Seven Roads Book Trade Labels

Since the wonderful site Seven Roads (http://sevenroads.org/Bookish.html) is no longer being updated, I've taken it upon myself to continue the love. So, as the curator of Seven Roads put it so well:

Anyone who handles old books will have come across these small and sometimes beautiful labels pasted more or less discreetly into the endpapers. Publishers, printers, binders, importers, distributors and sellers of books -- new, second-hand and antiquarian -- used to advertise in this way their contribution to bringing the book to market. Most of the earliest examples shown here belong to binders this is a continuation of binders' earlier practice of sewing into the binding a small ticket with their signature.

This collection began with labels found in our own books, but now it is mainly a virtual collection -- each entry is digitally scanned from books found in the excellent research library to which we repair in our spare time. We must admit to having gone from "coming across" the labels in our book-browsing to actually searching for them.

The collection will continue to grow, and no longer be on only one person's shoulders.

We have also begun to research the characters and institutions behind each of these labels -- and there are some great stories! Look for these in the weeks to come.

Reference Sites:
www.booksellerlabels.com/

Seven Roads Book Trade Labels