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Did you look inside the back cover? Sometimes there's a bindery stamp there in small print below the endpaper edge. Pretty sure this was original to the book, marketed as a deluxe edition made for school prizes, gifts, and publisher's promotional gift.
It is 3 empty pages after the last poem. No other markings. Not even a date of publication from the house. I genuinely cannot find this version of the book anywhere online and it’s getting to the point it’s kind of frustrating me.
I am walking a thin line between family lore and the wealth of public information
Here's a similar treatment though not quite as ornately decorated or gilded. (Overpriced in MO) Both are original H&M. They did offer finely bound versions during late 19th and early 20th C. and were very much at the center of COMMERCIAL fine press publishing. Again, deluxe editions.
Books were a popular gift item in 19th and early 20th c. Many publishers did not date reprinted content, giftable editions so it had a longer retail shelf life and the receiver would not view it as a "used book" or re-gifted book, I suppose, is a better way to say it, if was released in prior years.
It's a cheap early 20th century reprint that someone for some reason had rebound. None of the companies involved existed at all in 1830, Tennyson became Poet Laureate in 1850, and probably the majority of these poems weren't published yet, hell it says 1851 on that same page.
I couldn’t find any information on the publishing date / the publishing company. If you could please direct me to what it would look like without being rebound it would be appreciated greatly. Thank you
They have a wikipedia page... Use google, I'm not digging through cheap poetry reprints to find the one that matches your exact copy from a publisher that would've printed many different versions. It would've looked like a generic cheap early 20th century book.
Haven’t been able to find any reprints with this combo of exterior + marbeled interior and gold edges, which is why I came on here. It’s from my grandfather, a history professor, so I’m unsure if he would’ve had it rebound, rather something that fell into his possession. Might’ve gotten one that looked better for more pop but I am still curious on why the features don’t match with most other prints. I’m new to books, what specifically told you it was rebound? Thanks in advance
Houghton Mifflin wouldn't have published a 50 cent book in a leather cover with marbled endpapers. Publishers weren't even really still doing in-house deluxe leather editions by the 20th century, but if they were it was for the select few high end copies of important releases like deluxe illustrated signed/limited first editions not the 12,000th posthumous reprint of Tennyson's complete poetical works. It's weird that someone even had it rebound secondhand, certainly wouldn't be a publisher's binding. You're not going to find the exact same cover on the same book given it's been rebound.
I do know that it is not older than 1884, as during that year the New York office opened. Prior to that HM&co was only in Boston.
This would be from the NY print if anything. Thank you for the help
People bound books for all sorts of reasons. It’s not out of character to find a “cheap” book in a decent binding.
While it’s generally true that binders usually were asked to do their best work on the best material, they also had to keep the lights on and pay the bills with day to day work. Usually 1/2 leather or 3/4 leather, but full leather is not uncommon. This was not an expensive binding per se, not for an aesthete or wealthy academic type at the turn of the century
If you have titles by the same publisher in the same type of tree calf binding, the most logical reason is a wealthy boston brahmin had them “bound uniformly” to match and put them on a shelf in their library
I’m imagining a Boston connection, but the binding style (not the tree calf, but the way the spine is “run up”) implies actually that it is an English binder.
Binding is maybe stamp-signed in ink on the flyleaf somewhere. Ot there may be a paper ticket, small label, on either of the inside covers
Great information on binding, thank you. I got some more information about the books this morning. The book (and others I have) would have been part of early ‘subscription services’, where the people paying to help the author print their book to a larger audience would get more personal copies before public distribution. Apparently we have a few sets of books like that and I just picked one isolated one. I have family history in New York, and being that one of the publishing locations is New York those two tidbits of info add together nicely.
I’m shy to say they were rebound, unless there is a certain visual evidence or representation you can point to(which I would be greatly appreciative as I can just be a little dense sometimes with new topics) . The information I have is leaning more towards these being earlier prints for a financial supporter of the printing company/author than anything public
Riverside Press and Houghton/Mifflin weren't really in need of funds at the time, but they did have an in-house bindery for a period. It could have been bound there. Our collective point is that it isn't a trade binding, they'd have issued it in cloth.
One thing is for sure though, Tennyson was not funding his writing by selling subscriber copies via Riverside Press/Houghton Mifflin.
Yes the second part I can understand. I think the in house bindery is the closest thing to an answer I can put my finger on for now. Appreciate getting pointed in the right direction
I saw a volume in the same binding last week at my local used bookstore. It had an Ontario Canada school award presentation label in the front but unfortunately I can’t remember the date or the title. It wasn’t findable when I went back today.
I remember being puzzled by the combination of relatively attractive binding with cheap paper and overall quality.
But it goes to show that this binding was probably commercially available.
A quick image search, restricted to Houghton, shows another volume of Tennyson as well as Whittier.
What I’m being taught is that these were more personal copies given out before publication to those who financially supported the author/publisher house to get the books printed in the beginning
I doubt it. All the ones I’ve seen are later reprints and the overall quality is not great. I suspect they were pretty bindings for moderately priced books for giftgiving occasions like the Christmas season of 1899 or 1900 or so.
If you could get access to period catalogs for the publisher, he could help sort that out. I’m going to look at it and will let you know if I find anything
I’m planning on emailing the publisher here soon once I get back home. I appreciate the efforts greatly. Thank you so much