(v) In the matter of binding it was the custom from about 1830 to 1850 to issue many books both in cloth and in paper boards. The old fashion for boards and labels died hard, and doubtless the trade found it paid to humour at once the enthusiast for the new cloth and the conservative lover of ancient ways. The collector who has the choice of a book either in cloth or in boards (with which must be understood boards, half-cloth[[1]]) and lacks either inclination or money to buy the two should, if condition be equally good, buy the copy in boards. Such a copy may be of earlier but cannot be of later issue than one in cloth. Should the book be one of which the two styles were issued simultaneously the copies will rank equally, although even in such cases a board copy is preferable, seeing that probably fewer were published than of those in cloth, and certainly fewer have survived.
[1]. For convenience' sake the word “cloth” is used throughout these bibliographies to signify woven material used in binding. Technically, in the transition period between bound books and those fully bound, half-binding was carried out in “canvas,” cloth proper being of somewhat later date.
The phrase “boards (half-cloth) paper labels” is used in these bibliographies to describe books which may be found both in full-board and half-cloth styles. The colours of board and canvas vary greatly, as different tones were often used for books belonging to one edition.
(vi) It will be noticed that in the majority of cases I give the month as well as the year of a novel's publication. This, had it been possible, I would wish to have supplied throughout, for by its help alone can the vexed question of dated catalogues be properly determined. Unfortunately, with the disappearance in toto of many publishing firms, the absorption of others under new names, and the surprising lack of any complete files of lists and catalogues for the decades in question, it has been impossible in every case to fix the dates thus accurately. In determining the various issues of a first edition (for a publisher does not bind his whole printing at once, but in lots as required, and often at intervals of years), the date, if any, of the catalogues of publications generally bound at the end of Victorian novels is an essential factor. Where I give the month of publication in the pages that follow, there can be no difficulty in detecting copies bound up and issued after first publication. Elsewhere buyers can only be advised to compare the date of title-page with that of catalogue. If the latter predates or tallies with the former all may be well; if the catalogue date be later, the book is not a first issue, although still, so far as the sheets are concerned, a copy of the first edition. In a few rare cases, where numerous catalogues were printed during the same year, the earliest date found in any particular first edition of that year can be established only by experience. It is for this reason that identity of year between title-page and catalogue may rather than must indicate a true first issue.
(vii) Advice as to condition is easily given.
Never buy a rebound book or one of which the edges have been shaved.[[2]]
[2]. In this, as always, generalization fails. The vast majority of the books here listed were first issued uncut; there are, however, a few—and those among the books of later date—that were published cut. The collector can identify these, if in original binding, by comparing measurement with that here given.
Be wary of books in cloth which bear no publisher's imprint on the spine; a few are right, but the majority are remainder-bound. Only in the very early days of cloth binding were spines unimprinted. Of course labelled books, whether in boards or half-cloth, never show publishers' imprint at the tail of their spines.
Always examine end-papers. The quality of Victorian end-papers cannot be obtained to-day, and it is rare that the substitution in one book of an old end-paper from another is so neatly done as to defy detection.
Library labels and their horrid traces have no place in a fine copy. If, however, a buyer inclines to accept ex-library copies pending better fortune, he should prefer those marked inside front covers to those of which the actual cloth is disfigured. Should the choice be between a copy in disfigured cloth and one of which the cloth is clean but the end-papers renewed to obliterate some previous damage, the wise buyer will take the first and leave the second. Better a dirty original than a book neat but doctored.