the evolution of prize bindings 1870-1940
became an essential aspect of situating texts in the market in the late nineteenth century. 2 The marked di V erence between the colourful pictorial boards of working-class prize bindings and the minimalistic gilt-embossed leather of middle- and upper-class prize bindings in- fluenced the transformation of the prize book into a class-based tool and suggests that it may be useful to reframe the practice into two distinct categories: the prize book and the book as prize. The sections below focus specifically on the evolution of the working-class prize book between 1870 and 1940, given that the middle- and upper-class prize book remained largely unchanged during this period. The Birth of the Prize Book Nothing changed more obviously than the outward appearance of books between the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1837 and that of King Edward VII’s in 1901. In the 1830s, most books were still published in plain wrappers or brown paper-covered boards with the assumption that a stronger binding would be supplied subsequently by booksellers. The development of machine binding resulted in publishers taking responsibility for the entire book-mak- ing process for the first time. This brought about the introduction of cloth covers, which enabled books to be printed more quickly and in larger numbers. The introduction of cloth marked a period of experimentation in book design whereby grains were impressed into cloth to give the surface a distinct pattern in order to disguise its weave, or ribbon embossing was used to stamp additional designs onto the cloth from blocks cut to size. The new potential that cloth o V ered as an attrac- tive and marketable device for publishers strongly influenced the development of the prize book genre. The genre was also boosted by the creation of new methods that enabled gold and black ink to be blocked straight onto cloth, resulting in eye-catching layouts. As the prize book evolved into an established part of British reli- gious and secular education, it became more uniform in design: from 1870 onwards, all prize books featured symmetrical patterning and gold and black title blocks on their covers and spines (prior to 1870, 2 . William St Clair, 2004. The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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