Coloured cloth bindings

Highlights from the Monash University
Rare Books Collection.

14 October 2004 - 28 February 2005

The publishers of the nineteenth century produced many beautiful books. Often their beauty lies in the designs and colours of the cloth bindings. On display we see over 150 examples drawn from our Rare Books Collection. They are drawn from the fields of literature and romance, children’s books, scientific works, travel accounts and Australiana. These include some striking examples of coloured cloth bindings produced in Australia (e.g. The Transit of Venus featured in the poster and on the cover of the catalogue). Also on display is one of the earliest surviving dust-wrappers, from 1860. It was the rise of the dust-wrapper in the years after World War I that saw the decline of the coloured cloth binding. Fortunately a wide variety of these books survive, and form one of the strengths of our Rare Book Collection at Monash University Library.

The exhibition was opened by Dr. Alan Dilnot of the School of Literary, Visual and Performance Studies, Faculty of Arts, Monash University. Read Alan's opening speech online.

You may read the text of the catalogue with a selection of illustrations online. 

>> Rare Books homepage
>> Exhibition catalogues are available, free of charge, from the Rare Books information desk or via email

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Above : Item 1. Russell, Henry Chamberlain, 1836-1907. Observations on the transit of Venus, 9 December 1874 : made at stations in New South Wales / ... under the direction of H.C. Russell, Government Astronomer. (Sydney : Government Printer, 1892)