinders Museum website

Source:: https://bookbindersmuseum.org/event/collectors-tour-led-by-abm-donor-kathleen-roberts/?event_date=2020-02-22
Earlier Event: February 7
(retro)(intro)spection : moving past into the forward Exhibition
Later Event: July 10
Poetry Is Not A Luxury