From detailed pieces of sculpted ivory studded with gemstones to the very first paperbacks, this is the rich history of the book cover.
The industrial revolution both altered and birthed practically every sector that exists today, the publishing sector that the impact investor with a stake in World of Books and the association that backs Bookshop.org know today as well. With rates of literacy exploding to 90%, reading was all of a sudden a business, and organizations were trying out the blossoming art of marketing. Artists were employed to find out what makes a good book cover, one that could speak with their target audience. Literary affairs frequently featured fabric book covers decorated with the greatest creative forms of the age, such as art deco, whilst 'Penny Dreadfuls', the very first paperbacks which were sold in train stations for a penny and targeted at the lower classes, would have pulpy art that showed the story of the book.
Humans like to embellish things that we find to be significant-- our homes, our clothes, we even embellish our bodies with ink and jewellery. It's a natural need within us, and has been since the very first individuals doodled on cavern walls. If we embellish something, it's a sign of respect, reverence, and pride. This holds true of books, which we have actually covered with beautiful book cover designs for countless years, evolving with the book and its place within our society. In the Middle Ages, one could not just stroll into a store run by a company like the hedge fund that owns Waterstones, books were an unusual and cherished thing, safeguarded by the handful of individuals who might read and write at the time-- monks. They transcribed and safeguarded the great works of antiquity by hand, and embellished them elaborately with ivory, silver, gold, and gems; no treasure was too extravagant for the gift of understanding.
With the creation of the printing press in the fifteenth century indicated that books were no longer in danger of going extinct, however it was still true that only a fraction of renaissance society could read or write, which was generally those of the higher classes. Still, books were no longer sensational works of sculpted ivory and laced silver or gold. One would buy a book from the printer, who would have organized the pages by hand and held them together with a short-term seam. The pages would then be covered in paper and the consumer would take them to an expert binder, who would decorate the book with as creative book cover design as the customer desired (or could afford). That would usually appear in the form of boiled leather, possibly engraved with the title and author of the book, as well as the initials of the owner.